In 1980, Ron Philbrick brought a proposal to the table of Southern New Hampshire Services: Renovate the old Greenville Falls Mill into affordable elderly housing.
At that time, recalled SNHS Executive Director Donnalee Lozeau, SNHS wasn’t in the business of creating affordable housing. Greenville Falls would be the first experiment for SNHS, which provides assistance for low-income individuals and families in Rockingham and Hillsborough counties.
Philbrick, who was SNHS’s first Executive Director, and remained its deputy director for many years, had a special place in his heart for Greenville Falls, said Lozeau, and remained a consultant with SNHS for their elderly housing even after he retired.
After Philbrick passed away last year, the organization decided to honor Philbrick’s memory by renaming Greenville Falls after Philbrick.
Philbrick’s dedication was well-established. In 1965, he began what was then called the Poverty Program, a program funded by federal grants to assist those in poverty with many of the same goals as SNHS now has.
“When he started, it was small and tough to get money,” said his widow, Jean Philbrick. “Back then, it was just a fight to keep going from month to month. He didn’t have time to think about the future, because he didn’t know if he would have the funds to still be there in a month.”
“I think that he really felt good about our ability to do something for the low-income elderly,” said Lozeau, about Philbrick’s continued passion for providing low-income housing for the elderly. “If you talk to a lot of people at a certain age, the first thing they’re concerned about is having a place to live. He found that to be a very important part of what Southern New Hampshire Services does.”
Greenville Falls was the first, but now it numbers among 30 total elderly housing facilities constructed and overseen by SNHS.
When Philbrick died last year, employees of SNHS who worked with him came up with the idea of honoring his name by attaching it to the project that he was most closely tied with. “That was his baby,” said Nancy Garland, the first manager of Greenville Falls. cause