Board Members

The William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association Board Members

Lyle R. Shute – President, Chair of Building & Grounds, Executive Committee

Lyle Shute is a 9th generation Line of Mary descendant, and a 50 year resident of Orange County, NY. Many of Lyle's immediate family members have been involved in the William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association, most notably, his great grandfather, Hamlet Roe - a Past President of the Association. Lyle has given over 15 years of dedicated volunteer service to the Association.
Professionally, Lyle is a principal in an engineering and architectural consulting firm. He is a licensed professional engineer, actively involved in his community, and serves on the Zoning Board of Appeals for the Town of Hamptonburgh.
Contact Lyle Shute

Doug Stainton - Treasurer, Chair of Finance, Executive Committee

Doug is 9th Generation, Line of Mary. He was raised in the Hudson Valley. He is a Senior Vice President at Empire State Bank in Newburgh, NY.

Margie Baker

Margie Baker is a 10th generation Line of John descendant. Her one passion is genealogy. She started doing genealogy, 45 years ago, by "picking apart" a genealogy that someone had done on her mother's side
of the family. Since then she has done Norwegian, German, Dutch, Scot and English genealogy. She has helped people get started on their own genealogy by having them promise that they try to keep it updated and
pass it down to their families. She likes to live by an old Gaelic proverb--"Remember the men from whence you came". Margie has used her genealogy skills to track down living people for the all school reunion...Quite a job since it is only held every five years.
She is retired, a mother of two, grandmother of five and
great-grandmother of one.

Linda Bull – Archivist, Chair of HIC

Linda Bull became a member of the Bull family in 2005 upon marrying Albert C. Bull a 9th generation line of John descendant. She is retired as an Archivist Records Management Specialist with the New York State Archives. Linda and Al live in Walden, New York.
In 2008, Linda was appointed as the Chair of the Historic Interpretations and Collections Committee and elected to the William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association Board.
Linda was born in Pontiac, Michigan and raised in Romeo, Michigan. She graduated from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and received a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Melanie Latimer

Melanie is 9th generation descendant in the line of John, William, and Thomas. She served as the most recent past caretaker of the Homestead and was raised in the Stone House. She has contributed decades of her life to the family, the Homestead, the continuing the legacy of the Bull family. She has served as a Board member on and off for more several years.

Marc Nozell

Marc Nozell is an 8th generation Bull family member in the line of John. After graduating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute he moved from New York State to New Hampshire. He has been working in the technology field, including Compaq and Hewlett-Packard and is currently with Red Hat Software, Inc. His is the President of the Merrimack Historical Society and a board member on The New Hampshire Challenge (NH's source for informing the disability community)
He is on the BSH Historic Interpretations and Collections Committee leading the Bull Archive Project to digitize, transcribe and organize all the documents we have accumulated over the centuries.
He credits his late grandmother Olive Ann Smith BULL Nozell for infecting him with the genealogy bug, for which is he grateful. With his wife, they have contributed six descendants to the Bull family tree.

Lisa Brown Ryan - Nominating & Governance Co-Chairperson

Lisa Brown Ryan is a 9th generation Lines of John, Thomas, and William descendant who has had the honor of being raised in the Stone House. Many of Lisa’s immediate family members have lived in the Stone House and served on the board, including her father, Michael K. Brown, long time resident, caretaker, local historian, and lifetime honorary member as “president emeritus.”
Lisa’s love of family and skills at tour guiding and public speaking developed at a very early age. These skills added to her desire to become a school teacher. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in teaching at SUNY Cortland and has taught school for 33 years in the Homer Central School District.
While she has lived in central New York, Lisa has continued to be very active in many roles at the Stone House as well as for the Bull Family at large. She is currently an active member of the by-laws committee and looks forward to becoming more intricately involved as a board member and taking an active role on a variety of other committees as well.

