BERNARDSTON — In small communities, such as the 26 that make up Franklin County, life often requires people to don different hats.

If you’ve lived here for decades, you can probably picture a local business owner who also serves on the Selectboard. Then, there are folks like Bernardston resident Russell Deane, whose closet of hats is likely larger than most in the region.

From helping found the active Bernardston Kiwanis Club, serving on just about every committee in town, long membership at the United Church of Bernardston, and serving as a charter member of The United Arc in Turners Falls, as well as a brief stint as police chief in the 1950s, Deane has done it all for Bernardston and Franklin County.

At 96 years young, one of the pillars of the community is far from finished.

“I’ve always believed that if you’re going to belong to something, you should contribute,” Deane said. “You can belong to something and never contribute, then what good does it do to belong to them? You need new ideas, different ideas.”

With this devotion to family, church and the community, Deane’s lifetime of commitment to Bernardston and Franklin County at large is being recognized this year, as he has been named the Greenfield Recorder’s 2024 Citizen of the Year and will be honored at Friday’s Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Deerfield Academy.

The Greenfield Recorder selects its Citizen of the Year through nominations submitted by its readers. A committee consisting of the Recorder’s editorial board, members of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and the previous year’s Citizen of the Year recipient reviewed the nominations. The newspaper’s editorial board made the final decision.

Deane was born in August 1928 and has lived his entire life in Bernardston, where he attended the Powers Institute for high school and graduated in 1946. He had his first job at 14, pulling weeds at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

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However, he didn’t discover what would become a lifelong passion for carpentry until he started to build his first house in 1951, at which time he contracted polio. After beating the disease, he said the group of guys from Brattleboro, Vermont, who had helped build his house while he recovered, walked into Streeter’s General Store, where Deane was working, and asked him to work with them.

From there, Deane soon joined up with Robert Lea to found Lea & Deane Builders, which saw them put up countless houses, as well as dormitories at the now-closed Marlboro College in Vermont, among other projects in the region.

While the business and his local reputation as a gifted cabinet-maker built his name around Franklin County, Deane’s life is defined by the trinity of family, church and community.

For 67 years, his wife Lillian Deane was by his side until her death in 2017. He said her support was vital to the raising of their three children.

The focus on family became even more important when they had their daughter, Nancy, who had a developmental disability, which led to them serving as charter members of The United Arc, as they wanted to support their daughter. Deane served on the hiring committee that brought beloved former United Arc Director Ed Porter to the organization and helped bring to fruition transitional homes for Nancy and others like her.

The Kiwanis Club hosts an annual chicken pot pie dinner to raise money for The United Arc in honor of Lillian Deane and Nancy.

Faith, too, has guided much of his life, as Deane has been a vital member of the United Church of Bernardston. He has served on the majority of the church’s committees and as one of the lead organizers of the Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair, one of the town’s biggest events each year and a major fundraiser for the church.

“The good Lord has been good to me,” he said, sharing that some of the most profound moments of his life have come from his time hunting in the woods. “If anybody has never sat out on a stump, out in the woods, and seen a day come alive and the birds start chirping and the squirrels and chipmunks start running around you, you haven’t seen God at all.”

Finally, completing the trinity of Deane’s life is his service to the community, both official and through the Kiwanis Club or church events.

Name a board and Deane’s probably been on it. He served eight years on the Selectboard, a single term on the School Committee — he said he was proud of helping bring the football field to fruition, but joked the committee was stressful — and a stint on the Conservation Commission. He still serves on the Zoning Board of Appeals and Board of Assessors.

Other positions he’s held in Bernardston include the brief appointment as police chief and water commissioner. In those early years of public service, he said, you quickly learn the ropes of local government.

“What you learned pretty fast when you got into public office is that you couldn’t do things the way you do them for yourself,” Deane said. “You had to stop and think of the number of people it was going to affect when you made a decision.”

This work over the decades has clearly been recognized, as nomination letters for Deane waxed poetic about his character, his accomplishments and what he has meant to Bernardston and Franklin County.

“When thinking of a ‘Man-of-the-Year” award prospect, we think of winners in the past and we think of Mr. Russell Deane,” reads a nomination letter put together by Dan Devine and all of Deane’s fellow Kiwanis Club members. “This fantastic, wonderful man has done it all for Bernardston and we are the better for it.”

Warwick resident and Deane’s granddaughter Lyndsey Ellis said Deane’s dedication to the community is unmatched and he is the definition of a small-town citizen.

“Russell Deane epitomizes what it means to serve one’s community. He is incredibly active in multiple clubs, organizations and town boards. Not a day goes by when he is not spending time working in the community or one-on-one with someone who has stopped by his workshop for advice,” Ellis said. “There truly is not anyone who has given more of their heart and soul to their town for a lifetime than Russ Deane.”

While he has contributed more to the community than many others, there is no end in sight for Deane. After all, with at least 80 years of service to the region, why stop now?

“I don’t really know,” Deane said when asked what motivates him to continue to work more than halfway into his 10th decade. “It’s a way of life.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.