What is it that makes a boy grow up to help create unique, artistic things like Phish and Bonnaroo mega music festivals, tour with Bread and Puppet, build beautiful homes all over Vermont, Burlington’s Magic Hat Artifactory and Foam Brewers interiors and a revived Camp Meade in Middlesex as an inspired gathering place for friends and neighbors? The question of whether a child is born or raised to be that person can be debated. The case is clear that it is who Russ Bennett was destined to be.
Born in Newton Massachusetts, to parents who met at Boston University where the GI bill educated his father, Russ describes his parents as “absolute givers – always working to make society better.” The influence of having served in Europe in WWII, made his father a pacifist and, as a result, toy guns were never a part of his childhood play as how could that be a good thing? He said his mom refused to take no for an answer.
Reflecting on his parents, both from different classes who melded, got educated, got married and helped build America after WWII, he marvels at this time how so many worked together and he bemoans how difficult it is to accomplish projects today.
His fondest memories are from the years they lived in Port Chester, NY, where his dad was the director of the new YMCA. They lived in two houses on the same street – the first one was small and the second a Tudor that had enough rooms and a backyard. Best of all, his street ended at Playland Amusement Park which adjoined the Long Island Sound Playland Beach. The Playland dump was his playground. He would find dismantled rides and make things like go-carts. He and his three younger sisters pestered his parents to go see the fireworks shown three times a week during the summer. He fondly recalls being in his PJs at the cyclone fence at the end of the road watching in awe.
He reveres his fourth-grade teacher who taught Shakespeare in an understandable form and had his classmates put on plays that were performed on public television. This teacher also took the class out to the parking lot and drew a map of the USA with the Mississippi River as the clear dividing line – making Russ understand America. He was a voracious reader and his home had no TV.
By his eighth grade the family had moved to Redding, CT, where he suffered the loss of so many things he had enjoyed in Port Chester including his paper route and the downtown he loved. He did not fit in and did not want to be there. High school would be redeeming allowing him some wonderful friends still very much a part of his life.
His parents were Civil Rights people and vehemently opposed the Vietnam War. He recalls his dad as a strong, silent type, who was a very good man and involved himself in social initiatives like Manpower and Early Childhood Education. When his dad was killed by a reckless driver, Russ’s world changed. He had just begun college (where he didn’t want to be). Considering himself a hippie, he left. He helped his mom, who had moved to Florida, where he did some theater. With some drumming experience he decided to move to Boston and start a rock and roll band.
By 1969, he was living in Cambridge at the height of the anti-war protests when he was drafted. He wrote to the draft board expressing all the reasons why he was a conscientious objector and why he would not serve, making them understand that yes, they could take him, but that he would be in the brig all the time. They should decide. They decided in his favor – a pretty rare finding!
In 1971, with a VW bus, he and a partner drove around the country. She had been to Vermont, and they found and rented a house in Fayston. They had tried living in New Hampshire but thought Vermont more to their liking. Russ said, “Here you are thought to be an idiot, but at least you are given the chance to prove it!” He, with no experience, worked for a small construction company and became a father. He had saved enough money and was able to stay home for months enjoying his new-parent status. Living in the small, very welcoming, working-class community, he would learn from farmers and craftsman.” There were many people who had dropped out of mainstream life and were like us,” he stated.
Finding success with construction, together with Dan Bisbee, he built NorthLand Design & Construction Inc. in 1978 in Waitsfield. It later became NorthLand Visual Design and Construction and became a vehicle for Russ to work on the artistic design side of music festivals. He responded well to Phish’s style and philosophy, and their connection led to magic.
“When you make things for people to have an experience, you shake up their reality and change perceptions. Once you add the most important ingredient – love, they get it! I believe that in many ways society clamps us down to rigid boundaries so our spiritual being suffers; a music or art experience can change that and deliver great energy and joy,” he stated.
Russ is committed to bettering society and has served in many civic roles modeling an attitude of being for things not against them – putting solutions in place, not obstacles. He recognizes people need each other and must work together to make things happen.
His focus now is the economic re-development of Middlesex adding to the businesses that are there with a day care and other endeavors. He is always seeking additional ways to bring art and music and educational programs to Camp Meade grounds in the hope of creating joy and stimulating the brains of children and adults. In his dream box, he sees getting people to be more interdependent – not “lone drivers.” He is envisioning and working toward restoring commerce and passenger train service to the historic village as it was in the 1850s and 60s.
Russ feels really lucky to have been able to do so many things including having five children, two older and three younger. He tries, in all his roles, to do his best. One thing is certain – his genius has found amazing ways to make a difference through his creativity and commitment to joy while not losing sight of the people and places that set it all in motion.
