Amherst lost a hero and community champion with the recent death of Connie Kruger. A committed public servant, Kruger dedicated much of her life’s work to improve lives in Amherst and the state. 

She served many roles throughout her long career in affordable housing. In Amherst, she served as housing planner and senior planner for the town from 1986-2002, where her accomplishments included shepherding the Butternut Farm affordable housing project through the permitting process — a development that ultimately opened in 2011 and now provides homes for more than two dozen families. 

She also was a member of the Planning Board, commissioner and chair of the Amherst Housing Authority, a member of the Amherst Select Board and the Select Board’s representative to the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust.

At the state level, Kruger served as a senior program manager for the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) from 2002-2010, where she provided advice and technical assistance on housing issues across the state. And, she served on the state’s Housing Appeals Committee and completed more than 20 years on the Citizen Housing and Planning Association’s (CHAPA) Board, a state-wide housing advocacy organization.

Kruger’s resume is long, but the list of people she impacted is longer. Members of the Amherst Current editorial board wrote about her influence, and we invited community leaders who’ve worked with Kruger to share their remembrances of her. 

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I first met Connie when she became the partner of my fellow historian Susan Tracy, who had been one of my closest colleagues since my arrival at Hampshire College. I was honored to attend their wedding, on the grounds of their garden, on which Connie lavished such loving attention. 

However, I truly got to know her through our common service on the Select Board. Connie brought to this work her wisdom and experience as a planner, devoted in particular to questions of sustainability and affordability. First as Town employee and then as elected official, Connie was a tireless advocate for affordable housing. Faced with persistent opposition to change in Amherst, she patiently explained that development was both inevitable and essential: we had to manage it rather than allowing it to manage us. As she put it, “I’ve been a socialist all my life, but at some point, I learned: you have to be able to pay the bills.” 

Whether addressing these vast issues so dear to her heart or the mundane minutiae of government, Connie brought to every conversation a rational, deliberate approach. You could count on her to have done her homework and considered a question from every angle. And her wit was as dry as her mind was sharp. Over the years, I came to know the many sides of Connie: the gardener, the ceramicist, the activist, the professional — but above all, the friend.

Jim Wald, former Select Board member and former Faculty at Hampshire College

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I’m saddened by the news of Connie‘s passing. Heartfelt condolences to her spouse Susan and to all of her friends, colleagues and community partners. 

Connie was a model public servant and community member . She had a clear vision of the world in which she wanted to live and she worked every day toward that vision. Her clear thinking and actions in Amherst and in Boston reflected her Progressive and pragmatic vision and her values.

She left her mark and will be remembered and honored by many for the life she lived and for making every community of which she was a part better. 

May her memory be a blessing.

Stan Rosenberg, former State Senator 

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I first got to know Connie 40 years ago, when I put her photograph on the front page of The Amherst Bulletin along with a story about her campaign to convince town government to recognize domestic partnerships, which was bold at the time. I followed her career at Town Hall and on the Select Board. 

When I was about to retire, she gave me the best advice I received: The things you think you’ll want to do in retirement aren’t necessarily the things you’ll actually want to do after you retire, because your perspective changes so much. 

Two years ago, she asked me to write a post in The Amherst Current about the 20th anniversary of same-sex marriages, in which I highlighted her and Susan and two other couples. I’ve been visiting her since she became ill, including four days before she died, when I offered to help her write a post about the proposed affordable-housing development in North Amherst. It would have been authoritative.

Nick Grabbe, co-founder of The Amherst Current and former editor of the Amherst Bulletin

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I will always be grateful to Connie Kruger for taking me under her wing when I started working in the Amherst Planning Department in 1997. I had the pleasure of working with her for almost a decade. She was a consummate professional with the highest integrity. I appreciated her honesty and passionate advocacy for housing and humanity. I valued her mentoring and friendship. She was the epitome of a good person. She will be deeply missed.

Niels la Cour, former Senior Planner, Amherst Planning Department

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Connie was a quiet force for good in Amherst. Her knowledge, experience, and advocacy on housing affordability challenges and land use planning helped focus Amherst on the housing crisis we face. Even before I was elected, she would pull me aside to talk about housing and planning. Once I was elected, we had many informative and deep discussions on the root causes of housing unaffordability, the specific challenges and history in Amherst, and how to try to tackle them now and into the future both policy-wonk-wise and politically. Those conversations influenced me greatly, even though they were sometimes depressing at the uphill battle Amherst officials face in adding housing in Town. 

Amherst residents benefited greatly from her love of the town through her extensive service as an employee, appointed Planning Board member, and elected Select Board member. She will be missed.

Mandi Jo Hanneke, Town Councilor At-Large

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I’m holding Connie Kruger in my heart with deep respect, love, and sadness. We first met during my run for Town Council, and from that moment on, I felt the steadiness of someone who truly loved Amherst — and who carried that love into every conversation, every decision.

What I appreciated most was her balanced approach: she could hold complexity without losing her center. I looked forward to her perspectives as part of the Amherst Current writers — thoughtful, measured, and always in service of the town she cared about so deeply. Her resilience and care for our community were quiet but unmistakable. We also shared a love for mindfulness, and I think that’s part of what made her presence on hard issues feel so grounded.

She leaves Amherst better than she found it. I’ll miss her.

Shalini Bahl, former Town Councilor for District 5

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Connie was important to her family, friends and the Amherst community and will be missed by all of us. My focus is as a friend who worked with Connie to serve Amherst. We shared the same values, appreciation for the town, a desire to preserve its core values, encourage appropriate development, and assure essential services, including education, health care, and the availability of affordable housing.

