Board Members
HSW Board as of January 1, 2024
Richard Heppner
President
Janine Fallon Mower
Vice President
Kathy Crost
Treasurer
Deborah Heppner
Recording/Corresponding Secretary
Lewis Arlt
Karyn Bevet
Michael Drillinger
Rachel Jackson
John “Jeff” Keithline
Matthew Leaycraft
Jeffrey L. Miller
Olivia Twine
Bruce Weber
JoAnn Margolis (non-voting)
Archivist (2002-2021)
Richard Heppner, President
Richard Heppner has served as Woodstock Town Historian since 2001. During this period, he has also served as a Board and Ex-Officio member of HSW. In addition to numerous essays for local media, he is the author of Woodstock’s Infamous Murder Trial – Early Racism in Upstate New York which was recently recommended by the Washington Post. He is also the author of Women of the Catskills, Woodstock – Everyday History, co-author with Janie Fallon-Mower of Legendary Locals of Woodstock and author of the forthcoming book, Woodstock – From World War to Culture Wars, published by SUNY Press. After serving in numerous academic positions over twenty-five years at Orange County Community College, he retired as Vice President of Academic Affairs at SUNY Orange and holds the rank of Professor Emeritus. Heppner is a former member of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Executive Board of Directors, and the former President of the Woodstock Artists’ Cemetery. He also served as a Woodstock Town Board member from 2017-2021. A graduate of Onteora High School, Heppner received his BA in Political Science/History from SUNY Albany and an MFA from the New School for Social Research in Media Studies.
Janine Mower, Vice President
Janine has a long-standing affiliation with the Historical Society of Woodstock. She is currently volunteering in the capacity of scanning images from the collection into Past Perfect. Janine is also updating the HSW obituary collection. An avid genealogist, local history researcher, and author, Janine is celebrating the 2022 release of her latest self-published work, One Marine’s Story- Corporal John L. Fallon U.S.M.C., a memoir penned by her father. The story is sprinkled with insights added by Janine and her brother. Retired from Health Alliance WCMC as an RN Case Manager, Janine now works with her husband John at Mower’s Saturday Sunday flea market in Woodstock. Having developed proficiency with social media marketing for Mower’s flea market, Janine now manages the HSW FB and Instagram pages. She has an ongoing interest in promoting local history to the public.
Kathy Crost, Treasurer
I lived in Woodstock during my junior high and high school years and attended Onteora. I practiced law in New York City for about 40 years; I retired a few years ago. I am interested in many aspects of Woodstock history, especially the lives of everyday people.
Deborah Heppner, Recording and Corresponding Secretary
Deborah Heppner was born and raised in Woodstock. After a long career as a social worker, she retired five years ago. She is married to Town Historian Richard Heppner and is mother to Jonathan and Eliza and grandmother to Henry. Deborah was president of the Historical Society Board from 2007 to 2019, working in all areas of the Society, including fundraising, liaising with other community organizations, and curating many HSW exhibitions. After taking a year off, she is looking forward to returning to the HSW board and supporting the great work in this community.
Lewis Arlt
Born in Kingston, NY, and raised in Woodstock, Lewis is a veteran actor with 35 years’ experience performing on Broadway, regional theatre, and television, directing episodes, and penning numerous scripts for daytime soaps. After retirement, Lewis resettled in Woodstock, in his family home. He and his wife Juli enjoy various hobbies, and Lewis had launched a new career in the voice acting arena. Lewis was appointed to the HSW board in January 2020. He looks forward to working with the HSW board on special projects that will utilize his many talents.
Karyn Bevet
A resident for 51 years. Retired RN, Sales and Business Manager, Dance instructor, and Performer. I love my chosen hometown, its history, people, and the breathtaking nature that abounds.
Michael Drillinger
Michael Drillinger is currently doing administrative and booking work for the High Meadow School in Stone Ridge. I do volunteer work projects around Woodstock as a member of the Geezer Corps. In addition to being on the board of the HSW, I am on the board of the Catskill Mountain Club, the Kingston Land Trust, and the volunteer chairman of the Ten Mile River Scout Museum. I am an avid Catskill hiker and a New York State Outdoor Guide, and I love history and local and Hudson Valley. I live in Woodstock with my wife, Rosalind Dickinson.
