Meet Steve and Marilyn Monsein
Steve Monsein’s family first came to Bethlehem in 1927, when his mother, only 16 years old, traveled from Massachusetts to Bethlehem with her younger brother. He suffered from asthma, and their parents hoped a summer in the country would help.
The family quickly came to love Bethlehem and spend their summers there. Steve’s grandfather opened a summer grocery store and fish market as well as an antique store in a building he bought across from the Colonial Theater. Steve’s parents started a sleep-away camp for boys and girls in a large acreage on Lewis Hill Road, behind BHC. They sold this business in 1959 but kept one cabin for their summers.
Steve’s grandfather became an early and dedicated member of BHC. Steve’s parents considered themselves cultural Jews. They did attend High Holiday services at BHC and attempted to keep dietary laws except, Steve notes, “for Sunday night Chinese food.”
Steve grew up in Brighton, MA and went to UMass Amherst and Suffolk University law school. During the summers between law school years, he started a successful deli, Steve’s Boston Club, in his grandfather’s building. He sold this business in the summer of 1967.
Steve then traveled with friends to Montreal to see Expo ‘67. One evening, they stood in line to get into a disco. Behind them, two French-speaking girls were chatting and laughing coyly. Steve approached another girl in line to ask if she could translate. “They’re making fun of your clothing,” Marilyn told Steve. That’s how the courtship of Marilyn and Steve began.
Marilyn grew up in Montreal. Her family was not observant; they, too, considered themselves cultural Jews. Marilyn was a skier and introduced Steve to skiing. It became a lifetime activity for them (and later, their two daughters), first at Cannon Mountain and then at Bretton Woods, where Steve is still a ski instructor.
Marilyn and Steve were married at the BHC on July 7,1968. The couple stayed at the family cabin on Pinewood Ave. The bride walked along a trampled dirt path through connecting backyards to get to the wedding ceremony. The night before, guests had decorated the pews with pine boughs collected in the surrounding woods. “It was a true country wedding,” Marilyn notes.
While at UMass Amherst, Steve worked for a local attorney and decided to attend law school himself. During this time, Marilyn worked as a legal secretary. When Steve graduated, he approached this attorney about a job. “I’m now a lawyer and my wife is an experienced legal secretary,” he told the attorney. The man said he’d hired them both. However, he planned to pay Marilyn more than Steve because, he told Steve, “she knows more than you.”
Steve shares this anecdote with his typical self-effacing humor. The tale belies the success of his career. Eventually, he opened his own law office. By the time he retired, he was the senior partner of a 42-person law firm. Steve and Marilyn worked together amicably throughout their careers. Their office had a friendly working atmosphere, as evidenced by the 30-plus years the same staff remained with the firm, and by the presence of a contented office dog.
During their Amherst years, the couple and their two daughters continued to come to Bethlehem to ski. The family spent most weekends and holidays at the Pinewood Ave cabin until 1985, when they built a home in Sugar Hill. Once Steve and Marilyn retired, in 2006, they began living full-time in Sugar Hill.
In retirement, Steve plays golf and skis. Marilyn stays busy with gardening, exercise classes, and skiing. She is considering taking up knitting again. They have two German Shepherds, which insures they take for long walks each day.
Their older daughter, Dana, is a Spanish professor at Endicott College. Their younger child, Jennifer, and her husband, Emory, live in a home they built next to Marilyn and Steve in Sugar Hill. Jennifer works at Super Secret Ice Cream in Bethlehem and Tarrnation Flower Farm in Sugar Hill. Emory works as an art handler at Dartmouth College Hood Museum. He is also co-chair of the Franconia Art Walk project.
In 2027, it will be 100 years since the first Monsein relative discovered the North Country. Now, a 4th generation is making the White Mountains home.