http://www.th-record.com/1999/01/25/vanfleet.htm
"'Born writer' Van Fleet dies
Ex-newspaper V.P. activist dies at 80
Editors note: A lover and master of the English language, Robert S. Van Fleet was born to write. His name is a familiar one to Record readers, most notably through his unmistakable (and plentiful) letters to the editor. It is only fitting, then, that he should pen his own obituary as his final piece of writing.
Robert S. Van Fleet, a retired journalist, essayist and polemicist and an activist in the fight against AIDS and in other civic work, died January 23, 1999 at his Middletown home. His age was 80.
His family said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ottaway Newspapers, was most recently active in four Orange County groups helping people with AIDS, among them the Orange County AIDS Task Force and the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN). He had also been active in adult literacy, the NAACP, and as chairman of the Middletown Human Rights Commission. Describing himself as 'an unrepentant liberal,' he campaigned vigorously for national and local legislation to control guns. In 1995, he helped organize the Orange County Alliance for Democracy, aimed, as he said, 'to defend public schools against restrictions sought you the radical religious right.'
During 35 years as a journalist, Van Fleet reported on local, state and national politics and government.He was also an editor, a teacher of journalism, author of a textbook on reporting and writing, and a newspaper executive. During a period in the early 1960's when he reported on government from Albany, he was resident of the New York State Legislative Correspondents' Assn.
He was national vice president of the Mencken Society of Baltimore, an association of scholars who study and preserve the writings of journalist Henry L. Mencken.
Van Fleet lived in Middletown all his life. He was born Dec. 7, 1918, the son of Clarence and Blanche Vincent Van Fleet. He attended Middletown schools, Colgate University and the University of Maryland. He was married in 1945 to Celeste Clark of Baltimore, who survives.
Also surviving are two sons: James of Yarmouth, Maine, and Christopher of Santa Monica, Calif. A third son, Robert, Jr. died of AIDS in 1992. Two grandchildren, Rebecca and Jeremy, live in Yarmouth, Maine. His brother, C. Clark Van Fleet, a Middletown attorney, died in 1984. His sister, Jean Wendover of Grand Rapids, Mich., died in 1997
Van Fleet began his journalism career in 1946 as a reporter for the Middletown Times Herald, writing news of local government and education. When Middletown's two daily newspapers merged in 1960, he became the surviving paper's managing editor. Three years later he was named to the corporate staff of the parent company, serving as Ottaway News Service chief for the 22 newspapers in the Ottaway Group and then as assistant vice president and vice president in 1980. (when Ottaway was purchased by Dow Jones & Co.
Van Fleet was active in city politics during a five-year absence from journalism in the 1950's. He was clerk of the Middletown Common Council. As manager for Middletown Mayor Louis V. Mills, he ran a campaign that put control of both branches of city government in the hands of the Young Republican Club and their allies.
After his retirement in 1986, he was increasingly perturbed at attempts by the right-wing Christian Coalition to seize the Republican Party; and he wrote a steady stream of letters to the editor supporting liebral causes like gun control, abortion rights, equal rights for homosexuals, and stronger public schools.
In one memorable letter, after his lifelong friend Congressman Ben Gilman had cast a vote in Washington against control of automatic weapons, Van Fleet said a friend asked, 'How would you vote if the Democrats ran Donald Duck against Gilman?'
'Quack-quack,' was his reply.
The proud possessor of a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, he was a promoter and teacher of good English as the efficient way to communicate.
The vocabulary used in his writing was extensive. Once he humorously claimed a record for using 'the longest word in the shortest story.' The word was 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' then considered the world's longest word in English. The story, appearing in the Newburgh (N.Y.) Evening News in the late 1950s, was about two factions debating abolition of a zoning board.
Besides English, Van Fleet studied languages - Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German. Late in life, researching the Van Vliet family's New Netherlands history, he taught himself enough Dutch to translate early Hudson Valley church records.
Van Fleet, a four-year veteran of World War II, as a First Lt. in the U.S. Army. He served as writer, editor and instructor on the headquarters staff of the Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Md. He also wrote for the post newspaper at Aberdeen and ranked as an expert marksman with a rifle. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a volunteer fireman with Monhagen Hose & Salvage Co., both of Middletown.
In the early 1990s, as chairman of the Middletown Human Relations Commission, he proposed that the city adopt its own version of a Brady Bill to control sales of guns. The ensuing public hearing filled city hall beyond capacity with irate hunters and members of the National Rifle Assn. The Van Fleet proposal sank out of sight in a legislative committee and was never heard of again.
