In Memory of Victoria Weber, dedicated member of the Hardy Plant Club, who tragically passed away on December 13, 2022.
A Celebration of Life
Remembering Victoria Weber and Davis Dimock
June 3, 2023
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Bethel Town Hall on Saturday, June 3, at 1:30 p.m. Please join us as we collectively remember the light of long-time Bethel residents Davis Dimock and Victoria Weber who died unexpectedly in a house fire on December 13, 2022. You are invited to share your reminiscences and condolences, as well as to visit Davis's and Victoria's Christian Hill homestead following the celebration.
https://www.ourherald.com/articles/victoria-weber/
Victoria Weber
Bethel—Victoria Weber died unexpectedly on December 13, 2022 in Bethel, at the home she shared with her life-long partner and husband, Davis Dimock.
Victoria was born on December 3, 1947. She graduated from Abbott Academy in Massachusetts, received a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College in California, and a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College in Massachusetts.
After graduation, she became a law librarian at Vermont Law School in South Royalton for 27 years. In that role, she moved through several positions, with her favorite being Environmental Reference Librarian, which allowed her to create a special collection and to train people to access environmental information in its many different formats.
While attending college in California, she met Davis. They settled together on Davis’ family’s land in Bethel in the early 1970s and were married in 2010.
Victoria retired in the early 2000s. Retirement gave her time to pursue her interests in community affairs, gardening, and herbal medicines. She was active in helping restore the Bethel Town Hall building and in writing the Bethel Operator’s Manual.
Victoria was a committed member of the Hardy Plant Club of Northern Vermont. She was devoted to respecting and caring for the earth, particularly the land on which she and Davis lived and loved. She touched so many lives by generously sharing her time, talents, and knowledge.
Victoria is survived by her sister, Jan Porter Weber.
In keeping with her wishes, no service is planned. A celebration of her and Davis’ lives is anticipated in the spring. For those who wish, contributions may be made to an organization of the Town of Bethel.
The Day Funeral Home in Randolph is assisting with arrangements.
https://www.ourherald.com/articles/bethel-house-fire-kills-two/:
Serving the Communities of Vermont's White River Valley Since 1874
Bethel House Fire Kills Two
FD: Smoke Alarms Could Have Saved Couple’s Lives
Davis Dimock speaks at Town Meeting Day in Bethel in 2019. (Herald File / Bob Eddy)
Fire officials say they found no smoke detectors in the Bethel home of a couple in their 70s who died in a fire Tuesday, Dec. 13.
The fire at the 2937 Christian Hill Road home started in the early morning hours.
The names of the couple have not been released by officials as they attempt to notify next of kin, but many people in the community have identified the two as Victoria Weber and Davis Dimock, who owned the property that burned.
The pair, who were said to be in their early- to mid-70s, were active in the community and well known, but also kept to themselves.
A neighbor, Rep. Kirk White who represents Bethel, said the couple was somewhat reclusive despite their activities in the community.
“They tended to stay kind of by themselves,” White said.
White said Dimock, in particular, kept to himself, especially in his later years, choosing to spend his time meditating and focusing on inner peace, evidenced by his stone structures the property is known for.
Both were active in town affairs, however and White said they were believers in helping the town and being an active part of the town government. Both were involved in many efforts, organizations, committees and boards, but a couple of things stand out.
Weber played a big role in, and Dimock contributed to, the Bethel Operator’s Manual, a document to help people navigate town government, which was a product of the Bethel Town Meeting Committee.
Dimock was on the town planning board when the town plan was updated and both were active on the town hall restoration committee.
Weber was an avid gardener and passionate about managing invasive plant species. She lectured and maintained an archive of information in particular about wild chervil. She was half-jokingly named The Herald’s “wild chervil correspondent” in a 2007 piece she wrote about the plants.
The Fire
Chief Dave Aldrighetti of the Bethel Fire Department, said the fire appears to have started at the rear of the two-story brick home where wood structures had been added on, including a wood shed where about six cords of firewood was stored.
The fire was reported at 5:23 a.m. when a man on his way to work saw the flames and reported the fire.
Aldrighetti said he was on scene within 10 minutes and the Bethel fire trucks were right behind him, with mutual aid from South Royalton and Barnard crews also arriving quickly.
The chief said the home was fully involved with major fire at the rear of the home, which had already collapsed, and heavy fire spreading upstairs.
