By Blox Content Management

Copyright berkshireeagle

To the editor: Harry Garrett (1937-2025), a longtime resident of Mount Washington, passed early this month.

His obituary refers to a poem Harry wrote, titled “The Boy and the Mountain Man,” the boy being Harry when his family first visited Mount Washington in the 1940s, and the mountain man being Merve Beckwith, who would later become Harry’s father-in-law. After recounting memories of their encounters, Harry wrote: “Maybe the boy, now older, has moved some young boy to become a mountain man.”

I, a forester, first met Harry in the 1980s when he was logging for Borgnis & Son Lumber Company on a client’s land. He was notably pleasant and outgoing and began an engaging conversation, showing genuine interest in my responses. I took an instant liking to him. Over time, as we worked together on other projects, I learned that this was his trademark, and that he would never fail to express his gratitude for the opportunity to work in the woods and to meet others who did as well.

Through years of interactions, I also learned that Harry was distinctively selfless — a giver in the truest sense — and demonstrated a remarkable work ethic. He once told me that he might have lacked patience as a young person but was guided by words that his mother lived by: patience, perseverance and prayer.

Harry was an icon of Mount Washington (aka “the mountain”), involved in the town’s workings, the annual Church Fair and the Van der Smissen Memorial Park. He was absent from the fair this summer, but his truckload of firewood was there for the raffle, his granddaughter Ava hosted as the new fair chairperson and other Garrett family members worked stations or contributed in other ways.

For certain, Harry has moved more than one young person to become a mountain person. The town will remain a mystical place, strengthened and inspired by memories of Harry and reinforced by his legacy of family — the circle of life, as he described it.

Peter W. Tucker, Alford