Meet Your Neighbor
Dick Veinote
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Date of birth June 15, 1928

Likes most about Nantucket That islanders look out for fellow islanders.

Likes least about Nantucket People who come to Nantucket and are in such a hurry they don't keep 'island time.'

Favorite TV shows Any sports. Dick Veinote knows that some people he has met in his time here view him as a bit of a curmudgeon. Actually, he is an old softie and loving family man whose favorite subjects to talk about are his daughter, son and wife of 56 years this May, Ellen.

Born and raised in Medford, Mass., Veinote was a talented athlete, serving as captain of his school's hockey and soccer teams as well as playing varsity baseball. The day after high school graduation in 1945 Veinote enlisted in the U.S. Navy. That was when the draft was in effect and he decided to get his duty out of the way before he settled into a lifestyle that would not be disrupted.

He was stationed in Maryland and Texas and when he was discharged after three years of service he returned to Medford and became involved again with hockey, joining a men's team and being invited to participate in the semipro Boston Olympics games before the team disbanded due to the Korean War.

Next, Veinote spent five years with Connecticut-based Fafnir Ball Bearing working as office manager in the company's Cambridge, Mass. warehouse. He did an assortment of odd jobs after that, then was hired by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority where he remained for 30 years until his retirement in 1994.

Along the way, of course, he met Ellen, which Veinote describes as "a sweet story." Veinote's aunt rented the first floor apartment in Ellen's mother's house in Medford, and Veinote's mother frequently wheeled her youngster to pay a visit to her sister. Veinote and Ellen were just four years old when they met, but it appears to have been love at first sight since they remained close until they wed 56 years ago in May.

In 1954 their son Bill was born, who is now an episcopal minister, and in 1955 they welcomed Jeannine who is an elementary school principal. Both children, who have three and four children of their own, respectively, live in Connecticut and maintain close ties with their parents. Veinote is proud that he and his wife were able to pay for their children's college educations and that they have made good lives for themselves and their families.

The Veinotes first came to Nantucket on a day trip in 1980, then spent his vacations here for the following two years, staying in Mrs. Thurston's cottage on Surfside Road. In 1984, realizing how fond they were of the island, they bought the home they own today, using it initially for vacations until they moved permanently to the island.

Veinote's first Nantucket job was with Winthrop Management. Of the five years he was with the company, he spent one year as a gardener at The White Elephant then four years as gateman at Straight Wharf where it leads to the Hy-Line dock, keeping the area clean and preventing traffic from entering there when boats were loading and unloading. He was not everyone's favorite personality at the time.

"I was known as the hard ass," he said with a smirk. "I made a lot of friends but I made some enemies. I took the job seriously."

Veinote left Winthrop four years ago to work for Island Tours, owned by the Hy-Line, selling tickets and assisting passengers onto the tour buses. He has never driven one.

"I wouldn't dare drive a bus. People would be scared," he said.

Veinote remains with Island Tours on a schedule from April through October. While he likes to garden, read sports magazines, read newspapers in the Surfside Beach parking lot and visit the Hy-Line office each day, which he calls his "hangout with the girls," he said, "I'm dying to go back to work" and looks forward to the spring season.

More importantly, however, is the one routine Veinote never skips. His wife Ellen has been in Our Island Home for three years. Without fail, he spends every lunch hour there with her, if not longer, because she is truly the love of his life.

"I never miss a day going down to see Ellen at the nursing home," he said, sitting at the table where the couple used to share meals. "I only wish more people would go there to visit the people who are lonely. I can't praise the people at the home enough. I am just so thankful I am in Nantucket and there is a nursing home available so I don't have to leave here and I'm near my

wife at all times." I