Helen moved to Dorchester from Plaster Rock with her parents, Fredand Marion Petchey and sister Dorcas,graduating from Dorchester Superior
School in 1939. She holds two degrees in Arts and Education from UNB; as a BeaverbrookScholar, she completed a
Certificate in Education at LondonUniversity in 1959-60.Upon retirement as an inspirational
teacher and librarian in Saint John areaschools, she moved to Sackville, whereas a Life Member of the WestmorlandHistorical Society, she embarked on asecond career as an author.Meticulously researched and
illustrated, her 18 books preserve the history of Dorchester. She alsopresented her research at the LoyalistSociety in Saint John and at the Yorkshire 2000 symposium.
In recognition of her work she received the American Association for State and Local History Award for Excellence (1993), the Key to the Village of Dorchester (2001)and the Dorchester Memorial Library Literary Award (2011).In 2013 she moved to Quispamsis
carrying with her fond memories of her beloved Shiretown.
Bibliographye Parish Church at Dorchester Corner, 1982
In Praise of the Trinity, 1983
About Christmas, 1984
The Dorchester Gilberts, 1987
John Francis Teed, Dorchester’s Master Builder, 1989
e Palmer Brothers in the Chignecto,1990
St. Paul’s Needlework Society, 1866-1991, 1990
e Dorchester Chapmans – A Shiretown Saga, 1991
A Southern Odyssey in Search of a Friend, 1992
e Hickmans of Dorchester’s Heyday,1992
Grindstone Island, 1994
e Brothers Weldon, 1995
Chandler of Rocklyn, 1996
Signal Sea Changes, 1997
Dorchester’s Doctors, 1998
A Legacy of Music in the Chignecto,1999
e Guard Row, 2002
Two From Amherst, 2005
Helen M. Petchey, B.A., B.Ed.University of New Brunswick
2014