Bruce A. Garlow

Bruce A. Garlow

Becket - My name was Bruce Garlow. Long in Becket, Ma. but recently of Lee, I died at 72 due to complications of kidney disease on Friday, April 23rd, 2021. Not quite what I planned when I moved into our new home only 7 months ago, but there you have it.

I was born January 23, 1949, in Brooklyn, NY the son of the late Lester C. Garlow and Alice V. Garlow. I grew up in Lansing, MI, was a graduate of Lansing Everett High School and Lansing Community College and worked at the U.S. Postal Service prior to moving to Berkshire County, Mass. in 1976.

My greatest interest and my best gigs concerned local government and community. I retired after 20 years as town administrator in Richmond, where I also worked as conservation administrator. And, due to a loud voice and pretty good diction, I served as the long time elected town moderator in my home town of Becket and had been secretary of the board of the Massachusetts Moderators Association.

In earlier years I was a board member of the Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority and co-chairman of the Berkshire Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. I was always active in Democratic town committees in all the towns I lived in.

Never one who failed to have something to say or be shy about his opinions, I had also been a columnist for the Berkshire Courier, a former Gt. Barrington weekly newspaper, and the Berkshire Record, a current Gt. Barrington weekly. And I edited Becket, Massachusetts: From Colonial Township to Modern Town, a history published in 2015.

I was predeceased by my wife of 28 years, Leslie Rudolph-Garlow, in 2008, and my daughter Lisa L. Garlow in September 2020. I'm survived by my beloved son Eric J. Garlow who shared my home and by my brother and best friend Tamarack Garlow and his partner, Annie Brody in Canaan, NY; a nephew, Jakob Garlow-Kent of California and a niece, Malika Kent Limon - and many cousins in Michigan and around the country.

We don't need another funeral, there's already been enough of those lately, instead there will be one heck of a memorial party later in the summer. Stay tuned!

Goodbye everyone and be well, it was a little short, but it was a great run!