Tom and Ellen Williams feted with Distinguished Service Pelletreau Award

Supporters and friends of Tom and Ellen Williams of Brookhaven Hamlet filled the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society headquarters on Bell Street Saturday evening to honor their longtime historic preservation work as they received The Robert H. Pelletreau Distinguished Service Award, instituted in 2001.

Robert Pelletreau was one of the founders of BBHM, and its first president. He was a descendent of Revolutionary War silversmith, Elias Pelletreau, and was a great preservationist himself. This award was started with seed money from the BBHS with support from the Post-Morrow Foundation and many donors who are still members today. The award consists of three parts: a certificate, the awardee’s name engraved on the silver Pelletreau bowl displayed at the BBHM, and an honorarium of $2000. 

As for their accomplishments, Ellen Williams received her master’s in art history and criticism at Stony Brook University and has always had a passion for old houses. She worked at SPLIA, now Preservation Long Island, for Barbara van Lieuw, the famed LI architectural historian. In the 1970s, she compiled “Historic Structure Forms” for Brookhaven Hamlet as well as several communities on the North Fork and Shelter Island. These were known as the “blue sheets,” and each had a photo, date of house, and architectural descriptions, which became an important record of our LI architectural history.

In the early 1980s, Virginia Brown and June Hudis requested a Historic District in Brookhaven and Ellen spearheaded that effort. She is the one who asked Arthur Danto to write an essay on Brookhaven’s sense of place and historic importance. This essay has been used by BBHS and the Post-Morrow Foundation over the years and is part of the record of the Historic District designation.

She was on the Historic District Advisory Committee for Suffolk County for 12 years. She and Tom worked on saving the Jareds Path Cemetery in the hamlet and had it fenced in and protected.

She applied for and was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Preservation League of NY for the Old Southaven Church for a Historic Structure Report and subsequent repairs, and received grants for Fire Place Park to acquire new park furniture and introduced more appropriate native plantings. Ellen was also asked to serve on the CEQ, the Council of Environmental Quality Committee of Suffolk County, for several years, specifically on the Historic Trust committee.

Tom Williams has his master’s in social work from NYU, and has meshed this professional career with his passion for conservation and preservation for many years.

He was the founding director of the Town of Brookhaven Youth Bureau and worked with them for 22 years, planning, coordinating and developing a comprehensive network of youth services. He was a social worker in the city and in Suffolk County for the Department of Social Services.

He was executive director of the Suffolk Community Council, providing advocacy for nonprofit agencies as well as educational programming.

He was the executive director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension at the Yaphank Farm, part of the national land grant college extension system, providing programming and education to agriculture and marine industries as well the local residents.

Tom was a consultant for the Economic Opportunity Council as a field instructor to social work students and was the first director of admissions for the new School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University as well as director of The Experimental College and is still serving as an adjunct instructor of field instruction.

He is chairman of the Town of Brookhaven Open Space and Farmland Acquisition Advisory Committee, having been a founding member since 1998. He also led the charge in the Carmans River Preservation Partnership, and is on the Carmans River Management Plan Performance Committee. He has been a board member and a chairman of the Peconic Land Trust since 1989. Tom has also served the Post-Morrow Foundation board since 1992 and has been their vice president for years.

For over two decades, he was on the boards of South County Library, the Brookhaven Free Library, and Suffolk Cooperative Library System. He has been on many other committees and boards and has received numerous awards from the Boys & Girls Club, the Long Island Advance, the Open Space Council and the Brookhaven Village Association Civic Engagement Award for his service to the community.