Thanks to the efforts of Ron Janard, Director of the United States Lightship Museum Nantucket LV-112, the first and longest serving Commissioner of Lighthouses of the U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses, more commonly known as the U.S. Lighthouse Service, George Rockwell Putnam, has been honored with the placement of United States Light House Service marker at his gravesite at the Maple Hill Cemetery in Dorset, Vermont.
George Rockwell Putnam (1865-1953), who served as the Commissioner from 1910 to 1935, is without question the most important and influential person in United States Lighthouse history. After his retirement, George Putnam settled a long way from politics of Washington, D.C. to the peaceful settings of Vermont
Because of its location and long way from “lighthouse territory,” it would have been extremely costly and difficult to arrange a large public ceremony for the marker’s placement. But, finally, after 81 years since his retirement, and 63 years since his death, George Putnam has been honored with a plaque of the organization that he devoted so many years of his life to for the benefit of all.
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