Esther Moss Proctor
We are saddened to share that Esther Moss Proctor (known warmly as Slim) passed away minutes into the new day on September 5, 2022, with family by her side.
She was a lover of the natural environment, literature and the arts. She believed in the importance of understanding and preserving the past to aid our lives in the present. She had a sharp wit and could easily break out into song or dance a jig, and even at 97 would unabashedly lick the whip cream whisk.
Born in 1924 and raised in Storrs Connecticut, she was the daughter of UConn Forestry professor Albert E Moss and Alma H Moss, a very wise mother, who made sure only Esther’s three older brothers milked the cows. The working farm meant chores, but also music and picnics and stealing away with a book under the groves of blueberry shrubs. She lived through the depression and rationing and spoke of her father coasting down hills so they would have enough gas to reach the seaside each summer.
At the University of Connecticut, she was an orchestra viola player and an award-winning archer. She joined the war effort as an air raid night-watch volunteer atop fire towers and later volunteered in community dance halls and factory work. Leaving UConn for study in illustration at Rhode Island School of Design she would spirit off to NYC art museums and worked summers in coastal resort hotels. With her degree in hand, she was invited to work with Chicago illustrators Joyce Ballantyne and Eddie Augustini where she was endearingly nicknamed Slim. During those early career days, she fell headlong into love with an auburn-haired fellow studying architecture at the New Bauhaus School.
She married that fellow Sherry and following a honeymoon sailing on Lake Ontario they settled in Cambridge – first in Shady Hill Square, then MIT housing while Sherry was enrolled in architecture. Soon they were five children-strong and after a brief steppingstone to Marblehead Neck, they chose Manchester with its stunning harbor Sherry remembered sailing into on a venture before the war. They moved in the day before their sixth was born and Slim knew they were finally home.
It wasn’t long before family and community won over her career and she began painting for the sheer pleasure of it, occasionally slipping out of the house when the kids were busy knowing her favorite landscapes were just steps off the back porch. Slim joined fellow artists in founding the Manchester Arts Association opening its gallery in Seaside One. She was a gifted artist, yet extremely humble, quietly producing an amazing collection of watercolors.
She worked with the Remote Sensing Lab at MIT traveling to Hawaii to help establish their new headquarters. Slim was a librarian in the Elementary School and later joined the Manchester Public Library where she resumed her joy of guiding young researchers and pairing people with just the right book. All the while, she was volunteering more and more at the Manchester Historical Society (now MHM). Over the decades, her passion and dedication to learning and sharing the history of Manchester endured. She quietly and sometimes not-so-quietly became a creative force and collaborator of summer exhibits, publications, education programs, and restoration initiatives including Seaside One, the Powder House, and Crowell Chapel.
At home, Slim and Sherry were a creative duo, mutually supportive and finding much common ground…or not! Their enthusiasm meant that the family home on Jersey Lane, simply known as “the barn,” was a center of activity. Slim always made room at the dinner table or made-up extra beds for impromptu overnighters. Hosting exchange students, MHM researchers and design students needing the space to create and build, was the norm. They hosted Black and White Arts Association Balls, Pete Seeger and notables for his PBS special Circle of Lights, and WGBH Zoom filming. The squash court was a winter playground for neighborhood playmates and room was always made to construct Summerstage sets and Fourth of July floats; and to store oh-so-many things for friends. Slim was the even keel with a semblance of calm!
A life-long supporter of humanitarian and cultural institutions and local organizations Slim cared deeply about preserving the land and culture of Manchester and greater Cape Ann. She inspired her children to be inquisitive and independent from the word get-go, quietly encouraging them in their chosen walks of life. She traveled mostly through the written word, but also cycled the Netherlands, traveled England by narrowboat and hiked Denali Park in her 80s… always with a book, sketchbook and paints. Most of all, Slim had a voracious love of literature, frequently skimming to the last page before committing to a book! “I want to know if it’s worth reading” she would say with an ever-so-innocent smile.
Following 45 years in West Manchester Slim felt quite at home living in the Capt. Cyrus Dodge House on School Street. She had wonderful new neighbors, a garden, a view onto Central Pond and the friendly Fire Department next door. She made lasting friendships through Strong Women and being in town she walked everywhere. She seemed to know everyone, and everyone her. At 95 she moved to the Monadnock area of New Hampshire to be with family. She was teased that “her” birds followed her everywhere she chose to live. Keeping tabs on them, she would report unusual sightings at her feeders and delighted in the new landscape of forested hills, open meadows, and rivers, but never forgetting her Manchester.
Slim was preceded in death by her husband Sherry C Proctor, daughter Gaylen Proctor, son Nathan Proctor, sister-in-law Veneta P Roebuck and son-in-law Brendan McAloon, as well as her brothers Phillip Moss of Austin TX, Joel Moss and Robert Moss of Homer AK. She is survived by her children Hannah Proctor of Francestown NH, Lauren P McAloon of Key West FL, Seth H Proctor of Waltham, Eliza Proctor of Brooklyn NY, daughter-in-law Mary Proctor of Inverness FL, step-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews.
There will be a Celebration of Life in Manchester at a later date. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be considered for educational programs at the Manchester Public Library, the Manchester Historical Museum, or Mass Audubon or a charity of your choice.
