stuart rochester (1946-2009) (updated)

Stuart Rochester at a community meeting at Blake High School last summer.

Update: click here for coverage from the Gazette; fellow civic activist Cary Lamari remembers Stuart Rochester on Maryland Politics Watch.

I just received word that Stuart Rochester, Fairland resident and long-time civic activist, passed away yesterday after a long battle with melanoma. He was . . . well, I don't know old he was, and maybe someone can help me with that. Stuart and I disagreed on a lot of things, but unlike a lot of people I've met and written about here, I knew he was good for an intelligent, spirited debate. He was a compelling speaker, articulate and knowledgable, and always courteous to me, even when we clashed.

Stuart was the most outspoken activist for eastern Montgomery County, fighting to preserve the 1997 Fairland Master Plan, which he had been instrumental in creating as chairman of its Citizens Advisory Committee. If the Gazette needed a quote about something happening in Burtonsville, they called Stuart Rochester.

But if there was someone I felt was emblematic of an East County that no longer exists, it was Stuart Rochester, and I've written extensively over the past few years about how frustrating I thought his views were. But now, between the loss of Rochester and both Marilyn and Don Praisner, the only voices East County had for the past several decades have been silenced. The question now is: who will speak as loudly as Stuart Rochester once did?

My condolences go out to his family, especially his wife Shelley Rochester, a civic activist in her own right. For the death notice and information about funeral arrangements, check out The Washington Post.