Albert W. Sylvestre

Albert Wilson Sylvestre, 93, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, formerly of Rindge, New Hampshire and Ashburnham and Gardner, Massachusetts died on Monday, September 3, 2012 at Summerhill Assisted Living in Peterborough, New Hampshire after a brief illness. Albert was born on October 9, 1918, in Gardner, Massachusetts, the son of J. Napoleon Sylvestre and Carmellia (Robillard) Sylvestre. His father operated Sylvestre’s, a furniture store on Nichols Street in Gardner founded by Albert’s grandfather, O.A. Sylvestre about 1890. He was married to the late Eileen M. (Kelley) Sylvestre of Templeton, who died on November 8, 2011. They met at a Gardner High School - Templeton High School track meet in 1938. He was running the 440-yard dash for Coach Bill Footrick’s Gardner High School track team and Eileen was managing the Templeton High track team. They were married at St. Martin’s Church in Otter River, Massachusetts on February 15, 1943 while he was serving in the U.S. Army. The temperature on their wedding day was 24 degrees below zero and no one in the church removed his or her coat, including the bride. Albert was the last survivor of a family of nine children. His brothers and sisters, Paul E. Sylvestre, Roland L. Sylvester, Gertrude L. Erickson, Juliette F. Cunningham, Antonio H. “Chubby” Sylvestre, Laurette R. Sans, Adrienne G. Houde, and Charles E. Sylvestre, all predeceased him. He recently completed a brief memoir of his brothers and sisters which he titled The Last Leaf after a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. He served for nearly five years in the U.S. Army artillery during World War II, first at Fort Adams and Fort Church, Rhode Island, then in the Coast Artillery at Bailey Island, Maine, Fort Jackson, South Carolina and Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and later in the 746th Field Artillery Battalion as part of the corps artillery. His unit operated 8 inch howitzers and served overseas in the European Theater of Operations as part of the U.S. 9th Army. He served in England, France, Belgium and Germany, and for a while his unit was attached to the British 1st Army under Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge. He was discharged as a staff sergeant in December 1945. He wrote a memoir of his time in the army entitled, I’ll Be Home in a Year, which were his parting words to his mother before leaving for what he thought would be one year’s service. After World War II he served as a manufacturer’s representative selling furniture throughout New England, New York state and eastern Canada for C.H. Hartshorn Co. and other furniture manufacturers in Gardner, Massachusetts. He also worked in Boston for many years selling furniture and fabrics to interior designers. In 1959 he co-founded Montage, Inc. with his business partner Howell A. Bates, providing furniture, fabrics and lighting to interior designers. The firm is still owned and operated by the Bates family and has offices at 75 Arlington Street in Boston’s Back Bay. At one time he assisted furniture designer Claude Bunyard in finding a manufacturer for Bunyard’s classic modern design of the Windsor armchair. Albert retired as a furniture manufacturer’s sales representative in 1980 and managed the Amherst, New Hampshire showroom of Winchendon Furniture Co., Inc. which he enjoyed until his retirement in 1990. Albert was a talented painter and photographer. He enjoyed exploring the New England landscape and his paintings and photographs centered upon barns, towns, still lifes and landscapes. He tended not to photograph or paint people. “I never met a tree who said it wasn’t a good likeness,” he once commented. He began taking photographs about 1930 with a free Brownie box camera offered by the Eastman Kodak Company as part of a promotion for any child born in 1918. His grandfather, L.E. Robillard, operated a drugstore in Gardner and gave him the outdated film. Albert took pictures with the outdated film, developed the film in a darkroom located in a closet at home. He always had a camera with him on his travels. In 2000 he gave the Eastman Kodak company recollections of his Brownie camera for their anniversary. He always maintained that what mattered was not the camera but the eye behind the camera, that is, the ability to see what the photo would be like before it is printed. He exhibited his paintings and photographs at the Jaffrey Arts Stroll and at the Jaffrey Civic Center in Jaffrey, New Hampshire and at the Levi Heywood Memorial Library in Gardner, Massachusetts. He was a juried member of the Sharon Arts Center in Sharon, New Hampshire. In addition to photography and painting, he enjoyed people, telling jokes, family history, interior design, antiques, and nature. For many years he and his wife, Eileen, spent happy summers at their camp on Queen Lake in Phillipston, Massachusetts. Albert leaves several nieces and nephews: Claire S. Montgomery of Kennebunk, Maine, Richard H. Erickson of Leominster, Massachusetts, Harold E. “Smoky” Cunningham, Jr. of Mechanicsville, Maryland, Janice J. Stivers of Rincon, Georgia, Ellen C. Cox of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Charles E. Sylvestre, Jr. of Gardner, Massachusetts, Neil G. Sylvestre, of Great Falls, Virginia, Henri L. Sans, Jr. of Princeton, Massachusetts, Laval R. Sans of Littleton, Massachusetts, and many grandnieces and grandnephews. His nephew Robert P. Sylvestre predeceased him. He also leaves two sisters-in-law, Dorothy M. Sylvestre, of Gardner, Massachusetts, and Jennie Sylvester, of Bristol, Connecticut. He was fortunate to receive loving care from the staff at Summerhill Assisted Living in Peterborough and from two close friends and caregivers, Mary Lou Miley of Peterborough, and Jean Raymond of Jaffrey.

Interment will be at a later date at the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Winchendon, Massachusetts.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School, 1050 Westminster Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420.

At Mr. Sylvestre's request there will be no calling hours.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in the Monadnock Room of Summerhill Assisted Living at 183 Old Dublin Road in Peterborough, New Hampshire.