Renee Garrelick; captured Concord past and present

Boston-born Ephraim Wales Bull developed the Concord grape in 1849 on his farm outside Concord. So, when the Concord post office received a letter addressed to him in recent years, it knew exactly where to forward it: They delivered it to the home of Renee (Brosell) Garrelick, who moved to Concord 34 years ago and knew so much about the town that she soon became a household name.

An author of at least three books about the history of the town she came to love, and where she was beloved, there was hardly a town committee or project that Mrs. Garrelick was not involved with.

If someone asked for the town historian, they were usually sent to her.

She conducted 300 oral histories over a 30-year period with Concordians from all walks of life. The histories are stored in the Concord Free Public Library.

Mrs. Garrelick died Tuesday at Concord's Emerson Hospital following a heart attack she suffered several days , her family said. She was 64.

"Renee was a wonderful woman who touched everyone in town," said Peter Orlando, who was in one of her Concord books because he was at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion in World War II. "She brought me into the history books. For her books, she went into all the nooks and crannies and the little minutiae that people don't pass along. Renee was like the fabric of the town. She held it together."

She was also a delightful person, he said. "She was a peach. She spoke quietly and always made a point."

Mrs. Garrelick's interests in Concord ranged from its agricultural past to its war veterans to the modern day -- both in the more exclusive Concord and its sister neighborhood of West Concord.

"Renee was very outgoing and passionate about the projects she became involved with," said Concord Town Moderator Christopher Whelan. "She had a wide variety of interests and made connections with people on every level."

Fifteen years ago, he said, Mrs. Garrelick helped start the Concord Business Partnership, "something similar to a Chamber of Commerce," and became its administrative assistant.

"Renee was my link to the business community in Concord," said state Representative Corey Atkins, who recalled awarding many citations to Mrs. Garrelick. "Renee was into all activities that affected the life of the community."

"Her goal was always to participate and to make things better. She was a good explainer, and you could agree to disagree on any topic," she said. "Renee did so many things for the town. Her books and oral histories will outlast her."

Mrs. Garrelick's husband, Joel, recalled how when they first came to Concord in 1972 from New York, his wife "started writing for the Concord Journal and fell in love with the town and its people. Renee was struck by its reputation as an old, conservative, well-to-do town, but she found a humanity, textures, stories, and neighborhoods which she didn't think had been acknowledged."

In 1985, in commemoration of its 350th birthday, Mrs. Garrelick co-wrote the book "Concord in the Days of Strawberries and Streetcars, " an illustrated history of everyday life in Concord at the turn of the century up to World War II.

That was followed by other historical books about Concord, including "Clothier of the Assabet: The Mill and Town of Edward Carver Damon " and "On Call: A Medical Journey ," in which she wrote of past and present Concord physicians.

Mrs. Garrelick accomplished what many other women couldn't -- balancing family and work, said her daughter, Jenine Kerry McKenna of Concord. "Mom was an inspiration."

Mrs. Garrelick's son Kevin Jesse of New York City knew how his mother could multitask.

"My mother did most of her work at a desk that was just a few yards from the washer and dryer," he said. "There were no walls between her work and her life. Her books must have been written between loads of laundry. I never thought of her this way growing up because her attentions were so focused on us, but she was, I suppose, what women's magazines might call a 'superwoman.' "

Mrs. Garrelick was born and raised in the Bronx, the daughter of Murray and Anne (Berkowitz) Brosell. After graduating from high school in 1958, she attended Barnard College and Columbia Teachers College, where she received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1962 and a master's degree in education in 1963, the year she and Joel were married.

From 1963 to 1969, she taught history at Rye High School in Rye, N.Y.

Besides her husband, her son, and her daughter, Mrs. Garrelick leaves another son, Daniel Joshua of Concord, and a grandson.

At her funeral services Friday, Concord's Congregation Kerem Shalom "was jammed" with mourners from all walks of life and generations, according to Orlando. It proved, he said, how much Mrs. Garrelick had "impacted the town."

Burial was in Concord's historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery .