Phyllis Jones and Valerie Freer
photo by Gloria Wagenknecht
On the eve of her departure to her new winter home in Florida, Phyllis Jones was honored at our Annual Dinner on October 18 as an outstanding leader of the Sullivan County Audubon Society and the state ornithological association.
Since her arrival as a Librarian at Sullivan County Community College in June 1996, Phyllis served in many leadership roles in our local Audubon Society, including President and Director. She wrote many articles for this newsletter, and was the Editor or Co-Editor for many years. She has been the sole administrator of “Audubon Adventures”, National Audubon’s educational program for students in local elementary schools, for more than 15 years.
Phyllis also did every aspect of the writing and production of each edition of our membership brochures. She also handled the proof reading and printing of many other SCAS publications, including all five recent editions of the “Checklist of Birds of Sullivan County”.
As a representative of SCAS, Phyllis became active at the state level in the Federation of NYS Bird Clubs, now called the NYS Ornithological Society. Her work as Archivist has been particularly valuable, as for more than 20 years she has single-handedly collected and catalogued important historic documents and securely stored them for perpetuity in the Kroch Library at Cornell University. She also served as the Editor of the newsletter New York Birders for four years and made important improvements in that publication. For several years she produced a Directory of the officers of the 50 member clubs. She also served as a Director of the state organization and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Atlas of Breeding Birds of NYS.
Phyllis has been a faithful participant in our many local counts, including feeder counts, the Christmas Count and butterfly counts. She will continue as Co-Editor of this newsletter, working through the internet from Florida, and will return to us in the spring. We don’t blame her for leaving the ice and snow of Sullivan County, and wish her the very best for a warm and healthy winter.
 — Valerie Freer
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