Marion Mack Johnson had a dream, and in 1966, she was able to see it realized with the grand opening of the Jaffrey Civic Center.
Johnson, a Jaffrey native, was the oldest daughter of Harry Mack, a native of Nova Scotia who came to Jaffrey in 1902. He married Agnes Thompson, who was from Scotland, in 1904, and for 13 years he made his living as a dairy farmer. Harry and Agnes had three children, and after the youngest, Harry Jr., died in 1916 at age 3, they bought the Charles Chamberlain Farm on Gilmore Pond. They converted the farm into a summer resort, then built an addition, and in 1925 renamed it “Pine Acres.” The resort hosted many “prominent professional families” over its years of operation, including U.S. Sen. and Massachusetts Gov. Leverett Saltonstall.
Marion Mack went to Conant High School and then graduated from Keene Normal School in 1925. After graduating, she took a job at Conant High School teaching “domestic arts.” In 1928, she left Conant for a “more lucrative position” in Massachusetts. In 1929, she married Stephen Roosevelt Johnson of Brookline and Worcester, Mass. They had five sons together, and Marion said, “… most of my time for a great number of years was spent raising a family.”
Having returned to permanently reside in Jaffrey in 1960, Marion embarked on her great gift to the town: the founding of the Jaffrey-Gilmore Foundation.
The foundation’s main goal was the establishment of an “open center for activities of a cultural and historic nature for all to use and enjoy” — what would eventually become the Jaffrey Civic Center.
Johnson purchased the property and funded the design and construction of the building, with the foundation established to provide for its operation.
In 1970, Johnson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Education by Franklin Pierce College — now Franklin Pierce University — for “generous and devoted leadership and support of educational and civic programs.” The degree was in recognition of her contributions to education as a teacher, her service as a longtime member of the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board and her work establishing the Civic Center.