At various times during his life, he was either an active participant or a financial supporter in the following: Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood, Orange County Citizens Foundation, Art for AIDS, American Jewish Congress, Literacy Volunteers of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, B'nai B'rith, People for the American Way, Common Cause, Parents & Friends of Lesbian and Gays. Also the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Metropolitan Opera, New ork City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paul Taylor Dancers, Dance Theater of Harlem, Friends of Thrall Library, the Highland Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Orange County Genealogical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 20, at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at the church. Cremation and placement of remains in the Van Fleet Mausoleum at Unionville Cemetery will be private.
Memorial gifts, to help people living with AIDS, may be made to A Place of Grace, c/o Grace Episcopal Church, 12 Depot St., Middletown or c/o the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown, N.Y. 10940. Memorial gifts also may be made to Hospice of Orange County, 800 Stony Brook Ct., Newburgh, N.Y. 12550."
NOTE: no relation to B.E.F. Stienstra, librarian at The Middletown Thrall Library, Middletown, New York.
Above from the scrapbooks of The Middletown Thrall Library, Government Documents Department.
"'Born writer' Van Fleet dies
Ex-newspaper V.P. activist dies at 80
Editors note: A lover and master of the English language, Robert S. Van Fleet was born to write. His name is a familiar one to Record readers, most notably through his unmistakable (and plentiful) letters to the editor. It is only fitting, then, that he should pen his own obituary as his final piece of writing.
Robert S. Van Fleet, a retired journalist, essayist and polemicist and an activist in the fight against AIDS and in other civic work, died January 23, 1999 at his Middletown home. His age was 80.
His family said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ottaway Newspapers, was most recently active in four Orange County groups helping people with AIDS, among them the Orange County AIDS Task Force and the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN). He had also been active in adult literacy, the NAACP, and as chairman of the Middletown Human Rights Commission. Describing himself as 'an unrepentant liberal,' he campaigned vigorously for national and local legislation to control guns. In 1995, he helped organize the Orange County Alliance for Democracy, aimed, as he said, 'to defend public schools against restrictions sought you the radical religious right.'
During 35 years as a journalist, Van Fleet reported on local, state and national politics and government.He was also an editor, a teacher of journalism, author of a textbook on reporting and writing, and a newspaper executive. During a period in the early 1960's when he reported on government from Albany, he was resident of the New York State Legislative Correspondents' Assn.
He was national vice president of the Mencken Society of Baltimore, an association of scholars who study and preserve the writings of journalist Henry L. Mencken.
Van Fleet lived in Middletown all his life. He was born Dec. 7, 1918, the son of Clarence and Blanche Vincent Van Fleet. He attended Middletown schools, Colgate University and the University of Maryland. He was married in 1945 to Celeste Clark of Baltimore, who survives.
Also surviving are two sons: James of Yarmouth, Maine, and Christopher of Santa Monica, Calif. A third son, Robert, Jr. died of AIDS in 1992. Two grandchildren, Rebecca and Jeremy, live in Yarmouth, Maine. His brother, C. Clark Van Fleet, a Middletown attorney, died in 1984. His sister, Jean Wendover of Grand Rapids, Mich., died in 1997
Van Fleet began his journalism career in 1946 as a reporter for the Middletown Times Herald, writing news of local government and education. When Middletown's two daily newspapers merged in 1960, he became the surviving paper's managing editor. Three years later he was named to the corporate staff of the parent company, serving as Ottaway News Service chief for the 22 newspapers in the Ottaway Group and then as assistant vice president and vice president in 1980. (when Ottaway was purchased by Dow Jones & Co.
Van Fleet was active in city politics during a five-year absence from journalism in the 1950's. He was clerk of the Middletown Common Council. As manager for Middletown Mayor Louis V. Mills, he ran a campaign that put control of both branches of city government in the hands of the Young Republican Club and their allies.
After his retirement in 1986, he was increasingly perturbed at attempts by the right-wing Christian Coalition to seize the Republican Party; and he wrote a steady stream of letters to the editor supporting liebral causes like gun control, abortion rights, equal rights for homosexuals, and stronger public schools.
In one memorable letter, after his lifelong friend Congressman Ben Gilman had cast a vote in Washington against control of automatic weapons, Van Fleet said a friend asked, 'How would you vote if the Democrats ran Donald Duck against Gilman?'
'Quack-quack,' was his reply.
The proud possessor of a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, he was a promoter and teacher of good English as the efficient way to communicate.
