Marblehead to honor longtime town moderator with bench

MARBLEHEAD – The late Stephen Howe, a Gingerbread Hill resident who spent more than 40 years serving the Town of Marblehead on his feet, will give local skaters and nature lovers a chance to sit down with a bench at Black Joe?s Pond.Howe died last year at age 85 after a long and memorable career, including 43 years as Marblehead?s town moderator. As moderator, Howe stood at the podium at each session of every Town Meeting, overseeing the debate on 43 town budgets and hundreds of town issues. It always ended with Howe saying, “It is a vote and the motion carries,” in a voice that could be heard during Town Meeting broadcasts on radio station WESX.After he died former Selectman Harry Christensen said that Howe?s work as moderator reminded him of a conductor leading an orchestra.A Swampscott native, Harvard graduate and Army Air Force veteran of World War II, Howe went to work as a lawyer at his father?s firm, Dane Howe and Brown in Boston, and eventually became the firm?s managing partner. He also served St. Michael?s Episcopal Church in Marblehead and became chancellor of the New England Diocese of the Episcopal Church, and he loved lobstering and sailing.Although he lettered in football, hockey and baseball at Harvard and partly financed his law school education by playing semi-professional baseball in Canada during the summer, his longest love in sports was hockey. He played until he was 75, refereed thousands of college games and skated against much younger players on one of his favorite skating rinks, Black Joe?s Pond, located near his home.Earlier this winter, Howe?s friends and former neighbors at the Barnegat Association discussed ways of remembering him. After consulting with his widow, Judy Howe, they decided on a bench, “simple but sturdy,” with a plaque bearing Howe?s name and his dates of service as town moderator, paid for with private pledges.?Looking into an appropriate location, we took into account that skaters for years have used Black Joe?s Pond for ice skating,” association officer Dory Louden said in a letter to the Board of Selectmen.?Steve and his family always welcomed all to cross his property to reach the pond,” Louden added. The bench will be placed on a small piece of publicly-owned conservation land next to the Howes? home, a place where it can be reached directly from Barry Road.