w Board - Spirits Alive at the Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine

Board

Spirits Alive is governed by a board of volunteer movers and shakers that manage its finances, mission, projects, and goals. While board members present a broad spectrum experience and interests, all of them desire to protect and preserve Portland's earliest historic landscape, the Eastern Cemetery.

Janet Alexander

Vice President

Janet began volunteering at the cemetery as a member of the stone conservation team and joined the board in 2014. She also is a member of the MOCA and AGS. When not quilting or testing recipes for Milk Street and America’s Test Kitchen, she works to keep the efforts of Spirits Alive and the City of Portland aligned, attempts to coordinate board activities, heads up the sponsorship program, and frequently scurries into Eastern Cemetery with co-conservator and husband Bill Dalbec to straighten and repair stones when no one is looking.

Sarah and Adrian Astley

bio to come

Diane Brakeley

Diane joined the Spirits Alive board in 2014. Diane manages our publicity and joins conservation efforts whenever that involves digging in the dirt. She is a member of MOCA and AGS as well as several genealogy groups. Diane is also an artist who creates found-object jewelry and loves to sew.

Holly Doggett

Holly is a founding member of the Spirits Alive board and has volunteered at the cemetery since a workday in the spring of 2006. She manages the Spirits Alive website (when you email Spirits Alive, she gets it!) She sometimes posts to the Spirits Alive Instagram—specializing in grave stone pictures, even from other cemeteries. She also oversees the Sprits Alive Stone Survey project and the Flickr site.

Penelope Hamblin

Secretary

Penelope first passed through the Eastern Cemetery gates in 2018 during a site visit with the Portland History Docents program. Pete Weigel led the would-be docents on a wonderful tour and also helped Penelope find the grave of her fifth-great grandfather in Section F. Penelope joined the tour program that summer, and she has been an enthusiastic guide ever since. She is a member of the Research & Education Committee, and she joined the Board in 2023. Penelope is an active volunteer with the Advocacy Committee of the League of Women Voters of Maine, where she works on voting rights issues. For fun, she researches Maine history and plays Appalachian fiddle music with the Portland Old-Time Jam.

Tom O’Hare

Tom O'Hare is a Massachusetts native who has lived in Maine since 2018. A history and philosophy graduate of McGill University in Montreal, he now works in tech.

Tom has lived and worked on both coasts and visited 42 states. He maintains an ongoing interest in American history and politics, and does his best to keep abreast of the latest in the arts and music. He brings his relentless curiosity to Spirits Alive with the hope that in preserving our history, we can avoid some of the mistakes of our forebears. Tom lives on Munjoy Hill.

Brian Kaczor

Treasurer

Brian has enjoyed walking through many old cemeteries, viewing stones, reading their messages, and finding the older ones to be the most interesting. While attending the PHD program in 2018, he was impressed by the age (established 1668) and size (7 acres) of Eastern Cemetery. An avid sea kayaker, he was impressed with the Portland Observatory's contribution to Casco Bay's history as he learned that its founder, Lemuel Moody, is buried just down the hill in Eastern Cemetery. So, after completing the PHD program, he decided to split his volunteer time between the 2 historic sites. After helping with stone conservation and photography, he joined the Research & Education Committee where he enjoys digging into the history of past Portlanders to contribute to the annual Walk Among the Shadows.

Jeff Lyons

President

Jeff became a tour guide for Spirits Alive after graduating from the PHD Program in 2019. Now he manages the tour program. With his brother Pete, he created Portland Maine Walking Tours, offering private and custom tours. A retired high school English teacher and long-time Portland resident, he investigates aspects of Portland’s history, and has offered presentations on the mast trade and Portland's rum history. Jeff lives in the Deering Highlands neighborhood with his wife Meg, their adult daughter Sadie, and two cats.

Ron Romano

Cemetery Historian

Ron joined Spirits Alive in 2013 and has volunteered in a variety of ways over the years, including serving as Treasurer, leader of the Walking Tours program, participating in conservation and landscaping efforts, and now serves as Cemetery Historian. He is author of four books, including Early Gravestones in Southern Maine and Portland’s Historic Eastern Cemetery, as well as a series of manuscripts about Eastern Cemetery. As cemetery historian he researches and responds to external questions, maintains the accuracy of Eastern Cemetery’s burial records, and promotes and supports Spirits Alive through lectures on early gravestones and tours of historic cemeteries throughout the region. Through 2024, he also served six years as Secretary on the board of trustees for the national organization the Association for Gravestone Studies. Email Ron with questions and comments.

Sierra Walker

As a lover of history and all things slightly spooky, Sierra has always loved spending time in a graveyard. She started volunteering with the conservation team when she moved to Maine in 2019, and fell in love with the Eastern Cemetery. She greatly enjoys the Saturdays she spends digging in the dirt, helping to make sure the cemetery can be enjoyed for centuries to come! A far cry from her studies in art history, she now works in insurance, but still has a penchant for all things old and beautiful. She truly appreciates all the work that is done to keep the space and the stories of the Eastern Cemetery alive, and enjoyed by visitors from near and far. When she is not in the cemetery, she is either sewing, reading, or trying to figure out a way she can do both at the same time. Sierra manages the Spirits Alive marketing program.

Peter Weigel

Pete has been a member of the board for a few years and has been participating in cemetery events for even longer. He is a faithful tour guide at the Eastern Cemetery, and also volunteers at Evergreen Cemetery. He put in 25 years at Deering High School as a special education instructor and worked in the after-school drama program. He has a vast background in theater, film, and Los Angeles television, which makes him stand out as his alter ego, Billy Hahn (an Eastern Cemetery spirit who haunts Walk Among the Shadows each year). Pete also serves on and chairs the Research & Education Committee.