Te Kimbal Farms Observer Volume 25, Number 10 Season’s Greetings! December 2016 It’s Auld Lang Syne Time for Dolly A Seamless Transition Marketing Director Ending Provided by Melissa a 23-Year Kimball Run Melissa Metcalf, newly appointed Kimball Farms “I leave Kimball Farms with a heavy heart,” Marketing Director, is no stranger to most of us, confessed Dolly Curletti, Director of Marketing who, having served as Dolly Curletti's capable assistant after 23 years of dedicated service, has decided to for over four years. She is a native and lifelong retire at the end of this year. She is proud of her resident of Berkshire County and a graduate of local accomplishments here, one of which is her assistance schools. Her father, an entrepreneur involved in a in opening PineHill. variety of enterprises, Dolly’s path to Kimball Farms put Melissa in charge of was a circuitous one. She was Pietro's, an Italian born and raised in Pittsfield. restaurant formerly in When Pittsfield General and Lee. (One of the people St. Luke’s Hospital merged she hired became her and became Berkshire Medical husband, Will.) Center, she became the buyer After her father’s death of medical supplies, a position the restaurant was closed she held for 10 years. A and Melissa obtained a marriage and the birth of two real estate license, sons interrupted her career working for Century 21, until she was divorced and for which she managed went back to work at BMC as three offices with a 15- the Administrative Assistant to person staff. She the President of the hospital. continues to maintain her Melissa and Dolly confer The hospital, now part of license and remains Berkshire Health System, active in the field. She is still on call at Canyon necessitated twice a week calls to Kimball Farms, Ranch, for which she had worked in Reception. which was being built, to report on “start-up” sales. When the real estate market slowed down, she “Little did I know I’d be working at Kimball Farms looked for another job and saw the listing for an in the future,” she recalled. opening at Kimball Farms. With her background and She left BMC to open a candy store in experience, she was a “natural.” Williamstown, “Goodies,” followed by a second in As Dolly's assistant she has done an outstanding job. Pittsfield, which she operated for four years. As an Dolly was a great mentor and trained Melissa in all avid sewer, her next entrepreneurial adventure was aspects of the work.Theirs was an ideal partnership conducted from her home; custom curtains and and they worked seamlessly together. Melissa loves draperies. She continually enrolled in marketing her job and the challenges it poses, working with courses at Berkshire Community College, after prospective residents, assessing their needs and which she was hired by Kimball Farms. (continued on page 2) (continued on page 2) 2 The Kimball Farms Observer December 2016 (Melissa, continued from page 1) (Dolly, continued from page 1) determining the best options for each applicant. She While Dolly was employed at BMC she became knows that transitions are not easy and tries to make reacquainted with her now husband of 31 years, Dr. the changes as painless as possible. She loves the Eugene Curletti, a general and vascular surgeon. Dr. warm environment at Kimball Farms and the Curletti brought three boys from a previous marriage teamwork among the various departments. to the family, which consisted now of a 15-year-old, She sees the target market for Kimball Farms two 7-year-olds and two 9-year-olds. While Dolly changing and with it new approaches to marketing. and Gene grew up in the same neighborhood and More second home owners are deciding to make went to elementary school together, they attended Kimball Farms their retirement home and more separate high schools, Dolly to St. Joe’s and Gene to children are considering placement for their Pittsfield High, and really didn’t see each other at the parents. She appreciates the challenge of keeping up time. A dinner date after they finally became re- occupancy of the 224 units making up the Walker acquainted at the hospital was the beginning of their Street campus. life together. Biggest competition, she feels, comes from home When Dolly was asked what she planned on doing in care agencies and beneficiaries of long-term care retirement, she could barely recite her plans fast insurance. She hopes to continue and build on enough. She feels very lucky that all her sons and present strategies – running events which attract new their families live in the area, including her ten people, involving community organizations, case