August 27, 2021 George C. Singer Fund Created for LGLC Internships

As seen in the Lake George Mirror, 08/27/2021 (link downloads full issue; see page 8 for article)

George C. Singer first came to Lake George as a boy in 1941, joining his family at the Rogers Rock Hotel in the last summer of its existence.

The following summer the family rented a nearby cottage. Singers have been coming to northern Lake George every summer since then.

In honor of that legacy, George Singer, his three children – Rob Singer, Lauren Waite and Margaret Huffman – and his nine grandchildren – have created and endowed the George C. Singer Fund at the Lake George Land Conservancy to support annual internships at the Bolton Landing-based organization.

According to Jamie Brown, Executive Director of the Lake George Land Conservancy, the George C. Singer interns will work in a variety of areas, most notably stewardship and education.

George Singer served on the board of the Lake George Land Conservancy from 1997 through 2004. His son Rob was elected to the board in 2003. After a brief absence, he returned to the board in 2017.

This year, the two shared the organization’s Henry M. Rowan Conservation Award.

Established by the Conservancy to honor Henry Rowan, who led the effort to establish the Margaret Boyd Rowan Preserve on northern Lake George in 1990, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to the protection of Lake George.

Rob Singer accepted the award on behalf of his father and himself on August 20 at the organization’s annual President’s Reception, held this year at Federal Hill Farm in Bolton Landing.

It was presented by Virginia Rowan Smith, Henry Rowan’s daughter.

“The Singer family’s conservation ethic, extending across four or five generations, is a sign to all of us that the future of the land that protects the lake we love so much is in good hands,” said Smith.

“My father and my late mother, Gloria B. Singer, shared a passion for Lake George which they passed on to my sisters and me and which I hope I’m passing on to my kids,” said Rob Singer.

Singer noted that in the Lake George Land Conservancy’s early years, “it was just a group of people, including Ginny Smith and my father, identifying properties and committing themselves to buying them to protect the lake without a great deal of backing. It was the wild west. But thanks to people like Hank Rowan, who came to this group’s rescue any number of times, the Lake George Land Conservancy now rests on a strong foundation. It is a privilege to be a part of that. I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of my father and myself, but primarily on behalf of my father, on whose coat tails I still feel I ride,” said Singer.

Anyone wishing to honor George Singer by contributing to the fund supporting the George C. Singer Internships may mail a check to the Lake George Land Conservancy. The Lake George Land
Conservancy also honored two new members of the Apperson Society, which the Conservancy created in order to recognize its most generous donors.

This year’s inductees were Jenny Brorsen and her husband, Rich DeMartini, of Hemlock Point, and Rick and Paula Dhein of northern Lake George.

Carl Heilman, who was the 2020 winner of the Henry M. Rowan Conservation award but prevented by the pandemic from accepting it in person, was also recognized.

The event’s sponsors were Craig and Laura Treiber and Will Bixby, whose grandfather, Ralph Bixby, purchased the Federal Hill farm on which his mother Lillian Tuttle grew up and undertook the property’s historic restoration that continues to this day.