CRAFTSBURY COMMON – Louis Joseph Stare Jr. passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 6, at 90.
Known to all as Sandy, he was born May 27, 1930, in Worcester, Mass. He lived with his parents in the Boston area until they moved to Cape Cod when he was young. From then until settling in Vermont, he lived in South Yarmouth and attended Barnstable High school, where he took agriculture courses. He worked in farming, construction, maintenance and caretaking vacation properties and was employed full time at the Yarmouth Water Department, where he tested and repaired water meters.
Sandy always liked the outdoors, swimming in the ocean and roaming the woods. Although Sandy was born with a deformity from a difficult birth, he was very active. He enjoyed clamming and oystering on the Cape.
Sandy and his parents visited Vermont every fall starting in the ’70s. They stayed at the Long Trail Lodge in the Killington area. At that time, he became interested in hiking and the Green Mountain Club.
In 1966 he decided to build a lean-to in Yarmouth, disassembled it into prefabricated pieces, then trucked it to the Wallingford section of the Long Trail. The process of actually getting the structure up the trail three miles and reassembled has been documented by the Green Mountain Club. For years, before it burned, there was a sign with Sandy’s name. Sandy became a life-long member of the club and valued that membership.
Sandy visited Vermont several summers camping in various state parks and hiking the Long Trail on day trips. Because he wasn’t able to carry a heavy pack, he would walk a section of the trail at a time. Upon completion of the entire trail, he was awarded an End-to-Ender Certificate.
He purchased his land at the end of Wylie Hill the very day he ventured into Craftsbury in 1972, knowing that this is where he wanted to settle. In 1975 he started building his log cabin and moved in the following year. In his basement shop, he built wooden toys which he sold on the Common at Antiques & Uniques, as well as gifting many of them, including annual gifts to the Boston Childrens’ Hospital, where he had often been a patient. He wanted the young patients to have enough toys to play with while they were there, and then to take home when discharged.
Sandy enjoyed living in the woods, snowshoeing, and going for rides around the area, including visiting the Old Stone House Museum. He worked with the Village Improvement Society’s work crew replacing the entire Common fence. With an avid interest in railroading history, his long-term hobby was model trains and he was a member of the Vermont Garden Railway Society. Sandy loved animals, both wild and domestic. He kept his bird feeders full and enjoyed watching the birds, and the occasional bear who came up on his porch!
Although seeing himself as hermit-like, he truly enjoyed many community events, his membership in Horse and Buggy Club, the Lamoille County Players performances, model train shows, restaurant meals, community dinners, and, especially, the Craftsbury Farmers’ Market, which he visited in his golf cart. Sandy had many friends and cherished visits with them. In his last years he was supported by a volunteer group of neighbors who enabled him to remain living in his beloved log cabin in his woods. With gratitude to the Craftsbury Fire Department and Hardwick Rescue Squad for their kind services.
Interment will be on Cape Cod. There will be no formal service. Online condolences may be made at curtis-britch.com. Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Curtis-Britch-Davis & Bouffard Funeral Home, Craftsbury Common.
