Tom and Joanne (Schermer) Baumann (2018)
In the summer of 1949 the Q-clan moved next door to Tommy Baumann and his wonderful family, and a life-long friendship began. In the fall of that same year I became a first grade line-up partner with Joanne Schermer – short kids up front - and another rich relationship was born. I have celebrated life’s ups and downs with these great people for over 65 years. I have had the joy of watching them become generous stewards of the many gifts God has blessed them with – untiring public servants, gracious ministers of hospitality, wonderful parents and grandparents and determined friends and neighbors to throngs in the greater Greenville area. –Bill Quackenbush
Joanne Schermer was born in 1943 in Brooklyn to parents Reinhold and Josephine (Gawel) Schermer. Her family moved in 1948 to her grandparents’ resort, Willow Rest Farm, renamed the following year to Pine Lake Manor. She graduated with the GCS Class of 1961 and attended SUNY Albany. She had started working in her parents’ resort office at age 19, work she continues today some 60 years later.
Meanwhile, Tom Baumann was born in 1940 in Catskill, NY, to parents Wilbur and Thelma (Boomhower) Baumann. He graduated with the Class of 1958, attended Albany Business College, worked at Kennedy International Airport, and returned home at age 21 to his family’s business – Baumann’s Contractors – with his father and with his older brother Ron. Baumann’s Contractors had been started in 1923 by Tom’s grandfather, Neil Baumann.
Joanne and Tom married in 1963, entered her parents’ resort business in 1972, and reared three children: Amy (married Christopher Short); Kevin (married Julianne Zehnter; children Olivia, Amelia, Thomas); and Jacquie (married James Fitzmaurice; children Ava, Tess, Bryn). In 2018, Willow Rest Farm/Pine Lake Manor celebrates its 94th year, having started in 1924 with Joanne’s grandparents Nicholas and Lydia Schirmer. Pine Lake Manor continues today by the joint efforts of their entire family plus many loyal and dedicated staff.
In addition to the resort, Tom and Joanne have engrained their names into the fabric of the Greenville community. Joanne’s list of contributions include: parishioner at St John the Baptist Church, member of the Greenville Rescue Squad, dispatcher for Greenville Volunteer Fire Company and Greenville Rescue Squad, Trustee and President of the Greenville Library, a Friend of the Greenville Library Fund Raising Committee, Chairman of Greenville Republicans Committee, member of the NYS Republican Committee, member of the GCS Parent-Teacher Organization, in addition to the host of ad hoc committees that these organizations have needed at the time.
Tom is also active. Tom’s list of contributions include: member of the Greenville/Norton Hill United Methodist Church (sharing churches with his wife); 50 year member, life member, and past president of the Greenville Volunteer Fire Company; member of the Greene County Tourism Advisory board; Greenville Town Councilman; president of the Greenville Cemetery Association; and member of NYS National Guard. He, too, has served on various advisory committees.
Tom has always been an automobile enthusiast since his affiliation at a young age with Baumann’s Auto Sales in Hudson, NY. He is an avid collector of classic cars of the 1950s and 1960s. Most recently, he is a founding member of the recently formed Saratoga Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA).
Over the years, Pine Lake Manor has acquired many adjacent properties. Other properties in town were acquired by Baumann’s Contractors, and were converted into apartments and businesses. Many of those are still owned by Tom and Joanne today.
There is one other accomplishment of which they are most proud. Tom and Joanne’s long tenure in the resort business has added a dimension that is more than the sum of its parts. Yes, as Pine Lake Manor owners, they have employed hundreds of community members, purchased supplies from other business local and otherwise, and dealt with details and vagaries of a people-service enterprise. Through it all, anyone who knows the Schermers and Baumanns have witnessed a larger family of connections: kids earning money for college and expenses, youngsters learning responsibility from a first job, the exposure of us locals to the worlds of those vacationing in Greenville, and the development of a web of friends and people crossing several generations. Friends of Joanne’s grandparents and parents, and Tom and Joanne’s children have created a network that has not only served the family well but has also benefited our community.
Joanne and Tom Baumann, the Greenville Local History Group is so proud to recognize your life achievements.
- by Don Teator, Greenville Town Historian