In Memoriam: Howard Blitman

Jascin Finger • January 12, 2021

It is with a sad heart that I inform you of the passing of one of the MMA’s former board members and an honorary board member, Howard Blitman.

Howard was a force.  He had a strong presence and you knew when he entered a room.  He had a distinct sort of gravelly voice and if he did not agree with you, you knew it.  He did not hold back and that’s probably what I liked best about him.  He made me nervous – and as a wise woman once told me, if someone makes you nervous like that, it shows you just how much respect you have for them.  I don’t think I called him “Howard” until maybe five years ago.  Most of the time, I said, “Yes, sir.”  Not in an authoritative sort of way but with a deep respect – and frankly, affection.  Lately, he had still been coming to the Soirée, granddaughter on his arm with his bow tie thrown around his neck.  We always had a big greeting and I can hear him saying my name.  He, I think, was a bit of a softy too and we had some things in common which I think surprised both of us – opera and vegetable gardens.

Among many things, Howard was instrumental in the initiatives of the process to expand and reinvigorate the MMA physical plant – specifically as the MMA worked on the first major strategic plan in many years in 2013, which led the MMA to focus on the buildings and sites that make up the MMA.  Buildings were Howard’s “thing” – he really was an authority and my statement is definitely an understatement – and having him vet architecture firms with the rest of the committee was invaluable.  And again, he didn’t mess around – he was to the point and called out the various firms and their people on things he didn’t agree with and that he felt were wrong.  Howard was generous of his time and his financial support.  He was also a long-time member of the board at the Nantucket Land Council firmly believing in the importance and beauty of the island’s unique ecology.

I wish I had known Howard better.  I appreciate what I learned from listening to him and I know the MMA is a better place because of his belief in the organization and his ongoing support at many levels.

The step, however small, which is in advance of the world, shows the greatness of the person, whether that step be taken with brain, with heart, or with hands. –  Maria Mitchell

JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF

Lily of the Valley

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF

Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Richard Sotell, CFP as Featured Guest for May Science Speaker Series

May 6, 2025
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