There is something about our hamlet that brings out the creativity in people. In addition to our many talented artists and actors, Palisades has had its share of imaginative writers over the years, including John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, John Dos Passos, and Dorothy Davis, to name but a few.

I had ample opportunity to contemplate change as I climbed Ludlow Lane to Jane Herold’s place at the top of the hill. The first thing I noticed was how out of breath I was, nothing to do with getting on in years, you understand, just out of shape. And then of course the exquisite autumn weather and the particularly vibrant foliage this year gave me heart that perhaps my own autumn would be as brilliant, so when Jane’s pottery shed came into view looking exactly as it always has, I felt a deep reassurance that somewhere in this world, right here, in fact, there existed a sense of enduring.

You may have heard that recently Jane has been taking large orders from restaurants such as Aska, Betony, and The Clement in the Peninsula Hotel to make all of their dinnerware. Twelve hundred matching pieces each. This is obviously a good thing for her, and we would not want it any other way, but what will happen to the Jane we know and love? I sat down with her the other day and asked her this very question.

While other students were basking in the sweet last summer before university, Palisades resident Chris Perez was piloting a modified golf cart Mad Max style across 500 miles from Texas to California. Chris was captain of the Tappan Zee High School team for the Dell Winston Solar Car Challenge 2013 www.winstonsolar.org/challenge. This innovative program began in 1993 to motivate students in science and engineering, and increase alternative energy awareness.

Sculptor and entrepreneur Scott Kling and wife Cynthia are headed to Paris this December. Two of Scott’s sculptures are in an exhibit at the Carrousel du Louvre sponsored by the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, scheduled to run from December 12 to the 15. And there’s a luncheon in his honor at the U.S. Embassy.

Does your family extend to a cat or dog? If so you should know about Erin White’s reliable Fetch-A-Bone Pet Services. With six years under her belt, Erin employs two to three workers, has 150 satisfied clients and a company that is fully insured and bonded by Pet Sitters International. This responsible young woman offers a range of services from dog and cat sitting (feeding, cleaning litter and administer ing medication, all delivered with a generous dollop of affection) to dog walking.

Eunice Hagen was born on July 31,1916 and died on May 28, 2013 in Nyack Hospital after a brief illness. Her great-great-grandmother was Mary Sneden, the granddaughter of Molly Sneden. Mary married Stephen Hagen who built the old house opposite the Palisades Presbyterian Church about 1800. Eunice was the last Sneden descendant in Palisades.

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Barbara Meyer keeps a low profile except when her hair is big. She has lived in Palisades for twenty years and for someone who runs a boutique talent agency is the least “showbizzy” person I have ever met, despite the fact that she is a theatrical agent with her own company housed in a small cottage.

Palisades resident Ed Kalotkin is no stranger to adventure. In his twenties he worked as a guide for an upscale expedition company. He’s kayaked in Alaska and hiked Machu Picchu, but this May when his plane touched down in Port-au- Prince, Haiti, he looked out at the devastation of a failed state and wondered if he’d gone too far.

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Dr. Judy Omumbo of Palisades has been voted a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). Dr. Omumbo, who heads the Policy Impact Unit within the Malaria Public Health Department, was elected after a rigorous review of her work and recommendations from experts in the field.

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For years, every Saturday morning between 7:00 and 7:30am, as I set up for the Palisades Farmers Market, I would see her walking along Oak Tree Road. Sometimes, she would walk with him and sometimes she would be alone. We always exchanged hellos and pleasantries, but one day, curious, I just had to ask, “Who are you?”

VINCE CASTAGNA

Vincent “Vince,” a resident of Montvale, N.J. since 1969, and also of Palisades, died on February 16, 2013 at Nyack Hospital. He owned and operated Tappan Auto for forty one years. Vince is survived by Judy, his wife of forty eight years, and his daughter Dawn. Donations to The American Heart Association would be greatly appreciated www.americanheart.org

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If youʼve visited the Louvre in the last twenty years, invested with Morgan Stanley, or made a recent donation to the animal advocacy group Bideawee, youʼve seen their work. Clean lines, brilliant color and a healthy measure of wit are project trademarks for Palisades residents Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan, founders of the Carbone Smolan Agency, a boutique design firm specializing in the invention and reinvention of visual branding for companies as diverse as Citicorp Center and The Hartford Stage.