Connie and I were first-time candidates for the Select Board in 2014, a year in which two members did not seek reelection to the five-member board. We campaigned separately, but in a mutually supportive way. We were reelected in 2017 and served until the Select Board dissolved when Amherst changed its form of government. Connie brought her experience as a former employee in the Planning Department, member of the Planning Board and Board of Assessors, and Project Manager at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) to the Select Board. In 2016 the MHP recognized Connie with a Housing Hero Award for her longtime support of affordable housing in Amherst and across the Commonwealth. My experience was in law, nonprofit management, and as a member of the Finance Committee. We talked often to assure that both of us understood the issues before the Select Board and to craft solutions.

I was a better member of the Select Board and Town Council because of the knowledge and advice she shared with me. I also appreciated and admired her many interests and talents. I will miss Connie.

Andy Steinberg, former Town Councilor At-Large and former Select Board member

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I first met Connie when we moved to town in late 2002, just down the street from her home with Susan. I soon learned that I could rely on the annual appearance of lawn signs in their yard to alert me to an upcoming town election – and that I could ask Connie about any local issue and get an honest and unfiltered perspective.

Her daily walks with Susan around the neighborhood provided a rhythm to our days, and whenever we were outside with our boys, they would pause to chat. Always interested in what the boys were up to, Connie and Susan became important people in their childhood.

When I was serving on the School Committee during the pandemic, our sidewalk chats would sometimes stretch to nearly an hour and our free-wheeling conversation would bounce from national issues to local tensions. And always I’d walk away feeling stronger and with renewed commitment thanks to Connie’s encouragement. I and my family will miss Connie dearly.

Allison McDonald, former School Committee member and chair, and managing editor of The Amherst Current

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Serendipity brought Connie and me together in person a few months ago at Cooley, while her more recent text was “The universe has its own plan for me. I’m just along for the ride.” That really wasn’t the Connie I knew – the Connie I knew *made* things happen.

Understand that Connie supported my first Select Board race in her home before she knew me personally, she being the most excellent sort of politically engaged community member who went by what a candidate wanted to do for her beloved Amherst and why – including their ability to execute that – not just whether she was already their friend. 

Her extensive professional work – paid and unpaid – on appropriate affordable housing made her both vitriolic enemies and quiet admirers, yet she happily worked with any group of folks to make good and important things happen. She didn’t shy away from easy philosophical yet complex practical challenges like providing sanctuary, or the social justice as well as revenue aspects of effective local regulation of cannabis.

She wanted to hire a young female Town Manager for all the values that would make clear, while also championing the little symbols of respect for our elected municipal officials like more accessible stipends and official name tags for all our professional engagements. She was a witty and incisive debriefer of marathon Representative Town Meeting sessions. She always enthusiastically shared her fierce love of Susan, Sarah, and her grandchildren. I am proud to have been her colleague *and* her friend.

 Alisa Brewer, former Town Councilor At-Large and former Select Board member

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Connie epitomized service and leadership in Amherst. Most recently, I witnessed her passion for local issues through The Amherst Current, where her insights on public approval processes were impactful. We both shared the joy in supporting Starlight Youth Theater, where her grandson and my daughter were buddies on stage.

Her work as a Town planner—especially in affordable housing—deeply impressed me and influenced my own community engagement, i.e., joining the Planning Board. I also really admired Connie’s role as a pioneer for marriage equality. She was one of Amherst’s community champions, who will be sorely missed.

Jack Jemsek, former Planning Board member

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I admired Connie’s dedication and commitment to Amherst and the many leadership roles she took on. She helped me understand the importance of housing and her desire to make it more accessible was inspiring.  She strengthened our community and she will be missed. 

Clare Bertrand, former representative on Town Meeting

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I knew Connie Kruger for almost 40 years as a friend and a work colleague whose passion for social justice and affordable housing was at the core of her being. Connie was a consummate housing professional whose commitment to affordable housing spanned almost four decades.

Early in her career Connie was the director of Self-Help Housing for Rural Housing Improvement, where she oversaw the building of houses for first-time homebuyers. Connie’s work as a planner for the Town of Amherst found her advocating for and facilitating the construction of affordable homeownership and rental housing for families, most notably Misty Meadows and Butternut Farms.

And that is just a small piece of what Connie did to further affordable housing efforts in Amherst. When Connie left town government, she came to work with me at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, where she was a program director and provided technical assistance on housing development and zoning issues to communities throughout the Commonwealth. She will be remembered for conceiving and then executing the creation of MHP’s Housing Institute, which is now in its 19th year and is known throughout the state as the premier affordable housing training institute for local officials. I will miss Connie’s keen wit, her abiding faith in our ability to prevail despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but most of all our friendship. Rest in peace my friend.

Rita Farrell, Massachusetts Housing Partnership

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Connie was a deeply engaged civil servant who devoted her smarts, empathy, and commitment to public service to the town of Amherst, specifically in the areas of planning and housing. Her expertise in housing was immense, and I, like many others in our community, benefited from her willingness to teach us about housing policy, zoning, community participation, all of it.  She was not only a force for local housing policy, but was also recognized statewide as an expert.

She was a talented public servant, having served on the Amherst Select Board, Planning Board,, and other organizations, and she was also an energetic gardener, a talented potter, a wonderful chef, and generous host. I loved the fact that she was not shy with sharing her observations and insights, which always came from a place of honesty and integrity. My heart goes out to Susan, her beloved wife, and her family.

Mindy Domb, Massachusetts State Representative for the 3rd Hampshire District

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Connie Kruger was also a skilled artist. Of course, she worked under her place name:  Hop Brook Pottery. Here are a couple of my favorite mugs that she gifted to me. 

Cinda Jones