The vocabulary used in his writing was extensive. Once he humorously claimed a record for using 'the longest word in the shortest story.' The word was 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' then considered the world's longest word in English. The story, appearing in the Newburgh (N.Y.) Evening News in the late 1950s, was about two factions debating abolition of a zoning board.
Besides English, Van Fleet studied languages - Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German. Late in life, researching the Van Vliet family's New Netherlands history, he taught himself enough Dutch to translate early Hudson Valley church records.
Van Fleet, a four-year veteran of World War II, as a First Lt. in the U.S. Army. He served as writer, editor and instructor on the headquarters staff of the Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Md. He also wrote for the post newspaper at Aberdeen and ranked as an expert marksman with a rifle. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a volunteer fireman with Monhagen Hose & Salvage Co., both of Middletown.
In the early 1990s, as chairman of the Middletown Human Relations Commission, he proposed that the city adopt its own version of a Brady Bill to control sales of guns. The ensuing public hearing filled city hall beyond capacity with irate hunters and members of the National Rifle Assn. The Van Fleet proposal sank out of sight in a legislative committee and was never heard of again.
At various times during his life, he was either an active participant or a financial supporter in the following: Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood, Orange County Citizens Foundation, Art for AIDS, American Jewish Congress, Literacy Volunteers of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, B'nai B'rith, People for the American Way, Common Cause, Parents & Friends of Lesbian and Gays. Also the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Metropolitan Opera, New ork City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paul Taylor Dancers, Dance Theater of Harlem, Friends of Thrall Library, the Highland Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Orange County Genealogical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 20, at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at the church. Cremation and placement of remains in the Van Fleet Mausoleum at Unionville Cemetery will be private.
Memorial gifts, to help people living with AIDS, may be made to A Place of Grace, c/o Grace Episcopal Church, 12 Depot St., Middletown or c/o the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown, N.Y. 10940. Memorial gifts also may be made to Hospice of Orange County, 800 Stony Brook Ct., Newburgh, N.Y. 12550."
NOTE: no relation to B.E.F. Stienstra, librarian at The Middletown Thrall Library, Middletown, New York.
Above from the scrapbooks of The Middletown Thrall Library, Government Documents Department.
http://www.th-record.com/1999/01/25/vanfleet.htm
"'Born writer' Van Fleet dies
Ex-newspaper V.P. activist dies at 80
Editors note: A lover and master of the English language, Robert S. Van Fleet was born to write. His name is a familiar one to Record readers, most notably through his unmistakable (and plentiful) letters to the editor. It is only fitting, then, that he should pen his own obituary as his final piece of writing.
Robert S. Van Fleet, a retired journalist, essayist and polemicist and an activist in the fight against AIDS and in other civic work, died January 23, 1999 at his Middletown home. His age was 80.
His family said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ottaway Newspapers, was most recently active in four Orange County groups helping people with AIDS, among them the Orange County AIDS Task Force and the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN). He had also been active in adult literacy, the NAACP, and as chairman of the Middletown Human Rights Commission. Describing himself as 'an unrepentant liberal,' he campaigned vigorously for national and local legislation to control guns. In 1995, he helped organize the Orange County Alliance for Democracy, aimed, as he said, 'to defend public schools against restrictions sought you the radical religious right.'
During 35 years as a journalist, Van Fleet reported on local, state and national politics and government.He was also an editor, a teacher of journalism, author of a textbook on reporting and writing, and a newspaper executive. During a period in the early 1960's when he reported on government from Albany, he was resident of the New York State Legislative Correspondents' Assn.
He was national vice president of the Mencken Society of Baltimore, an association of scholars who study and preserve the writings of journalist Henry L. Mencken.
Van Fleet lived in Middletown all his life. He was born Dec. 7, 1918, the son of Clarence and Blanche Vincent Van Fleet. He attended Middletown schools, Colgate University and the University of Maryland. He was married in 1945 to Celeste Clark of Baltimore, who survives.
Also surviving are two sons: James of Yarmouth, Maine, and Christopher of Santa Monica, Calif. A third son, Robert, Jr. died of AIDS in 1992. Two grandchildren, Rebecca and Jeremy, live in Yarmouth, Maine. His brother, C. Clark Van Fleet, a Middletown attorney, died in 1984. His sister, Jean Wendover of Grand Rapids, Mich., died in 1997
Van Fleet began his journalism career in 1946 as a reporter for the Middletown Times Herald, writing news of local government and education. When Middletown's two daily newspapers merged in 1960, he became the surviving paper's managing editor. Three years later he was named to the corporate staff of the parent company, serving as Ottaway News Service chief for the 22 newspapers in the Ottaway Group and then as assistant vice president and vice president in 1980. (when Ottaway was purchased by Dow Jones & Co.
