Randolph Mourns

Jim Hutchinson, Vermont state representative and Randolph selectman. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

Jim Hutchinson

By M. D. Drysdale

The mood at the Randolph Municipal Building was somber and subdued Tuesday as town employees absorbed the news of the sudden death of one of the town’s most energetic and public citizens.

James Hutchinson, five years a Selectman (most of the time as chair), and four years a state representative, was found dead in his home Monday evening. He was 60 years old.

Neighbors had gone to the family home to check on his welfare after a telephone call from his wife Leslie, who had been attempting to call him from New Hampshire.

Hutchinson was in bed and had apparently died in his sleep. A heart attack was ruled the cause of death. Hutchinson knew he had high blood pressure but had not had a major heart problem in the past, friends said.

The Randolph town offices received telephone calls all day Tuesday, said acting Town Manager Bert Moffatt. Statements ranged from an eloquent tribute from House Speaker Gaye Symington to affectionate recollections of personal friends—of which he had many.

Many of the tributes pointed out that Hutchinson, though a public man, had never had to speak in a room where he needed a microphone. His booming voice, often inflected with an accent that betrayed his family’s seven Vermont generations, reached to every corner of every room.

His connection with Randolph was long and unique—his road was on Hutchinson Road (off Peth Road) and just up the road is the Hutchinson Cemetery, where many forebears are buried.

His parents were well known in town: His father, James "Red" Hutchinson was a dairy farmer and also one of the most active high school basketball referees in the state. His mother Isabelle taught all the advanced math courses at the high school for years—algebra, geometry, and trig, so that many students had her for four years.

After attending Franklin Technological Institute and Vermont Techical College, and serving in the U. S. Navy as a Seabee, he began a career in construction. For 20 years, his work would take him out of state during the work week, returning on weekends to his home and wife Leslie, an elementary school teacher.

Two grown children, Julia and Richard, and a sister, Linda, survive him. His son was named after Hutchinson’s much younger brother Richard, who was murdered as he slept in a National Forest campground in Colorado, a crime which was never solved.

He had a talent for operating big equipment such as cranes and also a talent for management, and eventually he set up a shingle as a safety consultant for construction companies, a business that allowed him to return to Randolph full-time.

Once back in the Green Mountain State, he dove into public affairs, being elected to the selectboard in 2003 and to the Vermont legislature the next year, joining Rep. Patsy French as Randolph’s first all-Democratic delegation to the House. In his second term in the legislature he was made a member of the Appropriations Committee, a plum assignment.

His work on the selectboard was all-encompassing. He chaired the capital budget committee and the Municipal Building Committee. It was one of his major disappointments that after years of study by that committee, a new municipal building has not yet been built.

Perhaps the activity Hutchinson loved best, however, did not take place in any office—his enormous work on behalf of Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports (VASS), which teaches handicapped people, mostly young people, to ski. Hutchinson was a legend in that organization, and its officials were in tears as they talked about him.

Jim was one of the most committed volunteers I ever met," said Erin Fernandez, the director. "You could just count on him being around. He changed so many people’s lives, he skied with probably thousands of (VASS clients) over the years."

"Bigger than life, generous as all get-out, hard-working, boundless energy, big-hearted, level-headed, honest, kind and so many other things," wrote VASS volunteer Stew Stryker of Windsor in a blog.

After stepping down as executive director, Hutchinson had taken over the job of organizing its biggest fundraiser, the 100-Mile-Run. This year’s race was just a week before Hutchinson’s death, and Stryker recalled Hutchinson working prodigiously during the event, subsisting on three hours of sleep.

VASS people were also impressed that members of Hutchinson’s family often accompanied him on his volunteer stints.

It has not been decided when or where services for Hutchinson will be held, the family said this week. Day Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements