My career has always centered on railroads – marketing rail freight and managing the operations of several transloading facilities in the northeast. In 1994 a regional publisher who admired my background in railroad history contracted me to write three books on the conversion of former railroad corridors into trails. The books were hits, but some people were still fearful or angry about trail conversions. I couldn’t understand why and wanted to help. I became an advocate for the conversions and helped to organize local “Friends of the Trail” groups. Eventually, I was hired by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) and worked for them for seven years in policy development at the state level. I like to say that I am a battle-hardened veteran of nearly every rail-trail war within 150 miles of Northampton. When RTC left the region, I became a realtor with a related niche: I sell houses near rail trails. The primary reason people opposed trail conversions was a decrease in property value. But I’m very successful in my specialty. You could say I’ve cornered the market.

Most of you know me as the Realtor® specializing in the sale of houses near rail trails, but many of you probably don’t know my background in the efforts to create an interconnected network of rail trails throughout the northeast. In 1994, while working for the railroad, managing large-scale transloading facilities, I was invited by a regional publisher to write a series of recreational guide books about the developing network of rail trails.