Rachel Reyes Jackson
Rachel grew up in Manila, worked in Singapore and moved to the US in 1986 to pursue higher studies. Post-graduation, she worked in finance. She and her husband Bruce made Woodstock their full-time home from 2013, after having been weekenders for 20 years prior. They love Woodstock’s rural feel, peaceful atmosphere, and unique personality. She serves on the HSW Board and is a member of its Resource Development Committee. She is a founding member of the new Woodstock Rotary Club and a board member at Ulster County Community College Foundation. Rachel wants to support HSW’s work of preserving and celebrating Woodstock’s history as well as expanding its audiences in an evolving community.
John F. “Jeff” Keithline
Jeff Keithline was born in 1954 and is married to Elizabeth Keithline. Working as a music professional since 1971, Jeff has also worked for 35 years in small business retail, managing building projects, and commercial real estate in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Prior to moving to Woodstock in 2019, Jeff served on the boards of several non-profit organizations in RI including as Treasurer of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame from 2012 to 2019.
Matthew Leaycraft
Matthew Leaycraft grew up in Woodstock and has had a life-long interest in the history of the Woodstock art colony. Following graduation from Vassar College with a major in Art History, he had a thirty-year career in commercial real estate asset management with responsibility for portfolios of class A office towers in Manhattan. In 2010 he received an M. Div. degree from Yale Divinity School and for the past ten years has worked in churches. Most recently he was Director of Finance and Lay Associate for Adult formation at St. James’ Episcopal Church, a large and thriving parish on the Upper East Side. Now retired, Matthew works as a consultant in church finance and operation and serves as an independent teacher and retreat leader. Matthew is a past trustee and secretary of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild where he later served as interim executive director during a period of transition for the organization. Matthew’s non-profit board experience reflects the range of his interests. For twenty years he was a trustee of the New York City Mission Society, one of the city’s leading social service agencies and its oldest, founded in 1810, where over time he served as chair of the development and program committees. He concluded his board tenure as chairperson. He was a trustee of Christ Church Methodist at Park and 60th Street in New York where he was program committee chair and served on the committee that successfully negotiated the sale of the church’s air rights, which at the time was the largest such transaction in the history of New York real estate. He is also a former board member of a university chaplaincy, the Episcopal Church at Yale. He is currently on the board of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he has served as exhibition committee chair and is currently vice-president. Matthew’s earliest board experience was as a trustee and then president of the Historical Society of Woodstock where he worked with Sam Klein in to establish its collection of Woodstock art. He is delighted to once again, serve on the HSW board. Matthew lives part time in Woodstock with his husband, Steve Cambron, and their dog, Mamie.
Jeffrey Miller
Jeffrey Miller is a composer whose works have been performed throughout the United States. After receiving his Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center, he had a long teaching career, primarily at Brooklyn College and California State University, East Bay. Also active as an arts administrator, he was Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco new music presenter Composers, Inc. Jeff and his wife, designer, and artist Linda Livings, moved to Woodstock in 2018.
Olivia Twine
Olivia Twine, a freelance writer, serves as secretary on the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Woodstock. Retired as a financial aid specialist from SUNY Ulster this past year, Twine directed the HSW suffrage centennial project. One of the initiatives was “Standing on Their Shoulders, 100 Years of U.S. Women Voting and Still Marching for Women’s Rights,” an exhibit and events funded in part by a grant from Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Bruce Weber
Bruce Weber is an independent art historian of American Art who has primarily been focusing in recent years on the historic Woodstock art colony in his writing, lecturing, and curatorial work. Over the course of his career, he has served as a curator at numerous institutions, including the Norton Museum of Art, National Academy Museum, and Museum of the City of New York. From 1990 to 2007, he was Director of Research and Exhibitions at Berry-Hill Galleries in New York City. Dr. Weber has curated numerous major exhibitions and written on various topics covering American art from the early nineteenth century to today. In 2020 he curated an exhibition of the landscapes of Otto Bierhals for the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum. In addition, he co-curated an exhibition of the art of Zuma Steele for the Kleinert/James Center of the Arts. Last fall, he curated the Tomas Penning show at the Woodstock School of Art. Since 2020 he has produced and written for the blog learningwoodstockartcolony.com.