We heard the news that Chris Dater died on August 13, 2022 with much sorrow. Chris followed his mother and father, Tom and Joan Dater as friends and supporters of the Mahwah Museum. The Daters gave the museum access to the files of the Ramsey Journal and the Home and Store News for our research. Chris, as a guitar player and lover of music, was very excited to hear that the Mahwah Museum would be the home of a permanent exhibit of many of Les Paul’s artifacts. He went to Les’ house with the Les Paul Committee of the museum and assisted in preparing artifacts for transporting to the museum. When they arrived and were put into place he spent hours cleaning layers of dust that had accumulated on many artifacts. His recently donated the microfilm of the family newspapers so the museum could arrange for them to be digitized. This is a unique collection to study more than the last hundred years of the Ramsey-Mahwah area. Chris, as the last member of this important family which was always devoted to local history, will be sorely missed.
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