The fire had made major headway before crews arrived, but the first firefighters on the scene began an interior search with the presumption the occupants were likely still inside, Aldrighetti said.
“I suspected something immediately because the car was inside the garage,” Aldrighetti said. “That’s never a good sign.” He feared Dimock and Weber were still inside.
Firefighters got their first bad news when they located Dimock just inside the front door.
“They had tried to egress and didn’t make it,” Aldrighetti said. “That made it difficult. That was the first thing we found before we even got the hoses out.”
He said firefighters continued in, making multiple interior attacks to head upstairs to look for Weber, but couldn’t find the woman, who was eventually located in the bathroom in the bathtub.
Aldrighetti said the intense heat made it hard for firefighters to stay inside for long.
“Hats off to all the guys, they fought it hard,” Aldrighetti said.
The intense heat and heavy fuel load took close to two hours to fully control the fire. Fortunately, there was a pond next to the house providing plenty of water to fight the fire without requiring tankers shuttling water to the scene.
Aldrighetti said he’s worried about his firefighters’ mental health. Fatal fires can take a toll on a person.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran or new, you never know,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on the guys that were involved in the emotional part. Get them the help they need.”
Aldrighetti said the loss of the well-known couple will be hard for the community, particularly those who knew them.
Smoke Detectors
The worst part, Aldrighetti said is that the couple never really had a chance.
No smoke detectors were found in the home, even in parts of the house that hadn’t been heavily damaged.
“We could find no active smoke detectors,” Aldrighetti said. “We know that when they found out the house was on fire, it was way too late.”
The chief said a fire investigator on scene was emotional and pulled him aside to tell him what he had found inside.
He also shared with him that he had investigated 17 fire fatalities and almost every single one was lacking working smoke detectors.
“That played a part, we believe, in this,” Aldrighetti said.
Authorities haven’t yet determined the cause of the fire at the home, but nothing appeared suspicious, according to initial reports.
Detective Trooper Kelsey Knapp of the Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations said the fire is being investigated by the Department of Public Safety Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit. The deaths are being looked at by the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
The bodies of the victims will be transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death.
https://vtdigger.org/2022/12/14/police-2-found-dead-in-bethel-house-fire/
2 found dead in Bethel house fire
Robert Vaillancourt, of Bethel, returns to his truck after taking in the scene at the home of Davis Dimock and Victoria Weber, who both died in a fire in Bethel early Tuesday morning. Vaillancourt used to help the couple in their attempts to control invasive wild chervil on the property. "When a house burns, you tend to expect that the people are not going to die," said Vaillancourt, a psychologist who often works with people experiencing trauma. "It hits you in a different way when it's people you know and are neighbors." Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News
Editor’s Note: This story by Alex Hanson first appeared in the Valley News on Dec. 14.
BETHEL — A house fire early Tuesday morning claimed the lives of a Bethel couple.
Neighbors identified the residents of 2937 Christian Hill Road, Davis Dimock and Victoria Weber, both in their 70s, as victims of the fire.
Fire departments from Bethel, South Royalton and Barnard responded to the fire. The state Department of Public Safety Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit responded to the scene to investigate the origin and cause of the fire. An initial investigation suggests the origin and cause are not suspicious, authorities said.
Dimock and Weber were longtime residents of the home on Christian Hill Road, which Dimock’s father, Marshall Dimock, a prominent economist, purchased in 1940.
Both were active in town affairs. Dimock was on the town planning commission in the 2000s and participated in a rewrite of the town plan. He and Weber were engaged in the restoration of the Town Hall. Weber was an author of the Bethel Operator’s Manual, a guide to the town’s civic life that came out in early 2020. The manual was an outgrowth of a Town Meeting Solutions committee they both served on, according to Eric Benson, Bethel’s town and school moderator.
“They were very strong proponents of the Town Meeting form of government,” Benson said.
As devoted as they were to civic life, they were also rather private, preferring to spend time on their land. Many people knew them, but few knew them well, friends and neighbors said.
Stacked stone cairns are seen from the road on the property of Davis Dimock and Victoria Weber, who died in a house fire at their Bethel home, early Tuesday morning. Dimock created art from the stone, wood and soil, and found objects on his land, and Weber maintained gardens around the property. Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News
Dimock and Weber became a couple in the 1970s and lived in a small structure on the Dimock family’s 270-acre property on Christian Hill Road. Dimock’s parents were still living in the big brick house. It wasn’t until 10 or 15 years ago that the two were married, said Mary Pavone, a longtime friend of the couple.
