2-19-10
COOPERSTOWN
St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church was packed, and all aspects of Stu Taugher’s life were represented.
The father: His five daughters was pallbearers and had roles in the service.
The public servant: Mayor Carol B. Waller praised his dedication of time – “something we give freely, something we cannot get back” – during his years of public service, as mayor, county representative and village trustee.
The fireman: A former fire chief, president of the fire company and founder of the EMT squad, his dress hat was on the coffin. The 1952 Mack pumper that transported the coffin stopped at the Chestnut Street firehouse, where the siren was sounded in commemoration.
The Irishman: A bagpiper played, and Ron Johnson sang “Danny Boy.”
The man of faith: A lifelong member of St. Mary’s, “he has seen many Lents and now he is enjoying Easter,” said Father John P. Rosson, pastor, during the homily at the Saturday, Feb. 13, funeral mass.
“He was the grand marshal of Cooperstown,” Father Rosson later reflected. “He was always its greatest cheerleader.”
Stuart Patrick Taugher, 87, passed away Wednesday morning, Feb. 10, 2010, at Otsego Manor.
Born March 22, 1922, a son of Patrick and Margaret (Doran) Taugher, he was raised on the family farm in Pierstown with three brothers and two sisters; only one sibling, Mrs. Eileen T. Goodenow, 89, of New Hartford, survives.
At first, the family milked 25 Holsteins, but then got into cauliflower. Throughout his high school years, he remembered in a 2007 interview, he would drive to New York City produce markets twice a week, beginning as early as possible in the spring to get a jump on the Long Island farmers.
He graduated from Cooperstown Central School in 1940; his future wife, Josephine Coleman, known as Jodie, was in the Class of 1943. Because two of his brothers were already in the Armed Forces, Stu, the youngest, and his oldest brother were barred from the military.
Stu and Josephine married on Nov. 24, 1945, and as he got into business – he was Allstate Insurance’s agent in Cooperstown for 39 years – the Taughers began their family at their Maple Street home.
In the fire department, he soon moved into a leadership position. In addition to deploying the crews when The Freeman’s Journal building at Main and Pioneer burned in 1962, he battled blazes that took out Wood’s dry cleaners, (site of T.J.’s today), and the Red & White grocery.
What he most remembered were the human tragedies. He carried a baby who succumbed to smoke inhalation out of a home on Irish Hill, and an 8-year-old boy out of a second-floor apartment in Oaksville.
“That’s one of the saddest things you can get involved in,” he said in the interview.
In 1969, Taugher and then-Fire Chief Malcolm Root – faced with the likelihood Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital would give up its ambulance service – convinced the department to sponsor an emergency squad. Nine men volunteered and spent 51 hours over the winter training. The squad completed its first successful call on July 4, 1970.
By then, Taugher had accepted elective office: In 1967, after 35 years of GOP dominance, he was elected mayor on the Union ticket. The streetlights that still illuminate Main Street were installed during his term.
He then ran for the new county Board of Representatives, becoming the first representative from the Town of Otsego (District 8), a position he held for the next 10 years.
At the end of 1969, even before he took office, he was designated to go to Albany with Guy Rathbun of Morris, the Republican chairman of the board, to work through the transition from a 19-member supervisors’ board to the new 14-member body.
During his tenure, he was proud to be the first Democrat to become chairman of a standing committee in county government.
In 1979, he left the county board and had a short hiatus from elective office, although he continued to be active in the fire department and ambulance squad. Soon, however, he answered the call again and returned to the village board. That stint, it turned out, would last almost a quarter-century.
One of Trustee Taugher’s memorable phrases, recalled Giles Russell, who served with him on the village board, was, “How’s this going to effect the good people of Cooperstown?”
He was especially proud of many positive changes in the village during his terms of office, when the new water plant was completed and the new reservoir dedicated in his honor.
A proud and supportive father, Stuart was also involved with his daughters’ education, and when the newly built Cooperstown Elementary School opened on Walnut Street in September 1955, he served as the first president of the Parent Teachers’ Association.
St. Mary’s communicants from those days would look forward to seeing the tall father entering the church every Sunday – he never missed a one – with his wife and five daughters following him in single file to the “Taugher pew.”
All the daughters received Clark Foundation scholarships, a source of pride and appreciation throughout Taugher’s life.
At St. Mary’s, Stuart served for many years as an usher. He was a past member of the former Leatherstocking Council, No. 1879, Knights of Columbus.
In his private life, Stuart always enjoyed digging in the dirt, especially on his land in Pierstown, and will be remembered by many for his well-tended and productive flower beds and vegetable gardens.
Surviving are his five daughters, Karen M. Taugher of Utica, Patricia T. Schultz of Fly Creek, Marcia Pugliese and her husband, Stephen, of Pierstown, and Jacqueline Ruck and her husband, Richard, and Colleen Sheldon and her husband, Scott, all of Milford, Pa. (Jacqueline and Colleen are twins); 11 grandchildren; 10 great grandchildren; his sister Eileen; a brother-in-law, Charles A. Coleman, Jr. and his wife, Dolores, of Cooperstown; two sisters-in-law, Mrs. Carol Coleman of Glen Burnie, Md., and Morganna Garbera and her husband, Michael, of Richfield Springs; and many nieces and nephews.
He was predeceased by his wife, Jody; three brothers, Gregory, Ogden and Reginald Taugher; one sister, Patricia A. Taugher; two brothers-in-law, Frederick Goodenow and Roger A. Coleman; and one sister-in-law, Jane A. Reich.
The service of committal and burial will take place later this spring in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Index.
As an alternative to flowers, it is suggested by the family that contributions be made to Friends of Bassett, 1 Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326, Cooperstown Fire Department, P.O. Box 1, Cooperstown, NY 13326, or Cooperstown Emergency Squad, P.O. Box 322, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.
In 2007, Chuck Coleman encapsulated his brother-in-law this way: “He was a pillar of the fire department. He was a pillar of the village board. He was a pillar of the county. He has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve known. He deserves all the accolades he can get.”
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