Helen R. Knight

Helen R. Knight was a long-serving member of the Billerica Historical Commission and one of the town's most dependable volunteers for local history. She lived for many years on Gray Street in East Billerica and was elected a Town Meeting member in 1982, sitting for more than twenty years; the Precinct 10 members repeatedly chose her as their clerk, under the precinct chairman Arthur L. Doyle. In 1991 she reported to town meeting for the Superfund Committee that the Environmental Protection Agency would put a complete cover on the Schaeffer Landfill and treat its leachate off site.

She was appointed to the Historical Commission in November 1983 to fill the vacancy left by Commander James McDonald, and signed its reports for more than two decades alongside Carol P. Bruyere, Margaret B. Ingraham, Virginia R. Maguire and the chairmen Charles E. Stearns and later Alec Ingraham. In 1993 she and her neighbors started the proposed Richardson's Mill East Billerica Historic District, inventorying its twelve properties with the Commission's help; the fall town meeting dismissed the article but directed the Commission to bring it back to the spring meeting of 1994. The same year, when the Finance Committee recommended nothing for the Commission's contract services, she moved $500 "to purchase plaques for some of the older buildings in Town," and the meeting agreed by 72 votes to 32.

She also served as an associate member of the Historic Districts Commission, as an alternate on the state Middlesex Canal Commission, and on the town's Museum Committee, where she was acting chairman in 1999. The Historical Commission named her its representative to the Museum Committee and reappointed her to that post in 2001, with Thomas M. Paskiewicz as her alternate; the town's memoriam also lists her on the Middlesex Canal Committee and the 350th Anniversary Committee.

In its 2006 report the Historical Commission noted "with regret" the loss by fire of Helen Knight's own home on Gray Street, one of the houses on its inventory of historic properties. She remained a member of the Commission until her death on October 31, 2007, and was included in the town's memoriam for that year.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1982: annual election, Precinct 10 Town Meeting Members (Helen R. Knight elected)
2. Billerica Town Report 1983: Historical Commission report (Helen Knight appointed to fill the vacancy left by James McDonald)
3. Billerica Town Report 1991: annual town meeting (Helen Knight reports for the Superfund Committee on the Schaeffer Landfill)
4. Billerica Town Report 1993: Historic Districts Commission report (proposed Richardson's Mill East Billerica Historic District; Helen Knight a resident)
5. Billerica Town Report 1993: annual town meeting (Rep. Knight moves $500 for plaques on older buildings)
6. Billerica Town Report 1996: appointed officials (State Middlesex Canal Commission, Helen R. Knight alternate)
7. Billerica Town Report 1999: Billerica Museum Committee (Helen Knight, Acting Chairman)
8. Billerica Town Report 2001: Historical Commission report (Helen Knight reappointed as representative to the Museum Committee)
9. Billerica Town Report 2006: Historical Commission report (loss of Helen Knight's home on Gray Street by fire)
10. Billerica Town Report 2008: memoriams for 2007 (Helen Knight died October 31, 2007; offices held)