Terry Hook (Jericho Cemetery Commission)

Terry Hook Wears a Multitude of Volunteer Hats

Death is nobody’s favorite topic, but it is inevitable. When one of Terry Hook’s friends passed away without having made final arrangements, he and his wife Andrea bought plots at the Jericho Center Cemetery. The Hooks had purchased their Jericho Center home from the Lindholm Family and roughly ten years ago, Bert Lindholm asked Hook if he would like to be involved in overseeing the facility as a member of the Cemetery Commission. Hook agreed and became a commissioner and treasurer of the board. He recently took over from Lindholm as the chair.

Hook stresses that he is merely the point person for contact, noting that Lindholm is still doing a lot of the work, as is Isabella Martin who has been involved for years. Another commissioner, Jim Adams, is also stepping up to take on more responsibilities. Hook explained that the cemetery is partially private and partially owned by the town which pays half the expenses. Those expenses are primarily for mowing and taking care of downed trees.

Some of that work is done by volunteers but other tasks require hiring experts. The primary role for commissioners is selling plots and filing paperwork with the state. The cemetery contains hundreds of graves with the earliest ones dating back to the 1790’s. Thanks to some acreage recently purchased from a neighbor, there is room for additional burials for the next 50 to 100 years.

Hook met his wife in Vermont, but they left when he went to graduate school in Connecticut. Previously, he had lived in Essex but on their return in 1986, they moved to the Riverside area, falling in love with an 1870 townhouse. Soon Hook realized he would prefer living in a smaller community and in 1990, the couple moved to Jericho Center, in part so they would have more room for their horse. The last thing Hook did after they had loaded the moving truck was to saddle that horse and ride to Jericho Center, sticking to dirt roads wherever possible.

The Cemetery Commission is hardly Hook’s first foray into municipal volunteer work. He joined the Planning Commission in 1988 when he lived in Underhill Flats. He speculated that he was chosen because that part of town was underrepresented but notes that nobody kicked him off after he moved to Jericho Center. He served for roughly 15 years.

Living in Jericho Center was a defining factor in Hook’s involvement with the Jericho Center Preservation Association which owns the building housing the Community Center. Hook joined in the mid 1990’s when the Association purchased the building. His wife has served on the Community Center’s board. A love of history led to Hook’s decision to help with the Third History of Jericho. He wrote some of the chapters, contacted the Library of Congress for the copyright, and helped with the financial aspects of publishing.

Hook’s most recent volunteerism is on the board of the Mobbs Farm Committee. He was approached about ten years ago because the committee had people representing cyclists, runners, and dog walkers, but nobody from the equestrian community. “I’ve been there ever since,” Hook said. “It’s a really good committee and we get a lot done including some physical work.” An electrical engineer by trade, Hook spent his entire career at IBM, first in New York and then in Essex Junction working on semiconductors. When IBM was sold to Global Foundries, he had already switched to reporting to IBM Research in Albany, working remotely from home. In 2018, Hook retired after 38 years of service, but he has subsequently begun consulting part-time for IBM Research for ten to 20 hours a week.

Hook revels in the changing seasons in Vermont, golfing in the summer and skiing in the winter with his wife. Their two daughters have moved to Pelham, New York, and Los Angeles, respectively, and Hook is the proud grandfather of two. In addition to skiing and golfing, the couple enjoy riding their horses. Hook cuts his own hay and has experienced his share of weather and equipment-related failures. Thanks to the latter, he owns four tractors. He’s also the owner of a 1964 Austin Healy Sprite and a 1978 Land Rover and takes responsibility for repairing both vehicles.

Hook spent 13 years as one of the Masters of the Green Mountain Hounds which is based in Addison County. Two or even three times a week in the late summer and autumn a dozen or so horseback riders take roughly a dozen hounds out and follow them as they follow a scent laid by a volunteer, to mimic a traditional fox hunt. Hook is still involved but has resigned from his position as Master.

“One of the things I really like about living in a relatively small town,” Hook said “is that you get to know a lot of people. You may not necessarily like them all, but they are real people and not cardboard characters.” Hook believes that he and his Jericho Center neighbors have a better understanding of each other than many suburbanites might, and he credits his volunteerism with helping him engage with more people. “If you’re just living here, you’re missing out on some of the community. The community lies in knowing people in various dimensions.”