Dan Masson Bergstrom Noel

TELLURIDE, Colo. — I am a Vermonter.

This is how Dan Masson Bergstrom Noel described himself to his palliative care doctors on Feb. 20, 2025. To Dan, being a Vermonter meant working for the things you have. Born Oct. 29, 1974, to Nicole and Francis Noel, Dan grew up eating from the garden they planted and heating the house with wood they cut, split, and stacked. From his father, Dan learned skills to repair his own house. From his mother, he learned to cook, can vegetables, and hem his own pants.

The cul de sac in Shelburne, Vt., where Dan and his sister Amy grew up was populated with boys his age. In summer they played kick the can and ghost in the graveyard. In winter they’d sled down the cemetery hill and try not to get caught by the groundskeeper. These boys became like brothers—lifelong friends—and every year since college they went on fishing trips around the world.

Dan attended Keene State College in New Hampshire because it had a good teaching program. His desire to be a teacher stemmed from dissatisfaction with his own teachers—he thought he could do their job better. He student-taught third grade, but his first teaching job was with at-risk high schoolers—kids so delinquent they weren’t allowed on campus. On his way to school, he would wake the kids up and get them out of bed. The job was emotionally taxing, but it affirmed he could make a difference.

I am a Vermonter meant when Dan wasn’t in Vermont, he looked for a place like Vermont. Dan moved to Telluride in 1999 after finding it on a road trip. The quaint main street reminded him of his home state. This is where he met his wife, also a teacher, Nicki Bergstrom Noel. The two were married in 2002 at Alta Lakes in the depths of winter. Being a Vermonter, inclement weather was no cause for concern—their families were snowcatted in for an intimate ceremony outside.

In 2005, Dan and Nicki moved to Vermont and bought an 1875 house in Bristol with horsehair plaster walls, knob-and-tube electric, and a tacked-on kitchen. They gutted and refinished every part of that house. Dan did all the wiring. He redid the bathrooms and the tiling. He installed new maple flooring. There was no handyman job Dan couldn’t do.

Robinson Elementary, just down the road from Bristol, is where, at age 30, Dan became principal for a rural K-6 school with 200 kids. Though he was the school’s youngest employee, the loving and committed staff trusted him to improve the school … and he did. Being a Vermonter meant he had an intense sense of community responsibility. He believed you’re beholden to the people around you. If they ask for help, you help them—in fact, you look for ways to help. For instance, rather than hiring a roofing company to replace the roof of the school, he had the community come do the work together. The moms and dads created a chain to pass things to the one guy on the roof who knew how to do it.

I am a Vermonter meant family is everything. There was nothing more important to Dan than his two daughters Cordelia Rose Noel (born 2008) and Hazel Hettie Noel (born 2010). Dan was pleased they were born in Vermont—after all, you have to be born in Vermont to be a Vermonter. Though Dan was a great teacher and a great handyman, he was an off-the-charts father. He knew just how to love his girls every single moment of every single day. Dancing with them. Singing with them. Helping them with their work. He had a clear sense of right and wrong and set boundaries for the girls that helped instill their sense of self.

The most un-Vermontery thing Dan did was move with his family to St. Kitts.

Vermonters don’t tend to leave, but feeling overcommitted at the school, Dan thought moving abroad was the best chance to specialize in his family. In 2012, the foursome moved to the hottest little piece of dirt in the Caribbean. Nicki recalls, “Because there is nothing there, we had to make our own fun as a family for two years. Going to the beach and making forts. Teaching the girls to swim and snorkel. Biking on the golf course cart paths. Dan built furniture out of palettes. He made himself lobster traps. We didn’t have a boat, he would swim the lobster trap out. He built a swing set for the girls in our back yard which was a feat given that supplies are really hard to obtain there. Dan wanted us to be tight. And those two years assured that that was true.”

Choosing to live out West again in 2014 was another un-Vermonter thing to do, but Dan did it for Nicki. He became a Vermonter in Telluride. He was ever-frustrated and thwarted because he couldn’t grow anything. On the other hand, he thrived on fly fishing. Loving the water. Loving the woods. Being peaceful outside. Knowing how to be a steward of the land.

Dan had boundless energy for doing unusual things—especially when it came to teaching and making school fun. Telluride Public School families will remember how he taught math with Matchbox cars and Pokémon scavenger hunts on the mountain. Star Wars nights. Crazy parodies. The Math Olympics. Making pies on Pi Day. Dan would say, “I am giving you brownies,” but they were brown construction paper Es. Once, as a prank, he convinced most of the Intermediate School they had to retake the state’s standardized test, CMAS.

He will be remembered for creating The Miner School—a TMHS program that matches high school students with mentors in the community working with doctors, bakers, electricians, auto mechanics, outdoor guides, and more. He knew if kids could be motivated to learn outside the classroom, that would help with the times they had to sit at a desk.

Music was an important part of his life. He loved going to festivals and concerts. He taught himself to play guitar and loved singing with friends and his daughters. Playing and singing became especially important toward the end of his life when he was less able to leave the house.

It was very Vermonter-y the way Dan fought cancer with everything he had. He endured more than twenty rounds of chemo. His two surgeries drastically changed his life. “But being with us, that mattered to him more than anything,” says Nicki, “and he was going to do whatever it took. There was bravery inherent in every choice he made. He fought cancer for me, Delia, and Hazel. And gave up his fight bravely, too.” Dan died in his home on April 13, 2025, surrounded by his family, being sung to by his girls.

There will be a celebration of life on Saturday, July 5 at Seyon Lodge State Park in Groton, Vt. For more information contact Nicki Bergstrom Noel at [email protected]. Dan requests that in lieu of flowers you give to two organizations for which he cared deeply: Telluride Adaptive Sports Program — he loved teaching skiing and snowboarding with them— (https://tellurideadaptivesports.org/donate/) and the Michael Treinan Foundation (https://www.michaeltreinenfoundation.org/) which supports families battling cancer including the Bergstrom Noels. ◊