Varick Chittenden ’63, M’66
President, Grasse River Heritage Area Development Corporation ( Canton, NY)
Emeritus Professor of English, SUNY Canton

A descendant of some of the earliest settlers in the St. Lawrence Valley, Varick Chittenden holds both his bachelor’s and his first master’s degree from St. Lawrence. He taught at SUNY Canton from 1969 until 2001, when he was named emeritus professor of English. During that period he earned his second master’s degree, an M.A. in American folk culture at SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program.

In 1986 he founded Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, which he continues to serve as executive director, as a hub for the study, preservation and promotion of North Country ways of life. He has organized programs on traditional and contemporary folk art, heirloom quilts, French and Mohawk influences, food customs, front-porch music, waterfowl decoys, and many other expressions of regional folkways. Organizations ranging from local historical societies, libraries and galleries to the National Endowment for the Arts have benefited from his expertise and energy. He has published books, exhibition catalogs and articles, produced a radio series and been a grant reviewer for several organizations. He has been president of Canton’s Grasse River Heritage Area Development Corporation since 1999.