Someone suggested Tim Otterbach for our board of directors. This would have been nine, maybe ten years ago.

We knew the name. He lived in Ossipee. One box checked for what we were looking for. He was on several Ossipee municipal boards and worked with Green Mountain Conservation Group. More boxes checked.

He was awarded GMCG’s High Watch Award for his years of commitment to environmental protection. Maybe too many boxes checked. With so many credits, would he be interested in our small organization?

He was. He lived on the Bearcamp, so Ossipee Lake was his back yard. He knew its bays, rivers and hidden places. He knew also about the challenges the lake faced. It was a good fit, he said. We agreed.

Tim had a look and a way. A disarming smile, a twinkle in his eye. Always upbeat, eager for a discussion. He was persuasive; someone who could make you believe the impossible was possible.

As an architect, precision was his craft. In conservation work that meant understanding land use and environmental regulations—all of them. He knew the rule books, front to back, but he was no pedant.

He understood that change comes from compromise, and he acted on that. But he had little tolerance for officials who disrespected the spirit of the rules.

The Effingham gas station case tested the limits of his patience. Whenever the facts took a back seat in the hearing room, he was ready with a polite “point of order” to get things on track.

Board chairs didn’t like it, but his persistence paid off. The final gas station plan contains environmental safeguards that town officials hadn’t thought of and the developer didn’t want.

Tim loved to write, something we wish we had asked him to do more often. For months he visited the Ossipee River Dam and tracked the replacement construction in pictures and stories. His series on the project is a historical record for generations of lake residents to come.

He stayed upbeat as his health declined and a series of surgeries set him back. Friends pitched in, especially helping get him to and from medical appointments.

Recently he seemed on the mend. He couldn’t move around as much as before, but move around he did. On the last Sunday in September he sent us an update on a project he was working on. Two days later he was gone.

Tim was a force for good. In summing up a life, there can be no higher tribute.