grandchildren, the oldest being 12. She loves to managers at hospitals, clubs etc. Strategies have cook and entertain and enjoys her perennial and changed; there is less emphasis on print advertising vegetable garden, weather permitting. An avid and more use of social media and digital means. knitter, she travels to conventions for knitters and hopes to teach the craft. And probably not lastly, she With her busy work schedule, this high-energy new intends to take piano lessons again, an instrument Marketing Director still finds time for outside she studied as a child. activities. She resides with her husband in Lenox, together with her youngest son, 22, who is an Dolly is pleased that she is leaving the Kimball electrician, and two gorgeous Dobermans. Her Farms Marketing Department in the very capable oldest son, 24, a mechanic, lives nearby. A favorite hands of Melissa Scarafoni Metcalf, Dolly’s assistant pastime is hiking the Berkshire trails with their dogs for 4 1/2 years. and she enjoys the gym, especially weight lifting. We wish Dolly a fulfilling retirement and if free time Her husband, a Culinary Institute of America gets to be overwhelming, maybe a quiet 9 to 5 can be graduate, is Food Services Director for Berkshire found for her at Kimball Farms. A warm thank you Life, so guess who does the cooking at home? and farewell. Another challenge and priority right now is finding a Bernie Handler replacement for her present position and she is busy interviewing applicants. Let’s hope that the successful candidate will live up to the standards of his/her predecessor. Just as Melissa was a natural for In Memoriam four-plus years in her present job, she is a natural now to follow in Dolly's footsteps. We know that she William Simons will do well and continue to be the friendly and March 13, 1928 to Nov. 4, 2016 welcoming face of Kimball Farms. Congratulations and best wishes to Melissa on this Grace Johnson new step in her life. August 17, 1918 to Nov. 5, 2016 Margot Yondorf December 2016 The Kimball Farms Observer 3 The “Pussycat” Who Lived amid Spies Kissa Guilsher’s given name is Catherine, but she worked as a linguist for the American Consul in prefers “Kissa” (pronounced KEY-sa), a shortened Belgrade as well as the local office of the United version of the Russian word for “pussycat,” and the Nations. affectionate name she was called by her Her parents put all the family’s furniture and grandmother. possessions out on the street for sale and used the Kissa’s family story reads like a novel, with money to buy jewelry to take with them as they desperate escapes, deportations, refugee camps, became refugees again. The jewelry was sewn into statelessness and spy adventures. The story begins in the belly of Kissa’s teddy bear, and she had strict Russia. After the revolution against the czar in 1917, instructions to hold the bear in a very firm grip. The both her father’s and mother’s families, who were ruse was effective, Kissa says, although the bear still descended from Russian nobility, fled Russia, her has a scar. Of course, the bear is a star among her mother from St. Petersburg to their estates in Crimea possessions. and her father, an officer in one of the czar’s Refugee camps were opened in Germany but quickly regiments, to filled as thousands fled in the chaos. The family was Poland. among the first arrivals at a new Anglo-American As the revolution camp in Trieste, Italy. The camp was a former spread across the German-Italian crematorium, The family lived in one country, it was room with two bunk beds, a tiny table, two chairs clear that they and a window with a view of the crematorium’s oven h a d t o f l e e , for a year and a half while they waited for sponsors leaving estates, and entry visas for the United States, which finally w e a l t h a n d arrived in December 1951. everything else During their time in the refugee camp, Kissa, who b e h i n d . was already fluent in Russian, French, Serbo- Eventually both Croation and German, studied English and Italian, of her parents and surprisingly, ballet, which she had always with thousands preferred to formal schooling. Among the refugees in of other refugees Trieste were her former teacher and the prima w e n t t o ballerina of the Belgrade ballet, also exiled because B e l g r a d e , Kissa with her teddybear she was Russian. Yu g o s l a v i a , where they were welcomed by King Alexander I. The family was sponsored by a couple on Long Soon after they settled in, Kissa’s parents met and Island, and they arrived in the United States in twins were born: Kissa and Marian.