Bernard J. Albin

Bernard J. Albin, who was chairman of Orangetown’s Architecture and Community Appearance Board of Review (“ACABOR”) from nearly its inception in 1965 until 2005, has died in Oro Valley Arizona of natural causes. He was 85.

“Bernie,” as he was known to his friends and colleagues, and “Bud,” as he was known to his family, was born in Jersey City in 1928. He attended Syracuse University and received a degree in landscape architecture. He established a practice in New York City and worked on numerous regional projects, including the landscaping and design for the new Palisades Interstate Parkway in the 1950s. He and his wife Eraine, an interior designer, moved to Palisades where he became active in community affairs. Local residents commissioned him to design Tappan’s Memorial Park in 1966 after their successful fight to prevent it from becoming a housing development.

Shortly thereafter he was elected by his colleagues on the newly formed ACABOR to become its chairman, a position he held continuously for almost forty years. Under his guidance, ACABOR worked in partnership with developers and new businesses in a quickly expanding Orangetown to ensure that the fundamental character of the town remained constant. The Board won awards for its treatment of public spaces, including IBM Palisades (by relocating the buildings and parking areas away from Route 9W) Blue Hill Plaza (reducing the scale of the original proposal from three high rises to one and reducing its parking by half) and the Pearl River Hilton (preserving the existing woodland area along Veterans Memorial Highway). “In the last 50 years, possibly no person had a more profound positive impact on the development of the Town of Orangetown than Bud Albin,” said his nephew Thom Kleiner of Sparkill, a former Supervisor of Orangetown. In 2005 he settled permanently in Arizona. Other than Thom Kleiner, he is survived by his sister Marlene Kleiner of Grandview and his nephew Eric Kleiner of Nyack.

David Seeger has been defending himself ever since he worked on his first cartoon in his father’s animation studio over forty years ago. He’s been defending himself ever since his best friend Fred got punched in the eye in grammar school and the two of them decided that they better learn karate together. He’s been defending himself ever since he tried to build too big of a house on too small of a slab but now David Seeger is re inventing himself.

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Bill Knudson passed away peacefully at the Care One at Valley rehab center in Westwood, NJ on December 20, 2012. He had suffered a stroke on November 30th, and was not able to recover.

Bill had a long happy life living in Palisades. He was born on February 23rd, 1916, in the house on the northwest corner of Willow and Rockleigh Rd, in what was then East Northvale (now Rockleigh) NJ. His family moved up to Closter Rd when Bill was about 5 years old.

The origin story is this: it’s 2008 and veteran ad man and Palisades resident Paul Goldman sits in a London hotel bar with his wife, Alice. Alice peruses a long list of exotic cocktails. She doesn’t know what to drink. Paul suggests whiskey. “Why would I drink a whiskey?” says Alice. “Women don’t drink whiskey. It’s not cool. It’s for old people and it tastes horrible.”

In the pre-dawn morning, the traffic light on 9W in Palisades changes its pace from flashing red and yellow, to alternating red, yellow and green, signaling the start of the workaday world. About that time, the first commuter bus and some cars and vans, usually heading south to the City, stop by the side of the road.

Silhouetted-passengers, mostly women, mostly Hispanic and Haitian, exit the vehicles, and walk east and west to the homes of Palisades residents, to assist with the daily work of cleaning, cooking and childcare. A little later, during the spring, summer and fall, men in trucks, also often Hispanic, arrive to provide the labor required for local landscaping. In the winter, many of the same men arrive much earlier, actually throughout the night and day, to shovel the snow from private roads and driveways–that is, if the weather cooperates to allow them some seasonal work

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Most people know Marika Hahn for her delicious empanadas, scones and cupcakes she sells from her Sweet & Savory booth at the Community Center’s Farmer’s Market. She also caters private parties and events at places like Lamont and the Art Student’s League.

Bernard J. Albin, who was chairman of Orangetown’s Architecture and Community Appearance Board of Review (“ACABAOR”) from nearly its inception in 1965 until 2005, has died in Oro Valley Arizona of natural causes. He was 84.

Claude, Palisades' oldest resident, died at home just before his one-hundredth birthday. The following are excerpts from a homily given by the Reverend Thomas Faulkner, Vicar of Christ Episcopal Church, on July 16 in Sparkill, New York.