help more families access them regardless of ability to pay. Staver spent most of his life in Watertown and was a fixture for many years on the public tennis courts or ice skating on the Annex Pond in town, according to Lisa Carew, director of Watertown Parks and Recreation. She recalled Staver tooling around town in an older-model car as Watertown’s first recycling coordinator, and said that Staver also helped older people at the senior center improve their driving skills or prepare their taxes.
Carew and Bill Donston, the chair of Watertown’s parks and recreation commission, said that they are committed to fulfilling Staver’s legacy through improvements to the town’s recreational facilities. Big ticket items on their lists include adding lights to playing fields, rehabilitating the tennis courts, adding fencing for a dog park, completing sections of local greenways and building a park pavilion. But—in honor of Staver—new park benches will be installed first, they said.
“To know that you made the kind of impression “He was very, very reserved, very quiet, low-key and on somebody that they would think of you and methodical,” she said. entrust you to make our community better… It’s really amazing and it’s an incredible thing for Yet he often stopped by Carew’s office—they had Watertown. Thanks to Jack, we’re going to be able known each other for more than thirty years—to to ramp up everything lightheartedly air a persistent we do here,” said Carew. grievance: the tennis courts Jack had the people of “The positive things that had no park benches. Carew Watertown in his heart and he can come from this gift would playfully respond that are immeasurable…It’s wanted the town to know it.” they didn’t have the money; forever.” he would have to buy one Bill Donston, chair of Watertown himself. Parks and Recreation Commission
John Staver helps a woman with her taxes.
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