Betsy Reid’s familiarity with Ridgefield history and the more than 10,000 items in the historical society
archives has been built over her many years at the Scott House, working at first as the only paid
employee and closely associated with founders like Jeanne Timpanelli and Dave Scott, Kay
Ables and Monica McMorran. Having earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Western
Connecticut State University, Betsy was well equipped to pursue collections work.
Betsy has been at the forefront of the Historical Society’s oral history projects. In 2005, as a volunteer Betsy led the WWII Oral History Project interviewing 45 of Ridgefield’s WWII veterans. Having created these interviews on tape; those recordings are now digitally preserved and transcribed. Later she worked on interviews with longtime Ridgefield residents and Ridgefielders during COVID. She played an important role in the recent LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project cataloging and working with teams of interns to transcribe the interviews.
In recent years, Betsy took on the formal title of collections manager, she worked with longtime and many new volunteers on the continuing efforts to catalog and preserve historical documents and photos. “I’m grateful for all the volunteers that have shown up at our door” says Betsy. “We have volunteers that come three days a week and we had 15 interns this summer-it was amazing. There is so much interest in our organization and it can’t operate without volunteers. Our volunteers are the best, willing to give their time, their expertise they find their niche what they really love and then they just take off. It’s really great to see.”
Rob Orr, who is a longtime volunteer with the Historical Society and has worked closely with Betsy says “As an archivist and member of the Collections Committee at RHS, I have had the pleasure of working closely with Betsy for 6-1/2 years. As a Ridgefield native, her first-hand knowledge of the town proved invaluable. Her work ethic, patience, cheerful demeanor, and organizational skills were all put to good use. The Thursday afternoon gang at RHS accomplished a lot under her direction and enjoyed some laughs as well.”
Betsy’s dedication to the Historical Society doesn’t end with her work in collections and with volunteers. She is on the Ridgefield Historical Society Board, a member of the Historic Preservation Committee and on the Warren Arthur Architectural Archives Committee which seeks to preserve architectural drawings from notable buildings in Ridgefield. Betsy intends to volunteer with the Historical Society in her retirement stating “The historical society is only 20 years old, it’s a fragile organization. You have to have people come in that really care about this place and want to take care of it.” “It’s in our hands now, it was in someone else’s hands – Jeanne Timapanelli, Kay Ables – and then it came to us. Now we are taking the best care we can of it, and then we will pass it on to people that will care just as much as we all did.”
It’s a rare day, actually a rare hour, when a question doesn’t come up at Scott House, where the
impulse is “Ask Betsy — she’ll know.” Elizabeth Sheehan Reid leaves a well-organized vault of Ridgefield archives, a legacy that will continue to grow as the many volunteers she has trained and encouraged continue the important work of the Ridgefield Historical Society.
