Amanda Bodian • Vice President

My connection to Red Hook began when I became a weekender in Milan 40 years ago and then a full timer 17 years ago. Professionally, I worked for many years in retailing in New York City, followed by having my own business selling promotional merchandise. Now, I oversee the Red Hook-Rhinebeck tourist map and manage a couple of rental properties. I am also a member of Red Hook’s Economic Development Committee. I became involved with Historic Red Hook when Claudine and Chris Klose told me about the organization and invited me to become involved. History has resonated with me from my early years. Read More.

Thea Burgess • President Emerita

Stories resonate with me as does an understanding of how people connect to the places where they live and make their lives. Historic Red Hook has both and more. I grew up in Wells Bridge, New York, in Otsego County, and the names of places around me there—Susquehanna, Unadilla, Otego, Oneonta—pointed to the history of the indigenous people on whose lands we lived. I was cognizant of that and of the links to the past via the names of streams and roads and hills and mountains, usually christened by or for the people who had settled there at some point. I majored in writing at Houghton College and worked as a weekly newspaper reporter…Read More.

Pieter Estersohn • Second Vice President

I moved to Red Hook in 2010 after looking at over 100 homes in the extended area. I wanted a counterpoint to bringing my son up as a single father in Manhattan and felt that Red Hook offered all of the qualities I was looking for. After having all of the realtors accuse me of not being serious, I fell upon our home, which was built in 1839, the year photography was invented in both France and England, and it was on a street that shared a name with my dad.  I am a photographer and author, having worked on sixty or so books on architecture, design, and travel. The present book, due out in April 2024, is called Back to the Land, A New Way of Life in the Country… Read More.

Beth Goldberg • Secretary

Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I have a strong connection to Red Hook. I have been a resident of the Red Hook community for 20 years. My husband, Steven Appenzeller, and I moved here when our children, who are now adults, were four years old. They received a wonderful education attending Red Hook schools. Initially I was interested in a business career. After attending business school at MIT, I joined Chemical Bank in New York City. Over my 20-year career, the bank merged several times. By the time I left the institution, it had been renamed JP Morgan Chase… Read More.

Sam Phelan • Treasurer

New trustee as of January 2026

Diane Goetz

In the 1940s my parents bought a grist mill in Scarsdale that had been partially turned into a home. They were attracted by the beautiful stream that ran through the property, powering the undershot waterwheel that in turn powered the mill. They spent many weekends traveling from the Bronx to work on finishing the conversion, expanding the house and finding old tools, a bible and a Sunday School Advocate from 1860 in the walls. When they were finished, they sold it and built next door the house that I grew up in.  Although that house was a showpiece that had everything one could want, I always secretly coveted the mill house…Read More.

David “Skip” Griffiths

I was born in Utica, NY. I came to live in Red Hook at the age of one when my father was offered the position of Director of the Buildings and Grounds at Bard College. Growing up on a college campus is a whole lot different experience than growing up on a typical street in a small town. I had an idea what my college life would be like before I was old enough to attend college. I graduated from Red Hook Central School, graduating in the largest graduating class (230) at the time. After high school, I attended New England College in Henniker, NH. I stayed in New Hampshire for two years before taking off one semester. I came back to Red Hook…Read More.

Jason Baker

When it comes to history, I'm still very much a novice. But I turn to it for perspective on our collective present: no matter what the world looks and feels like, it has been darker and it has been brighter. It has been more oppressive and more permissive, more and less brutal, more and less literate. We may wish we lived in another epoch, but we're products of our own time. History wiggles through us—and it's communicable. We're passing on history and its layers of meaning to everyone around us and to the next generation. Human beings are meaning-makers and pattern-finders, so it's hard to overstate history's importance for us. Read More.

Courtney Zwart

New trustee as of January 2026