Below is a link where donations can be made
in lieu of flowers for Dietrich
The following are memories about Dietrich
written by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill
I want to thank Assemblyman Cahill for getting back to me so quickly with some fond memories.
Len Bernardo
I've known Dietrich for many many years. I first met him when I was about 12. Dietrich was the first "hippie" in my neighborhood when I was a kid. He had long scraggly hair and already his trademark bushy beard, though it was quite dark in those days. His then wife, Jeannie, was a beautiful woman with long straight, I think it was blonde, hair, right out of 60's central casting. His apartment was downstairs from my brother's and around the corner from where I grew up. His house was filled with hippie posters, hippie decorations, everything that was forbidden in every other living room in the neighborhood. The clearest memory was the motorcycle he kept in that room. He told my siblings and me that it was a hat rack. Telling the other kids in the neighborhood that the hippie guy had a motorcycle for a hat rack was one of the simple oft repeated wonders of my youth.
Even if that was all there was to him, Dietrich would have been etched in my memory forever. But our paths would cross many times again in life.
After a short while, my brother Dennis and his new bride moved and so did Dietrich and Jeannie. Once the older brother connection was gone, I lost track Dietrich for a while. The next I heard of him were wild tales about him being a farmer in Central America. In fact, legend was that it was a huge plantation, not a scruffy little dirt farm. That might have had other connotations back then, but it was simply exotic to me, a kid who's big adventure up to that point was staying at my Aunt's house in the Bronx once when I was eight.
Sometime in the early 70's I recall seeing Dietrich again. He was in Rosendale by then and along with the Brothers Guldy, a key reason I have ever since felt that Rosendale was like my second home. Rosendale was a special place in the beginning of the 70's. "Rednecks" and long hairs coexisted peacefully, even happily. Dietrich was part of making that bridge between generations.
Later that decade when I was a college student, I actually got to know Dietrich even more than when I was a kid. He was dabbling in this and that and, I believe he was already with Gayle and running a business of some sort. I want to say they had a shop on Main Street and some other real estate related business, but it was so unimportant to our friendship that I never really knew. What I did know is that he shared my belief that Rosendale Village should be allowed to continue to exist. We worked on a campaign to elect "Uncle Willy" Guldy mayor and to save the village. That was a year or two before Willy ran for President of the United States. Both efforts came out in a similar way. Willy was not elected, nor was the village saved. But alliances and friendships were formed that remained forever. In addition to being a person from my youth and also an ally in a local struggle, I was also fascinated by how Dietrich crossed over from what was the youth movement to the "establishment." I'm not sure when Dietrich became a Rosendale police commissioner, but many of us took great comfort that someone from the counter culture could assume such a position of responsibility. For me, it affirmed my faith in our legal system.
Dietrich and I shared a love of politics and local history. His and Gayle's work at the Century House and in reviving interest in Rosendale Cement and our long local historical relationship with stone, cement and the like was something from which everyone in our area benefited. Their preservation of the Snyder Estate and display of precious local artifacts ranging from a private railroad, amazing carriages to priceless photographs and arcane signs and tools are not just a local treasures, but truly gifts to posterity. The sense and sensibility they imbued in our community from festivals celebrating the river, creeks, canals and towns, and through their Century House Natural News periodical, made all of our culture richer and better. I suspect that much of that will continue under the careful eye of Gayle, but even she would acknowledge that it just won't be the same without Dietrich.
Most people who I know today and who know that I was close with Dietrich think it sprang from his involvement with the Independence Party. It is true that we talked regularly about all that stuff and it is also true that Dietrich was very much responsible for me securing the Independence Party nomination in most of my campaigns for the Assembly. While I fully respected his need for party neutrality, we talked and some would say conspired to assure that good Democratic candidates had a clear shot at the endorsement, as well.
The Indy fundraising dinners were among the most interesting of all the local political rituals. Dietrich would assemble Democrats, Republicans, the occasional third party candidate and his own party faithful for a fun and delicious night in a place like the Downtown Cafe -- a far stretch from the big banquet hall dinners the more conventional parties relied upon. The tables were always decorated with some of Gayle's handiwork. The food was selected to be more a feast than a dinner. And the program was all Dietrich. He carefully choreographed who got to speak when to make sure to keep it from becoming a Democratic or Republican event. He did it with such style, most people didn't realize that it was planned confusion.
Liberal, libertarian, human, parochial and worldly are some of the words that would accurately describe Dietrich's politics. I always felt that he was a Democrat in his heart, but his mindset was purely Independence! He was a man of many admirable qualities, but there is one above all that I will treasure. Dietrich was loyal to his friends. He respected his friendships and treated them as bonds to be honored, not taken for granted and never broken.
Over the years, I watched Dietrich's scraggly hair smooth and his bushy dark beard lighten. Both took on a sheen of white that gave his appearance both the gravitas and warmth that his soul deserved.
It is not exactly fair to say I will miss Dietrich. In fact, I miss him already.
Kevin Cahill