The wedding was “a very non-event,” Pavone said. “They just did it.”
Both Dimock and Weber were known for their stewardship of the land they lived on. Weber, who worked for many years as a librarian at Vermont Law School, was an avid gardener and herbalist, Pavone said.
“She and I and others here on Christian Hill spent hours every summer pulling up invasive plants,” Robert Vaillancourt, a neighbor, said Tuesday.
Dimock was known for his art installations, arrangements of stone and other materials, visible from the road where it passed through their property. Pavone said they were both healthy and young for their years and looked forward to many more years together.
“I’m just so shocked and sad,” she said.
It’s unclear whether there are any family members who survive the couple. Maurice “Mo” Brigham is the stepson of Dimock’s late sister, Marianne Brigham, and a neighbor of Dimock and Weber.
“I don’t even know who’s writing an obituary for him,” he said Tuesday.
Bethel Fire Chief David Aldrighetti said the house did not appear to have any working smoke detectors. He urged the public to make sure their homes have detectors and that those detectors are working properly and have fresh batteries in them.
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https://www.ourherald.com/articles/victoria-weber/
Victoria Weber
| December 29, 2022
Bethel—Victoria Weber died unexpectedly on December 13, 2022 in Bethel, at the home she shared with her life-long partner and husband, Davis Dimock.
Victoria was born on December 3, 1947. She graduated from Abbott Academy in Massachusetts, received a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College in California, and a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College in Massachusetts.
After graduation, she became a law librarian at Vermont Law School in South Royalton for 27 years. In that role, she moved through several positions, with her favorite being Environmental Reference Librarian, which allowed her to create a special collection and to train people to access environmental information in its many different formats.
While attending college in California, she met Davis. They settled together on Davis’ family’s land in Bethel in the early 1970s and were married in 2010.
Victoria retired in the early 2000s. Retirement gave her time to pursue her interests in community affairs, gardening, and herbal medicines. She was active in helping restore the Bethel Town Hall building and in writing the Bethel Operator’s Manual.
Victoria was a committed member of the Hardy Plant Club of Northern Vermont. She was devoted to respecting and caring for the earth, particularly the land on which she and Davis lived and loved. She touched so many lives by generously sharing her time, talents, and knowledge.
Victoria is survived by her sister, Jan Porter Weber.
In keeping with her wishes, no service is planned. A celebration of her and Davis’ lives is anticipated in the spring. For those who wish, contributions may be made to an organization of the Town of Bethel.
The Day Funeral Home in Randolph is assisting with arrangements.
https://www.ourherald.com/articles/in-memory-of-victoria-and-davis/
Memory of Victoria and Davis
Our neighborhood has lost an amazingly creative couple. Victoria Weber and Davis Dimock were landscape artists in the true sense. If you never had the pleasure of driving by or even better, walking by their home on Christian Hill in Bethel, you have missed something extraordinary. They saw their surroundings as a canvas where they created a three-dimensional picture. Their art work was always changing. Every time I passed by their place, I had to go ever so slowly to look for changes since the last time I checked.
To me, Davis was all about balance and the use of nature and found items to create the balance. His “little people,” made by balancing stones on top of each other, were spread throughout the property. Sometimes they gathered together in one spot. I would imagine and wonder what they were talking about and where would they show up next.
Looking around you could find big balls made of intwined grape vine, wagon wheels, and spokes of wagon wheels swinging from a tree. I especially liked his use of long white birch logs leaning against other trees. As the light shown through the trees, the black design on the birch stood out beautifully. Each time I drove by I thought about Davis and wondered how he planned what to do each day. What did he see that the rest of us didn’t see? What was he planning next?
The structures Davis created were softened by Victoria’s flowers. Her use of color and texture was amazing. The picture changed as the flowers changed. As the blossoms matured and fell off another variety of blossoms appeared.
Victoria was very much concerned about invasive plants. She worked diligently to inform people about the harm the invasive species were doing to our native species. She studied and shared ways to get rid of the invasive plants.
I will miss our neighbors. They were very special people who brought us so much to enjoy. I will miss their creativity, the changes, and come February, I will miss the hearts in the windows.
In memory of this special couple, let us slow down, see the beauty in our surroundings and be grateful, and let that give us peace.
Linda Sivret
Randolph Center/Bethel
Picture Gallery