Van Fleet was active in city politics during a five-year absence from journalism in the 1950's. He was clerk of the Middletown Common Council. As manager for Middletown Mayor Louis V. Mills, he ran a campaign that put control of both branches of city government in the hands of the Young Republican Club and their allies.
After his retirement in 1986, he was increasingly perturbed at attempts by the right-wing Christian Coalition to seize the Republican Party; and he wrote a steady stream of letters to the editor supporting liebral causes like gun control, abortion rights, equal rights for homosexuals, and stronger public schools.
In one memorable letter, after his lifelong friend Congressman Ben Gilman had cast a vote in Washington against control of automatic weapons, Van Fleet said a friend asked, 'How would you vote if the Democrats ran Donald Duck against Gilman?'
'Quack-quack,' was his reply.
The proud possessor of a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, he was a promoter and teacher of good English as the efficient way to communicate.
The vocabulary used in his writing was extensive. Once he humorously claimed a record for using 'the longest word in the shortest story.' The word was 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' then considered the world's longest word in English. The story, appearing in the Newburgh (N.Y.) Evening News in the late 1950s, was about two factions debating abolition of a zoning board.
Besides English, Van Fleet studied languages - Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German. Late in life, researching the Van Vliet family's New Netherlands history, he taught himself enough Dutch to translate early Hudson Valley church records.
Van Fleet, a four-year veteran of World War II, as a First Lt. in the U.S. Army. He served as writer, editor and instructor on the headquarters staff of the Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Md. He also wrote for the post newspaper at Aberdeen and ranked as an expert marksman with a rifle. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a volunteer fireman with Monhagen Hose & Salvage Co., both of Middletown.
In the early 1990s, as chairman of the Middletown Human Relations Commission, he proposed that the city adopt its own version of a Brady Bill to control sales of guns. The ensuing public hearing filled city hall beyond capacity with irate hunters and members of the National Rifle Assn. The Van Fleet proposal sank out of sight in a legislative committee and was never heard of again.
At various times during his life, he was either an active participant or a financial supporter in the following: Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood, Orange County Citizens Foundation, Art for AIDS, American Jewish Congress, Literacy Volunteers of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, B'nai B'rith, People for the American Way, Common Cause, Parents & Friends of Lesbian and Gays. Also the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Metropolitan Opera, New ork City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paul Taylor Dancers, Dance Theater of Harlem, Friends of Thrall Library, the Highland Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Orange County Genealogical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 20, at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at the church. Cremation and placement of remains in the Van Fleet Mausoleum at Unionville Cemetery will be private.
Memorial gifts, to help people living with AIDS, may be made to A Place of Grace, c/o Grace Episcopal Church, 12 Depot St., Middletown or c/o the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown, N.Y. 10940. Memorial gifts also may be made to Hospice of Orange County, 800 Stony Brook Ct., Newburgh, N.Y. 12550."
NOTE: no relation to B.E.F. Stienstra, librarian at The Middletown Thrall Library, Middletown, New York.
Above from the scrapbooks of The Middletown Thrall Library, Government Documents Department.
"'Born writer' Van Fleet dies
Ex-newspaper V.P. activist dies at 80
Editors note: A lover and master of the English language, Robert S. Van Fleet was born to write. His name is a familiar one to Record readers, most notably through his unmistakable (and plentiful) letters to the editor. It is only fitting, then, that he should pen his own obituary as his final piece of writing.
Robert S. Van Fleet, a retired journalist, essayist and polemicist and an activist in the fight against AIDS and in other civic work, died January 23, 1999 at his Middletown home. His age was 80.
His family said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ottaway Newspapers, was most recently active in four Orange County groups helping people with AIDS, among them the Orange County AIDS Task Force and the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN). He had also been active in adult literacy, the NAACP, and as chairman of the Middletown Human Rights Commission. Describing himself as 'an unrepentant liberal,' he campaigned vigorously for national and local legislation to control guns. In 1995, he helped organize the Orange County Alliance for Democracy, aimed, as he said, 'to defend public schools against restrictions sought you the radical religious right.'
