Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home opens in Millerton

MILLERTON — For almost a year, since the Valentine Funeral Home on Park Avenue closed in February 2011, Millerton was without a funeral home of its own. That changed on Jan. 1 when Scott Conklin opened a new funeral home in the former Valentine space, as the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home. Conklin knows the area and the business well. He worked for 18 years as a funeral director for Larry and Katie House at the Hufcut Funeral Home in Dover Plains.Conklin said he plans to offer community members the same quality of service they received from the Valentine family, which owned and operated their funeral home here for a century.A lifelong resident of Dutchess County, Conklin (who is 38) began his career in 1993 when he entered the mortuary science program at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Since then, he has worked for Hufcut.On his birthday in March 2011, Conklin received a call from Dick Valentine, whom he knew professionally, asking if he would be interested in taking over his family’s business, which had been in operation since 1875. Conklin and his wife, Robin, were immediately interested and began the process to transfer the business.Conklin said he is pleased with the support that his former employers have offered during his transition to Millerton. He feels they are great friends, wonderful people and excellent funeral directors. He plans to continue to have a working relationship with them, supporting each other’s businesses as needed. Here in the Tri-state Region, funeral directors work cooperatively and help each other out when needed.Conklin said he has always wanted to own and operate his own funeral home. He has a professional interest in the science of the mortuary business, and he understands the importance of a gentle manner and the power of empathy when working with people at what is often a time of great sadness and stress.Conklin is there to offer support, coping skills and ideas for keeping busy in the days immediately following a death. Conklin is “always on call” through his cell phone, pager and answering service. Another aspect of availability is ensuring that the funeral home is in impeccable condition, at all times. He and his family have put much effort into updating the interior and exterior of the building. The result is a fresh, clean, warm and welcoming environment. Conklin is adding some modern technology to the business for making preparations and creating prayer cards and acknowledgment cards in-house. He also plans to launch a web page for the funeral home.Conklin’s devotion to the community and his profession is also evident in his many volunteer endeavors. He is a 22-year member of the J.H. Ketcham Hose Company in Dover Plains, serving as an interior firefighter, driver and executive officer. Professionally, he is a member of the New York State Funeral Director’s Association and the Dutchess/Putnam/Ulster County Funeral Director’s Association.Although Conklin and his wife live in Dover Plains, the new funeral director is looking forward to becoming an integral part of the Millerton community.“I want the community to have the confidence that we’re here for them, all the time. We’re just a phone call away,” he said. Call 518-592-1500.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less