ATHOL — For Michael Adams, being involved with the Athol Historical Society is something of a family tradition.

As a child, he would spend time in the society’s museum with his twin brother Richard and great-grand mother, Libby Cooke. Adams’ Great grand- parents Howard and Libby Cooke were founding members of the society and Howard served as its first president. His aunt, Susannah Whipps, has been president for the last two decades.

Now, it’s Adams’ turn to take the big seat, as he was recently chosen to be the society’s newest president.

“I think institutions like the Athol Historical Society are important institutions—they don’t just capture the joys and success of our community, but they hold the memories and honor the sons and daughters who fought in war, including those who lost their lives, and who all returned as heroes,” he said. “We can show what it looks like for a community to come together and rebuild after floods, blizzards and fire. There are images we often see on TV and think how do they overcome this complete devastation and we did, for example, during the flood of 1936...history allows us to see the resilience of our community.”

Adams grew up in Athol, graduating Athol High School in 2001. At 18, Adams moved to New York City to study Interior Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After graduating he lived and worked in New York City up until the pandemic, then moved back to Royalston with his husband, Joseph Liebman.

Much work has been done at the society prior to Adams being the new president. In the past 20 years, he said members have done a complete restoration of the exterior building and the surrounding grounds. This year, he said, they painted, completely rebuilt and restored the chimneys and removed and replanted new trees.

Adams said he has several goals for the Athol Historical Society under his presidency—among them is to increase community engagement.

“I want to increase community engagement and while maintaining the staple annual events like the bird and wildlife show, with my fellow board members, come up with additional programming that might appeal to broader range of community members,” he said.

Another goal of his is to continue to digitize the historical collection at the museum and make it available on-line.

“We are currently digitizing photographs, film and recordings and are hopeful that one day anyone in any part of the world can access this information,” said Adams. “I want to continue that work and make that history available to the public. I think there is a lot we can do digitally that can help us share our documents, expand our reach with social media platforms and actively engage the community so people know or building may be closed but the society is always open and available.”

Adams is hoping to spend the winter working with the board of directors to develop a strategic plan with end goals.

“Every successful endeavor, before it’s begun, knows what the end looks like. Knowing what our goals are will help us in making strategic, thoughtful decisions and ensure people’s donation of time is used wisely with the end goal plan in mind,” he said. “A goal of mine is to get 100 new life members in the year of 2024 and do some experimental programming to see what sticks and might be successful as future events, attracting more community members and help with fundraising,”

Prior to coming to Athol, Adams had been a member of the Brooklyn Historical Society from 2010-2019 and a member of their board of trustees from 2014-2018, overseeing several fundraising events. The events he designed and chaired over nine years raised over $3,000,000.00. These events included an annual library dinner as well as an annual fall gala.

“The (Brooklyn) society building was a landmark inside and out and has the most beautiful library,” Adams said. “It was such an honor to serve on the board and I hope to bring those experiences to the Athol Historical Society.”