Jane Van De Bogart, Woodstock NY Activist, 1941-2008

[Ferry Fey]

Community mourns the death of an activist
By Kyle Wind Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman
02/19/2008

WOODSTOCK - Until the end, Jane Van De Bogart "never put down her sword," said Jo Shuman, with whom the late Woodstock councilwoman and longtime community activist collaborated for the past 10 years on watchdog groups concerned with the affiliation of Kingston and Benedictine hospitals.

Van De Bogart, 67, who died at her home on Saturday following a battle with cancer, was so "unrelenting in her commitment to women's reproductive rights" that she held meetings of the group Health Care STAT in her hospital room at Benedictine, Shuman said.

"She was the heart and soul of the operation ... and her death is a great loss to the community" Shuman said. "Jane's life will inspire us to continue our work."

Terri Rosenblum, who chaired the Woodstock Democratic Committee, said Van De Bogart's compassion "spurred her activism for all people," as evidenced by her involvement in a number of peace, social justice, and community organizations.

"She was a wonderful person and was dedicated to the things that were important to her," said Judith Chase, a longtime friend and fellow member of Woodstock Women in Black, the local chapter of a global peace organization. Van De Bogart founded the local chapter about 6{ years ago, inspired by Israeli and Palestinian women who had joined to form their own group.

"We thought, if those two groups can get together, why not everyone?" Chase recalled. "War is a senseless way of solving problems."

Black is a "mourning color," Chase said, adding that the group's silent Saturday vigils on the Woodstock village green are appropriate because "women's voices are often not heard."

Van De Bogart was also involved with Veterans for Peace, the Saugerties Committee for Peace and Social Justice, and Quilters for Peace, a group that grew out of her membership in the Wiltwyck Quilters Guild. "She was a wonderful quilter," said Chase, who added that Van De Bogart had a wide range of interests, from origami to gardening, and was a member of the Bard Community Chorus.

She recently had been doing research on an ancestor who was part of the women's suffrage movement, according to Tinker Twine, who said she got to know Van De Bogart as a town councilwoman in the 1980s while working for the Woodstock Times.

"She had more integrity than anyone I know," Twine said.

Former town Supervisor Jeremy Wilber said he believes Van De Bogart's "chief accomplishment" as a councilwoman was to help initiate the town's sewer project, which he said cleaned up Woodstock's streams.

"Jane had an impressive list of accomplishments - she was the type of person where no one person could list everything she's done," Wilber said. "She was the conscience of the community, and she will be deeply missed."

Even Wilber was unaware of Van De Bogart's venture into cartography, publishing two maps of Woodstock over an 11-year period after learning no map of the area had been created on a professional scale.

Van De Bogart stepped down from the Woodstock Town Board in 1984 after serving as a Democratic councilwoman for nine years. She also served as a member and president of the Woodstock Library Board of Trustees, as an assistant to the town assessor, and as a secretary to the town Planning Board.

"I didn't always agree with her politically, but she was very sincere and committed to her cause," said William McKenna, a former Republican town councilman.

Born in January 1941 in Paramus, N.J., Van De Bogart was the daughter of the late Walter and Jeanette Wittman, according to Twine.

She received a degree in elementary education from Antioch College in Ohio and taught in St. Louis prior to moving to Woodstock, Twine said. Van De Bogart's brother, Carl, died previously, and though she has little family, Van De Bogart is survived by "a whole community of friends," Twine said.

Twine said a memorial service is planned at 1:30 p.m. March 1 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster.