Charles Yaple Presentation

Richford native Charles Yaple will be giving a preview presentation based on his forthcoming book, The “Tree” of Us:  Richford Boys Who Changed the World and What They Left Behind on Saturday, May 21 at 1:00.  The “Tree” of Us…, which is expected to be available this summer, is Yaple’s third book about human relationships with the natural world.  The first two were Foxey Brown: A Story of an Adirondack Outlaw, Hermit, and Guide as He Might Have Told It and Jacob’s Land: Revolutionary War Soldiers, Schemers, Scoundrels and the Settling of New York’s Frontier.

Dr. Yaple will also share a review of Jerald (Jerry) Marsh’s 2021 book, So Noble a Cause: They Died that the Union Could Survive.   Marsh, born in Richford, (1941-2017)  died unexpectedly and left behind an encyclopedic work that spotlights more than 500 Tioga County soldiers who “sacrificed their lives fighting in the Civil War in order that the Union might survive.”

Dr. Yaple is Professor Emeritus of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies at State University of New York College at Cortland where he continues to teach after 46 years.  Yaple was also Director of the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors and co-founder, first Board president and long-time director of the Lime Hollow Center for Environment & Culture in Cortland, New York. It has been his great pleasure to help people see, understand, and love the land.

The talk, sponsored by the Berkshire Reading Club, is open to the public and will be held Saturday, May 21 at 1:00 pm at the Berkshire Congregational Church, corner of NY Route 38 and Glen Rd.  Refreshments will be served.

The Berkshire Reading Club, formed in 1904 by fourteen area women “for the purpose of pursuing some study that shall be both profitable and entertaining”, received its Charter from NYS in 1906, becoming the second oldest registered Reading Club in the state.  Over the years, the club has espoused many community causes from the formation of the Berkshire
Free Library to early sidewalks and street lighting to distributing free books to area children.

Charles and Jerry’s books are available for purchase at the Berkshire Free Library, Tuesday-Friday 12:00 to 5:00 and Saturday 9:00 to 2:00.