Happy Birthday, Janet Wilder Dakin!
Dakin Humane Society: Janet Wilder Dakin — Life well Lived
By Lee Chambers | Dakin Human Society
Originally published on MassLive.com
Isabel Wilder, left, and Janet Wilder-Dakin, sisters of Thornton Wilder, at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival's American professional premiere of their brother's last full-length play, "The Alcestiad." (James F. Gayle / The Plain Dealer)
For many people, the woman for whom Dakin Humane Society was named is a mysterious figure. Born in 1910 to a distinguished family (one sibling was author Thornton Wilder; another was poet Charlotte Wilder), Janet Wilder Dakin earned a Masters in zoology from Mount Holyoke College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, worked with the League of Women Voters, advocated for conservation and was an avid gardener.
In 1982 her passion for animals led her to become the founding member and first president of The Friends of Amherst’s Stray Animals (FASA). “Amherst is organized in every possible way, but it had no humane society and vast numbers of animals,” she said at that time. FASA provided coupons worth $20 toward the cost of spay/neuter surgery for Amherst pets, and Janet worked on a state-wide effort to protect animals from laboratory cruelty.
FASA evolved over time to become the Dakin Animal Shelter, and eventually Dakin Humane Society. Janet’s mission to help animals has resulted in hundreds of thousands of pets being rescued and adopted, and over 85,000 being spayed or neutered at Dakin’s Community Clinic.
Her achievements yielded lots of press clippings, but Amherst resident and Dakin volunteer Carole DeMetre remembers a woman who was delightfully complex, forthright and very human.
“I met Janet when she was 79,” recalled Carole. “She had injured her shoulder. I was a personal trainer, and the goal was to get her back in action.”
Carole’s new client was a handful. “She really enjoyed sitting and resting, and I had to nudge her to get her going, even from room to room in her house. We’d be walking from her living room to the kitchen and she’d ask if she could have a cigarette on the way. That was a ‘no,’” Carole chuckled.
“She had two pets at that time, a spaniel named Jolly Roger and a cat named Tinkerbell. Their white fur covered you, and I was always dressed in black. Janet chastised me for wearing the wrong color.” Janet had opinions about other colors too. According to Carole, “She had a beautiful garden, but she never grew pink flowers. She felt the color pink was just too sentimental.
After finishing school, Janet returned to Mount Holyoke to teach zoology. She retired after marrying lawyer Winthrop Dakin, then turned a very focused eye on community concerns. Her work led her to be named the first chairperson of the Blue Start Highway, a Route 1 beautification project. She was a charter member of the Amherst Conservation Commission from 1962-1974, and in 1970, Janet founded and served as Executive Director of the Kestrel Trust, a private land trust that acquired land for conservation purposes. This is just a partial list of her accolades.
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Dakin Humane Society, and the 25th anniversary of the passing of Janet Dakin. Five years after beginning her work with Carole, Janet was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her disease progressed quickly and claimed her in 1994. Janet donated her home to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It is now known as the Renaissance Center, and as a tribute to Janet’s love of animals, the original cat door leading to the basement is still in place.
After FASA’s humble beginnings in 1982, what does Carole think Janet would say about the humane organization that now bears her name? “Oh, I think she’d be impressed and so proud. This is probably far bigger than she ever imagined it could be.”
Lee Chambers is marketing and communications manager of the Dakin Humane Society. Dakin delivers effective, innovative services to animals in need and the people who care about them.