Doris Hildergard Nelson

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: According to her obituary, "As a very young child, Mrs. Coolidge's parents separated, and she grew up in Worcester with her mother and grandmother on Balder Road in the heart of Worcester's Swedish district. Her grandmother had emigrated from Sweden, and Mrs. Coolidge was raised in a loving household full of Swedish language and culture. Her mother remarried and they moved to Petersham when she was age 7. She was adopted by her new father, John Carroll Nelson of Petersham whom she loved and called father the rest of her life. Mrs. Coolidge was graduated from Petersham High School with the Class of 1946. She was an excellent student and a gifted pianist. She was admitted to the New England Conservatory of Music in 1946 where she studied piano and counterpoint with Warren Storey Smith. She also worked in the school's administration office where she supported several faculty members and conductors including the late Arthur Fiedler. In 1948, Mrs. Coolidge married the late Horace O. Coolidge, Jr. also of Petersham. They lived in Concord where she worked at a local life insurance company while her husband completed his college studies at Northeastern University. In 1951, they moved to Carter Hill Farm in Petersham where they spent the next several years rebuilding the farm house and starting a family. Mrs. Coolidge went on to become a highly regarded teacher's aide in the Petersham Center School focusing on special needs children. She was an avid reader who never stopped learning. She was a strong, independent woman who enjoyed gardening, walking in the woods, and caring for her family and friends. Even after the death of her husband in 2010, she continued to live independently on her hilltop farm. Late in her life she learned that her biological father had remarried and that she had two half-sisters living nearby. One of her half-sisters found her and made the first connection. Her life was blessed to have had the love and friendship from her two half-sisters for the last decade of her life. Mrs. Coolidge was a devoted member of her church where she served on many committees throughout her entire life. As a young woman she was instrumental in developing a religious education program at the church. She was a trustee of the Petersham Memorial Library, and was very knowledgeable about both family and local history, serving as a member of the Beverly Historical Society and as a member and volunteer docent of the Petersham Historical Society."
• Census: 1940, Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts; She was recorded while living with her parents.; : 11
• Residence: 1996, Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts

Doris married Horace Ober Coolidge, Jr. on 17 Jul 1948 in Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Horace (son of Horace Ober Coolidge and Ruth Miranda Amsden) was born on 24 Jun 1924 in Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts; died on 16 Jan 2010 in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; was buried on 30 Jan 2010 in East Street Cemetery, Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: According to his obituary, "He grew up in Petersham in the 1950's and 1960's. He was raised on the Carter Hill Farm. There he gained his life-long love of the outdoors and the environment. He also learned the virtues of hard work and determination, which formed the core of his New England Yankee spirit. He was a 1970 graduate of Mahar Regional High School in Orange where he was active in school politics, athletics, and the outstanding music program there in the late 1960's. Coolidge earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., in 1974. From 1979 to 1983 he lived in Boston where he earned his law degree from Suffolk University Law School. Immediately following graduation from law school, he went to work at the Massachusetts State House where he served as Special Council to the Special Committee on Comparable Work, a select senate committee looking at issues of equal pay for equal work that were being explored in the 1980's. It was during his time in Boston that he met his future wife, Christina. They were married in 1985. Coolidge left the State House and began the full-time practice of law in Fitchburg. He moved to New Salem and opened a law office in Orange. In 1989, the Coolidge's adopted their three children from Costa Rica. After a time, he gave up his primary law practice to focus on family and public service, although he did continue providing legal counsel on a pro bono basis. He served two terms as selectman in New Salem, from 1986-1988 and again from 2002 to the present. He was a member of the New Salem School Committee from 1990 to the present and was a past chair of that committee. He was also a member of the Erving Elementary Union 28 School Committee, which he chaired for ten years in the 1990's. Coolidge was on the boards of directors of the Franklin County Regional Housing Authority and the Regionalization Study Committee, and he was the New Salem representative to the Franklin County Rural Transit Authority. He was passionate in his commitment to mental health services and served as a board member of Clinical and Support Options Inc. in Greenfield and the United ARC of Franklin and Hampshire Counties. He and his family were actively involved with the Special Olympics. He was a percussionist known to musical audiences throughout central Massachusetts. He was a member of the Orange Community Band, the Petersham Brass Band, the Ashby Band, the Narragansett Community Band, and several other musical groups. He was well known for his entertaining use of unusual percussion instruments and humorous props in the back of the band. He was also an amateur actor having appeared in plays in high school and then again in summer musicals at the Theater at the Mount in Gardner."

John married Christina Nell Lambert [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Curtis married Katherine Jennings Krush [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Carter married Dr. Sonya Lynne Hultman [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Collin married Jennifer Lisa Christensen [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]