Join the Friends of the Robbins Library as they welcome Michele Hassler, Chair of the Arlington Cemetery Commission, Steven Prochet, Local History Librarian at the Robbins Library, and Kevin Duffy, an artist working in stone with expertise in monument conservation and commercial stone carving. Our guests will introduce you to the workings of the Cemetery Commission and the Local History Library’s collections at the Robbins. They will offer a fascinating “tour” of the Old Burying Ground and Mount Pleasant Cemetery, including some of their residents, and discuss stone maintenance and design from an artist’s point of view.
This event will take place in the Community Room (lower level) of the Robbins Library, 700 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Admission is free and open to all.
Michele Hassler is a lifelong Arlingtonian who has been on the Arlington Cemetery Commission since 2002; she chairs the Commission. Her goal for the Commission has been to provide spaces for people to remember those they are visiting and realize the peace that can be found there. The goal of the Commission has been to preserve the historical significance of some of the more prominent spaces and memorials, as well as to help people recognize the (burial?) options they have available to them. Michele’s hope is that for anyone visiting the cemeteries they also see the life around them and can take comfort from that.
Steven Prochet is the Local History Librarian at Robbins Library. Steven maintains the library’s local history collections and occasionally gives tours of the Old Burial Ground for library programming.
Kevin Duffy learned some stone carving techniques from Reno Pisano in the 1970’s and later reconnected with him when they began working together in Hingham Cemetery. That experience rekindled a desire to actually make monuments and other objects, such as the granite swan in Spy Pond Park. He thinks of his work this way:
“Working in stone both presents many challenges and offers many rewards. Removing material in both large and small amounts until what already exists within the stone becomes visible, is a process that never ceases to fascinate me. The final result, whether it be well developed in advance, or simply allowed to occur during the removal process, breathes new life into an object already in existence for many millions of years. The durability of the material allows my work to be displayed both in an interior setting as well as an outdoor setting.”