‘Jack’ Atwood, 85, former owner of Chester Dairies, remembered for his sense of humor

Eu­gene R. “Jack” At­wood, 85, of Crafts­bury, died on Jan. 16, 2018, at North Coun­try Hos­pi­tal in New­port.

He was born on Bur­ton Hill in Iras­burg, on De­c. 26, 1932, the son of Roger “Red” and Nel­lie (Scott) At­wood.

He be­gan work­ing on his fam­ily farm on Bur­ton Hill. He and his father had a team of log­ging horses and logged to­gether. He was also a log scaler. He dairy farmed at and then owned Chester Dairies in Chester. He worked for St. Johns­bury Truck­ing Co. in Bel­low Falls. Then in 1974, Mr. At­wood bought the Ker­win Farm in Crafts­bury and farmed it un­der the name          At­wood’s Farm un­til he re­tired in 1999.

He was drafted into the Army 364th In­fantry dur­ing the Ko­rean War and was sta­tioned at Fort Dix. He was hon­or­ably dis­charged in 1953. He was a life­time mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Le­gion, a mem­ber of  the Grange and the Horse and Buggy Club, and he be­longed to the Union of Team­sters #597.

On April 2, 1955, he mar­ried Jeanette Brown and they cel­e­brated 60 years of mar­riage, prior to her death in 2015.

In the 1950s, Mr. At­wood was very ac­tive in the Twin State Gymkhana As­so­ci­a­tion in Al­stead, N.H. He ex­celled at eques­trian com­pe­ti­tions and won many rib­bons and tro­phies. His fa­vorite things were go­ing out to eat with his fam­ily and friends, tak­ing Jeanette out danc­ing on a Sat­ur­day night, play­ing cards, watch­ing a Red Sox or a New Eng­land Pa­tri­ots game, dri­ving a stock car (in his younger days), deer hunt­ing, and his chil­dren, grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren.

His family remembers him as an amaz­ing fa­ther, brother, friend and per­son. He had a great sense of hu­mor, loved to tell jokes, was a won­der­ful sto­ry­teller and a great one for shoot­ing the bull. He was a true one-of-a-kind Ver­mont farmer who had a unique and spe­cial per­son­al­ity. He will be greatly missed by his fam­ily and every­one who knew him.

He is sur­vived by his daugh­ter Vicki and her hus­band, Dou­glas; two sons: Eu­gene Jr., and Jeff and his wife, Di­ane; his grand­chil­dren, which in­clude Shaun, Amanda, Matthew, Tan­ner, Cody, Ethan, Kylie and Justin; and his great-grand­chil­dren: Kennedy Rose, Gun­ner, Hayleigh, Brook­lynn, Silas and Parker. He is also sur­vived by his two sis­ters Jean­nette An­der­son and Sarah Lyon; a brother Phil At­wood and his wife, Jan­ice; his aunt, un­cles, nieces, nephews, cousins and life­long fam­ily friends.

He was pre­de­ceased by his wife Jeanette, youngest son Mike, his mother and fa­ther,  brother Don­ald At­wood; niece Cheryl Trum­bull and nephews Bruce Mar­tin and Daryl Lyon.

There will be no call­ing hours. A pri­vate fam­ily grave­side ser­vice and lun­cheon will be held in the spring. He will be in­terred at the Iras­burg Ceme­tery.