James “Jim” Gallagher was recently elected to the board of trustees for the Vermont Historical Society. Jim is a native of Lyndonville and a graduate of Lyndon Institute. He graduated from Tufts University and earned a law degree at the Cornell Law School. He received honorable discharges from the U.S. Air Force and the Vermont Air National Guard and has been employed by the law firm of Downs Rachlin Martin for over 40 years. Jim currently serves on the board of the Lyndon Institute, having served as president from 1994-2003. He also serves on the board of the Vermont Bar Foundation, the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital Board of Corporators and is president of the Upright Steeple Society, a historic preservation organization committed to the preservation of a Greek Revival church building in Lyndon. Jim and his wife Susan have two sons, Patrick and Kevin. Jim enjoys fly fishing, gardening, and traveling, while he is learning to play the piano and speak Italian.
Charles “Chuck” Haynes of East Montpelier was recently elected to the board of trustees for the Vermont Historical Society. He is a retired businessman with experience in concrete construction, the solid waste industry, and purchasing management. He has always been interested in the preservation and restoration of historic items and held the leadership role in the Montpelier Kiwanis Club’s restoration of the 1929 Model of the Vermont State House. Antique automobile restoration has been a lifelong hobby, as well. A member of the Northfield and Greensboro Historical Societies, he is in the final stages of transcribing his great-grandfather’s Civil War diary. He is the Chair of the Northfield Savings Bank Trustees and a member of the State of Vermont District #5 Environmental Commission.
S. Crocker Bennett II, of Hinesburg, was recently re-elected to the Board of Trustees for the Vermont Historical Society. He is the president and a director of Paul Frank + Collins, P.C. a Burlington law firm. He is a trial lawyer whose practice primarily involves defending physicians and hospitals in malpractice and licensing cases. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1972 with a B.A. in English literature, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. After an eighteen-month stint as a newsman at WCAX-TV in Burlington, he worked toward an M.F.A. at The School of Performing Arts at the University of Southern California, leaving after a year to attend law school at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now UNH School of Law), where he received a J.D. in 1978. Mr. Bennett has served on various boards, including the Westford Planning Commission, the Vermont Judicial Nominating Board, the Mozart Festival and the Vermont Health Foundation. He has written about his Vermont ancestors for the Vermont Judicial Historical Society, collects books by and about Winston Churchill and is an avid clock collector. Crocker served previously on the VHS Board of Trustees from 2008 to 2011.