Braintree Loses a Treasure(r)
At Property Tax Time
By Sandy Cooch

Braintree residents lost a neighbor and their town treasurer Monday, when Stephen Hislop died at his Braintree home after an illness.

"He was an amazing man," said Braintree Town Clerk Linda Michalek, who has been working at the town offices with Hislop for the past year.

"He would be so sick, and then he’d just bounce back," Michalek noted. "He loved his job."

"I guess that was the toughest part of his death on Monday," she continued. "I guess I was thinking he’d just bounce back again—he had done it so many times before."

With the town in the midst of collecting property taxes and heading into budget and town report preparations, it is an especially difficult time to lose a key member of the municipal team.

Michalek is not only Braintree’s town clerk, but also the administrative assistant to the selectboard. She, along with Asst. Town Clerk/Treasurer Mary Stephen and Asst. Town Clerk and Lister Richard Bowen, are now extra busy, tackling Hislop’s duties, including processing tax payments.

"Today, we made a deposit of over $75,000," she said Tuesday. "I guess he wasn’t well, and checks were piling up a bit."

Hislop did most all of the treasurer’s job himself, with little assistance except when he went on vacations with his wife Bobbi. Now, Michalek and the others are also working at "getting into the computer and finding out how things were done," she added.

His wife, Bobbi, has also served as an assistant town treasurer, but, of course, is not available to help just now, Michalek indicated.

"I ask for patience, even for town clerk things," she said this week. "I’m doing all the pieces and feeling overwhelmed."

Former Braintree Selectboard member Elaine Stockwell this week remembered Hislop as a "very likeable, very intelligent person—he was a person who cared. And he always did a good job."

"I really believe he cared about our little town," Stockwell said.

Hislop always had time to help out and time to listen to others—"unless there was a good football game going," she added.

"He was a fun person. You didn’t often hear him say bad things about anybody—but, if he had something to say, he said it. If he needed to come head-to-head with you, he did."

Michalek said Tuesday that the selectboard canceled its Tuesday night meeting, because of calling hours for Hislop. That meeting has been rescheduled to next Tuesday, and the board may convene an emergency meeting before then to consider options for appointing an interim treasurer.

An obituary for Hislop appears in the B-section of this week’s Herald.

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