Meet The Committee
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Joe formed and now chairs the committee at the Selectmen's request. He is a past West Stockbridge Selectman, and is Clerk of the Zoning Board of Appeals. He is also clerk of the West Stockbridge Village Association and is active in producing the West Stockbridge Brochure. Joe is a second generation West Stockbridge native who loves our town's history and is excited about its future!
A lifelong West Stockbridge resident, Steve, the committee clerk, is a Software Engineering Director who owns and operates a small farmhouse Winery & Apiary on the edge of town with his wife and young son. Steve brings unique, technology-minded insights and a family oriented perspective to the committee.
Bill Barth, co-chair of the committee, began his career in aerospace, developing software for submarine sonar arrays and classified projects too secret to detail. He designed and managed flight-testing systems for the F-14 Tomcat and the Apollo Moon Lander Project. His signature is inscribed, along with the signatures of his colleagues, on gold foil wrapped around the leg of the lunar lander on the moon.
In financial services and banking, Bill managed systems and database organizations and technology planning. In his own consulting company, BB Intelligent Consulting, he developed database-driven systems for wealth management and securities firms.
Born and schooled in New York City at Stuyvesant High School and City College, he spent 20 years in Northern California, where he met and married Jayne. They moved together across the country to West Stockbridge five years ago, where Bill created a start-up, HelpCallBill, to offer technical support to small businesses in the Berkshires.
Doane Perry was a teacher, anthropologist, telecommunications analyst, marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corporation, and Bed and Breakfast host, before he came to live in West Stockbridge. Doane wrote for the Local Yokel for five years reporting on the Select Board. He has been on the Cable Commission and on the Select Board. He lives with his wife Karen Carmean in the house his parents built in 1962 in West Stockbridge.
Frank and his wife, Miki, have called West Stockbridge home for some thirty years. Besides having been on the faculty of a number of universities, a member of the senior management of Mount Sinai Medical Center, founder of INKEF, a Dutch venture capital firm, he has had a long standing interest in economic development. In the past, he has served as an advisor to the White House on health care as well as the Dutch government on entrepreneurship. He was President of Pete Seeger’s Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Frank looks forward to contributing to the continuing vitality of our dynamic and welcoming town.
Carter, Member Emeritus, and his wife Carol moved to Water Street in the Williamsville section in 1998. Before that they lived for 34 years in Richmond, MA. He grew up in the Manhattan West Side where he and Carol raised their family until they moved full time to the Berkshires in 1976. Carter has been involved with many Town and not for profit organizations. He was Vice President for Administration and Finance at the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. He was a business consultant specializing in computer based financial planning. He is presently on the following Boards: The Mount, Berkshire Montessori School, West Stockbridge Historical Society and BFAIR. Among the many community government services he has been involved with, the [partial] list includes the Richmond Finance Committee, the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and the West Stockbridge Downtown Revitalization Committee. He claims that he is not retired - he just doesn’t get paid any more.
Champika and their partner Robin moved to West Stockbridge in 2021 in search of a first house and a welcoming community to call home. Champika holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and an MSc from the MIT Media Lab. Champika has spent the last 20+ years building technology for learning, creating and connecting. They are one of the co-creators of the Scratch programming language and online community. Currently, they lead the Data Futures Lab at the Mozilla Foundation. When not working on their house, you can usually find Champika at the West Stockbridge Library or the Berkshire South swimming pool. Champika is honored to be able to join and contribute to such a wonderful community.
Thom moved to West Stockbridge in 1976. He was a faculty member in music at Simon’s Rock for 13 years until 1985, when he started his own business Thom Lipiczky General Contracting & Design. He worked as a builder and remodeler throughout the Berkshires until 2016, when he “retired.” He still does design work and consulting, and writes a monthly column (On the Home Front) in the Local Yokel. He is also an active member of the Berkshire Woodworking Guild, making furniture from his shop at the house he designed and built in 2019. His wife Anne Lesser is a copy editor for medical journals and an avid gardener.
An oil painter, Karen was president of the Guild of Berkshire Artists. Karen loves the peace & natural beauty of West Stockbridge and the many opportunities for engaging conversations in galleries, cafes, stores, & the post office with the people of our town. She enjoys listening to the dreams of the people and supporting them with sustainable systems. Climate, low income housing, universal health care, high speed internet, educational opportunities, diversity and pedestrian access are part of her vision for the future. She has led tree walks and made a map of trees in the center of West Stockbridge and also set up a talk on protection of water in town.