May 4, 2006 

Union Leader Staff

CONCORD -- Three years to the day after the Old Man of the Mountain collapsed in Franconia Notch, awards were given to a family, a town and an organization that embody the strength and character of the state symbol. 

Honored by the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund at its Profile Awards at the Capitol Center for the Arts last night were: 

* The Nielsen family, who from 1960 maintained the natural rock formation; 

* Project Learning Tree, which has helped teach a half-million New Hampshire children about their woodland surroundings; 

* The town of Canterbury, which worked together to preserve a farm, a town store and cultural attraction. 

Maura Weston, president of the Old Man Legacy Fund, also honored Shannon Finney, a fourth-grader at Londonderry's South School, for a poem that won this year's statewide creative writing contest, sponsored by the General Federation of Women's Clubs of New Hampshire. 

Finney read from her work, "Remembering the Old Man." 

"Before you left I wanted to ask, What were you waiting for? What were you longing for?" the final stanza of her poem reads. 

Gov. John Lynch offered welcoming remarks. Joseph W. McQuaid, President and Publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, also spoke. Helping to distribute the custom-made granite and glass awards were last year's winners, Dick Hamilton, former president of White Mountain Attractions, Bob Larson of the Mount Washington Observatory, and Alyssa Arsenault, representing the City of Manchester. 

Also announced were three artist groups selected as finalists from 31 entries nationwide to create a memorial sculpture honoring the Old Man. The artists will refine their plans over the summer before one design is selected. 

Jamie Calderwood of Durham, the team of Thomas Scoon of Northwood and Peter DeMinico of Sanbornton, and the team of Shelly Bradbury of Essex, Mass., and Ron Meyers of Rockport, Mass., are the finalists.

The annual gathering, co-hosted by the General Federation of Women's Clubs of New Hampshire and the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund, is intended to honor those who, like the rock face, were powerful and inspirational.

The late Niels Nielsen of Plymouth and his family, including son David and daughter-in-law Deborah, worked over the past four decades to maintain the Old Man.

"It was truly a labor of love," said David Nielsen, who noted the many volunteers who helped "give him a shave and a haircut."

In 1960, the elder Nielsen, a state highway worker, was given the job of maintaining the rock face, which was 1,200 feet high above Profile Lake. It required hanging by ropes over the rock to adjust cables and apply epoxy to keep the Old Man aloft.

Nielsen died in 2001 and his son placed his ashes in the eye of the Old Man that year, before the collapse.

"What we really want to see is an expanded museum to help bring people back" to Franconia Notch, Nielsen said. Plans for the museum are on hold as state park funding needs are evaluated. Still, a pathway, a traveling exhibit and a sculpture are all moving ahead. 

New Hampshire Project Learning Tree and its environmental education program statewide, designed to raise today's students to become tomorrow's stewards, received the organization award this year. 

Director Esther Cowles and Bo Hoppin, chairman of the group's board, received the award for the program's emphasis on teaching students "how to think, not what to think." 

McQuaid said one of the reasons the organization received the award was to shed light on the small organization, which over 25 years has reached more than 4,000 educators and a half-million students. The group has worked collaboratively with the forest products industry, conservation organizations, and public agencies to help students understand the natural resources around them. 

Canterbury received the Profile Award in the town category for its work on a host of issues to maintain the community's rural character. Citizens worked to protect the Gold Star Sod Farm, the town's largest employer, by purchasing the land along the Merrimack River. The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests now holds a conservation easement with the farmers leasing the operation. 

The town also was praised for its work to buy a local store and post office through a shareholder system, its work to find innovative approaches to growth, and for work with Canterbury Shaker Village to maintain that state cultural treasure.

Copyright 2006, Union Leader Corp.