Larger than life but somehow a perfect fit for his Village of Sharon Springs, Doug Plummer, mayor since 2013, but front of the house for so much longer, died Thursday.
He was 63 .
Survivors include his husband, Garth Roberts.
And just about everyone he touched.
Walk down Main Street and it feels like he’s still there.
The corner of 20 and the Rockville Cafe. The Village Hall. The American Hotel and across the street, Klinkhart Hall and Chalybeate Park.
Around the corner, their home.
“Everyone has someone who comes into their lives…That was Doug,” said Sharon Supervisor Sandy Manko, longtime supervisor for the Town of Sharon and Mr. Plummer’s next-door neighbor in the Municipal Building.
“Doug was that person. His laughter, his kindness touched everyone he came in contact with. That’s what he meant to people. He won’t be forgotten; he belonged here. He was loved and will be missed.”
In 2014, Mr. Plummer and Mr. Roberts were named Times-Journal Stars, in part for realizing the possibility of Sharon Springs after a chance drive-through in 1990.
Two years later, they opened the Rockville, 11 years later, The American Hotel and restaurant, both remembered as the “heartbeat of Sharon Springs.”
Neighbor Patty Johnstone was one of those who nominated them for the Star.
“Doug just loved the village,” she said. “He meant something different to everyone, but we all loved him dearly. Even when he made you want to pull your hair out. He had so many components to his personality. He was larger than life. He was really larger than life.”
Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge owe their Beekman 1802 success to Mr. Plummer, Mr. Kilmer-Purcell said, calling him “literally, a force of nature. Someone who only comes along once in a lifetime. If we hadn’t stumbled across The American Hotel…we wouldn’t have moved here–and the same goes for many other businesses.”
It’s impossible to try to explain Mr. Plummer’s “vibrant, funny, and always optimistic personality,” Mr.Kilmer-Purcell said. “If you knew him, you know it could never be captured in words.
“This is a huge loss for our region. We’ll need to work three times as hard to come close to filling his shoes. His legacy is all of us.”
As deputy mayor, Denise Kelly was the straight man–woman–behind Mr. Plummer’s exuberance and sometimes not-quite realistic promises, but they worked nearly-perfectly together, she said.
“He always made it fun,” Ms. Kelly said. “The way he connected with people, his love for this community, it was genuine. That’s why it was so powerful. And in a small place like Sharon Springs, we were all able to have such an impact. Especially Doug.”
Even when the discussion wasn’t especially fun–think water and sewer and sidewalks and roads–Mr. Plummer’s role in helping the village thrive and survive was tremendous, Ms. Kelly said.
If, OK, a little fun.
“Everytime I’d bring up water and sewer he’d say ‘Are we going to talk about poop?’” Ms. Kelly said.
The first significant grant the village got came after then-Senator Jim Seward locked a half-dozen state representatives in a room and told them not to come out until they had a solution.
Today, the village is waiting to hear which of its New York Forward projects will be funded by some $2 million in grants.
“The amount of vision, the things we’ve gotten done for a village of our size…Doug made people buy into what we were trying to do,” Ms. Kelly said. “Every day I think ‘Where’s Doug?’ because there’s something I want to tell him.”
For Village Clerk Margi Neary, Mr. Plummer was magic.
“He saw the magic of Sharon Springs and made other people see it too,” she said.
“He always saw the best in people. Even when he was sick, he stayed positive. He gave people ownership in Sharon Springs. He made us want it to succeed.”