During 35 years as a journalist, Van Fleet reported on local, state and national politics and government.He was also an editor, a teacher of journalism, author of a textbook on reporting and writing, and a newspaper executive. During a period in the early 1960's when he reported on government from Albany, he was resident of the New York State Legislative Correspondents' Assn.
He was national vice president of the Mencken Society of Baltimore, an association of scholars who study and preserve the writings of journalist Henry L. Mencken.
Van Fleet lived in Middletown all his life. He was born Dec. 7, 1918, the son of Clarence and Blanche Vincent Van Fleet. He attended Middletown schools, Colgate University and the University of Maryland. He was married in 1945 to Celeste Clark of Baltimore, who survives.
Also surviving are two sons: James of Yarmouth, Maine, and Christopher of Santa Monica, Calif. A third son, Robert, Jr. died of AIDS in 1992. Two grandchildren, Rebecca and Jeremy, live in Yarmouth, Maine. His brother, C. Clark Van Fleet, a Middletown attorney, died in 1984. His sister, Jean Wendover of Grand Rapids, Mich., died in 1997
Van Fleet began his journalism career in 1946 as a reporter for the Middletown Times Herald, writing news of local government and education. When Middletown's two daily newspapers merged in 1960, he became the surviving paper's managing editor. Three years later he was named to the corporate staff of the parent company, serving as Ottaway News Service chief for the 22 newspapers in the Ottaway Group and then as assistant vice president and vice president in 1980. (when Ottaway was purchased by Dow Jones & Co.
Van Fleet was active in city politics during a five-year absence from journalism in the 1950's. He was clerk of the Middletown Common Council. As manager for Middletown Mayor Louis V. Mills, he ran a campaign that put control of both branches of city government in the hands of the Young Republican Club and their allies.
After his retirement in 1986, he was increasingly perturbed at attempts by the right-wing Christian Coalition to seize the Republican Party; and he wrote a steady stream of letters to the editor supporting liebral causes like gun control, abortion rights, equal rights for homosexuals, and stronger public schools.
In one memorable letter, after his lifelong friend Congressman Ben Gilman had cast a vote in Washington against control of automatic weapons, Van Fleet said a friend asked, 'How would you vote if the Democrats ran Donald Duck against Gilman?'
'Quack-quack,' was his reply.
The proud possessor of a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, he was a promoter and teacher of good English as the efficient way to communicate.
The vocabulary used in his writing was extensive. Once he humorously claimed a record for using 'the longest word in the shortest story.' The word was 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' then considered the world's longest word in English. The story, appearing in the Newburgh (N.Y.) Evening News in the late 1950s, was about two factions debating abolition of a zoning board.
Besides English, Van Fleet studied languages - Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German. Late in life, researching the Van Vliet family's New Netherlands history, he taught himself enough Dutch to translate early Hudson Valley church records.
Van Fleet, a four-year veteran of World War II, as a First Lt. in the U.S. Army. He served as writer, editor and instructor on the headquarters staff of the Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Md. He also wrote for the post newspaper at Aberdeen and ranked as an expert marksman with a rifle. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a volunteer fireman with Monhagen Hose & Salvage Co., both of Middletown.
In the early 1990s, as chairman of the Middletown Human Relations Commission, he proposed that the city adopt its own version of a Brady Bill to control sales of guns. The ensuing public hearing filled city hall beyond capacity with irate hunters and members of the National Rifle Assn. The Van Fleet proposal sank out of sight in a legislative committee and was never heard of again.
At various times during his life, he was either an active participant or a financial supporter in the following: Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood, Orange County Citizens Foundation, Art for AIDS, American Jewish Congress, Literacy Volunteers of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, B'nai B'rith, People for the American Way, Common Cause, Parents & Friends of Lesbian and Gays. Also the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Metropolitan Opera, New ork City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paul Taylor Dancers, Dance Theater of Harlem, Friends of Thrall Library, the Highland Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Orange County Genealogical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 20, at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at the church. Cremation and placement of remains in the Van Fleet Mausoleum at Unionville Cemetery will be private.
Memorial gifts, to help people living with AIDS, may be made to A Place of Grace, c/o Grace Episcopal Church, 12 Depot St., Middletown or c/o the First Presbyterian Church, 25 Orchard St., Middletown, N.Y. 10940. Memorial gifts also may be made to Hospice of Orange County, 800 Stony Brook Ct., Newburgh, N.Y. 12550."
NOTE: no relation to B.E.F. Stienstra, librarian at The Middletown Thrall Library, Middletown, New York.
Above from the scrapbooks of The Middletown Thrall Library, Government Documents Department.
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