The History Department mourns the loss of Shirley Ardis Abbott, who passed away last month. The longtime director of the Vernon Historical Museum, she earned her PhD in the Department in 1997.  Her dissertation “Building the Loom City: Rockville, Connecticut, 1821-1908” was later published as a book.  Her obituary offers a sense of the rich life she lived: https://www.courant.com/obituaries/shirley-ardis-abbott/