Barbara Sylk

Barbara Sylk is a 9th Generation Line of John Bull descendant. Her grandmother, Cora Bull Schwarzwalder, was raised in the town of Monroe, and on a Sugar Loaf Mountain farm in Orange County. Because of her grandmother and mother’s deep roots with the Bull Stone House, Barbara and her family have long attended the Annual Picnic. Barbara become active with the Association in 2016. Her background is in the visual arts, and she has a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Barbara has worked as a teacher, in arts conservation, building management, and had an art gallery in addition to being a artist. She has been actively involved in many not-for-profit organizations as a committee member and as a trustee in the Philadelphia area where she has resided for many years.

Barbara is married with three children and has lived near Philadelphia for many years. She is very much looking forward to becoming more knowledgeable about all things “Bull”!

Judy Wood – Vice President, Genealogist, Chair of Development, Chair of Economic Development, Executive Committee

Judy Sayer Wood is a 10th Generation Line of John descendant, born in Middletown, NY. Judy's devotion to and enthusiasm for the Bull family genealogy began in 2004 when she volunteered with Dick Ivory, the previous genealogist, researching the line of John.
Judy became the Bull Family Genealogist in 2005 and joined the Board in 2006. She grew the Bull family genealogy from 40,000 names to over 77,000 and creates and updates an annual Bull Genealogy CD. Judy's dedication to the Bull family is self-evident in all of the ways she volunteers and the projects she has completed on behalf of the Bulls.
Judy is a retired financial software consultant from IBM and lives in Highland Village, TX along with her husband, three children and seven grandchildren.

Nancy Boyd - Secretary, Executive Committee

Nancy Boyd is the daughter of Virginia Bull Meath, granddaughter of Henry Pierson Bull and a 9th generation Bull in the lines of John, William and Thomas. Nancy has been an active Bull family participant since she was a very young girl.
Nancy. and her significant other for 19 years Denver Fredlund, live in beautiful Grant's Pass, Oregon. She has three sons Damon, and her stepsons Broady and Mackenzie Fredlund. They spend many of their weekends outdoors riding ATV, Snowmobiles, and boats.
Nancy works as the VP of IT at Herb Pharm . She served on the William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association By-Laws committee working to update our 1977 By-Laws and to ensure we are listening to and acting on the family’s concerns.
She is very excited to now be a member of the Bull Family Board, following in the footsteps of her mother, aunt, and grandfather who all have served over many years. Nancy strives to represent our family in a caring way with strong morality and integrity.

Jack Thew

Jack Thew is an 8th generation Bull family member in the line of John. After attending Cornell University, Jack returned home to the family orchard business in the Hudson Valley in New York. Jack helped to grow the business including adding new storage and juice processing technology. In 1965 Jack began a 25 year career with Shell Chemical Company in Princeton, NJ. Jack worked in the agricultural chemicals industry in product development, and sales and marketing at several locations across the country. Jack transferred to the DuPont Chemical Company as a Sr. Representative responsible for the professional farm management sector. Jack left DuPont in 1990 and with his wife Terry, began a new career in the retail wine industry. Fully retired in 2013 and after serving in two community associations as President, VP and Director for nearly 20 years, Jack now devotes his time to volunteer work including being a designated Cornell Alumni Ambassador helping, judging science fairs and participating in high school career days, CAI, The Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation and as the liaison for the Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association. He is also active in the Illinois 84th District legislative activities and sits on its Citizens Advisory Board. Jack and Terry have resided in Naperville, IL for nearly forty years; have three daughters, a son, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

AJ DeWitt – Building & Grounds

AJ is married to Lindsay Lounsbury DeWitt, who is 10th generation, line of William & Thomas. He was raised in Orange County, NY. and lives with his wife and two daughters, Andi and Jax, in Goshen, NY, just a few miles from the Stone House. He currently works in construction. He served in the U.S. Navy and is an accomplished outdoorsman. Like Sarah Wells more than 300 years ago, he lives on the banks fo the Otter Kill and manages his own 22 acres. AJ is a constant volunteer on the Homestead to help maintain this incredible property.