Helen moved to Dorchester from Plaster Rock with her parents, Fredand Marion Petchey and sister Dorcas,graduating from Dorchester Superior

School in 1939. She holds two degrees in Arts and Education from UNB; as a BeaverbrookScholar, she completed a

Certificate in Education at LondonUniversity in 1959-60.Upon retirement as an inspirational

teacher and librarian in Saint John areaschools, she moved to Sackville, whereas a Life Member of the WestmorlandHistorical Society, she embarked on asecond career as an author.Meticulously researched and

illustrated, her 18 books preserve the history of Dorchester. She alsopresented her research at the LoyalistSociety in Saint John and at the Yorkshire 2000 symposium.

In recognition of her work she received the American Association for State and Local History Award for Excellence (1993), the Key to the Village of Dorchester (2001)and the Dorchester Memorial Library Literary Award (2011).In 2013 she moved to Quispamsis

carrying with her fond memories of her beloved Shiretown.

Bibliographye Parish Church at Dorchester Corner, 1982

In Praise of the Trinity, 1983

About Christmas, 1984

The Dorchester Gilberts, 1987

John Francis Teed, Dorchester’s Master Builder, 1989

e Palmer Brothers in the Chignecto,1990

St. Paul’s Needlework Society, 1866-1991, 1990

e Dorchester Chapmans – A Shiretown Saga, 1991

A Southern Odyssey in Search of a Friend, 1992

e Hickmans of Dorchester’s Heyday,1992

Grindstone Island, 1994

e Brothers Weldon, 1995

Chandler of Rocklyn, 1996

Signal Sea Changes, 1997

Dorchester’s Doctors, 1998

A Legacy of Music in the Chignecto,1999

e Guard Row, 2002

Two From Amherst, 2005

Helen M. Petchey, B.A., B.Ed.University of New Brunswick

2014