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"Beatrice Nessen: A
force to be reckoned with" Beacon Hill Times It is often because a cause affects us directly, whether through illness, catastrophe or crime, that we commit ourselves to it fervently and everyone round us nods and says, "of course." But Beatrice Nessen has served on the board of the Garden of Peace, a memorial to murdered children, since 1995. She has two healthy, grown children and has not been directly touched, as all the other people on the board have, by the tragedy of losing a child. Yet she has worked tirelessly to make the garden, soon to be ensconced in the overhauled Saltonstall building on Cambridge Street, a reality. "1995 was a year of very high murder rates in Boston," Nessen explained. "It bothered me. I love Boston, care about how it looks and functions and could not understand how we could have rampant, senseless murder in our midst." Given the tremor in her voice, the murders did more than bother her. They outraged her; the injustice shook her to the core. It is easy to see why her plan for the memorial was inspired by the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D. C. "It had a healing quality I wanted, something to bring the city together," she said. Given the scope of the project, one would expect Beatrice Nessen to be the owner of a voice that projects blocks away, someone whose likeness might adorn ships sailing into treacherous waters. But the woman who opens the door at Charles River Square and offers ice tea is of delicate stature and speaks softly, often with a laugh at her own expense. Married to Peter Nessen, CEO of several companies and board members of 14 at last count, they have raised a son and a daughter on Beacon Hill. They met on a blind date, while she was working toward a B.A. at Wellesley. "Peter will tell you that I proposed but that is not true," she said, emphatically. Many people refer to Nessen as "Fifi" because she was born in Paris in 1938. The family left for the Unites States in 1940, tagging along as her father, an engineer who designed refineries, pursued job opportunities. The trip to the States took the family through Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, perhaps explaining Nessen's college major, political science and international relations. She also holds a master's degree in public policy studies from Boston University. Nessen's first jobs were with international firms specializing in city planning. The training brought her broad experience in planning shopping centers as well as cleaning up Boston Harbor and Deer Island. "It was gratifying to develop reuse regulations, to find that the sewage sludge had nutrient value that could be used elsewhere. It brought me in contact with the Department of Environmental Protections and was invaluable once I became a project manger for the Central Artery in 1989. " Her job, which was to minimize adverse effects on historic buildings, allowed her to "come up to the road from the sewer," and lasted until 1996. She now works for ICON architecture on a municipal harbor plan for East Boston when she is not busy fund-raising. Nessen started the Garden of Peace project by talking to people like the late Paul Rober, co-chair of Parents of Murdered Children, a nationwide organization. She pulled together a board of 11 people from many neighborhoods, and thanks to her involvement with state government, she was able to recruit the support of then governors Weld and Cellucci. "I learned a lot about myself in the process. I knew there was no turning back, that we had to persist. People who lost their kids come from all walks of life, and it is the randomness that is so horrifying," said Nessen. With a budget of $1.3 million, the Garden of Peace has raised contributions from the Beacon Hill Garden Club, the 250 Cambridge Street Fund and the Massachusetts Development Fund as well as Gillette, John Hancock and the Boston Foundation. "This is a wonderful space in our neighborhood, a unique example of public art where people can just sit quietly and commemorate loved ones, a place to build awareness that there is a cost to violence." Her voice has that tremor again.
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