For Wellfleet, Cape Cod, and the Earth, Dick Elkin’s vision was clear: because most greenhouse gas emissions on the Outer Cape are generated by vehicles, residential power consumption, and heating, energy needs to be locally sourced and renewable. “If you want to solve the problem, you have to know what problem you’re actually solving,” he liked to say.
Dick’s goal was to get Wellfleet and Cape Cod to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He worked to put solar arrays on the capped landfill, spearheaded the successful Solarize Wellfleet project, collaborated with other towns on Solarize Outer Cape, participated in the Electric Vehicle Exposition in June 2023, and successfully pushed for Wellfleet to adopt the Green Communities Act and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.
In hospice care at his South Wellfleet home, Dick died on Feb. 10, 2024. The cause was nonsmoker’s lung cancer. He was 81.
The son of Julius and Tess Elkin, Richard Michael Elkin was born on April 10, 1942 in the Bronx, N.Y., where he grew up. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1959. In high school, he rode the subway weekly for an 11 p.m. shift on the Goddard Space Institute’s computer, one of the few computers in the city at the time. Few people knew how to program it.
He received a B.S. from the Columbia University School of Engineering in 1963, and in 1968 he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Maryland. He went on to a 34-year career as a systems engineer and software manager, mostly at Raytheon, where he built large-scale systems that involved people, processes, and technology. He retired to Wellfleet in 2008.
Dick met his wife, Esther, on an Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) trip in New Hampshire in 1969. On another AMC trip in Maine, the first person in a group hiking single-file stirred up a nest of bees. The second hiker got them good and angry. The third hiker, Esther, became the main target of their attack. Hikers one and two ran away; Dick was hiker four. He took off his sweater and did his best to swat the bees away.
He and Esther were married in 1971.
In 1978, Dick and his family spent nine months on the Cape while he worked on Pave Paws, an Air Force radar system for missile and space surveillance at what is now Joint Base Cape Cod. The Wellfleet house he and Esther bought in 1999 overlooks Cape Cod Bay; Pave Paws is on the horizon.
Dick was a founder of Nauset Neighbors, part of the “Villages” movement that originated in Boston. A grassroots, all-volunteer network of seniors, Nauset Neighbors helps people stay in their homes as long as possible.
Dick’s technical knowledge was instrumental in launching the group in 2011. Today, with about 400 members and 300 volunteers, Nauset Neighbors provide rides, handyman services, help with new technology, friendly visits, and respite for caretakers in Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Chatham, Brewster, and Harwich.
Dick gave hundreds of rides over the years to neighbors for medical appointments in Hyannis and as far away as Sandwich. He acquired an electric car, and with the solar panels on his roof powering it, he was immune when gas prices went through the roof. He put a sticker on the back of his car that said, in large letters, “Student Driver.” Smaller letters said, “AI in Training.” Most people saw only the larger letters and a gray-haired man behind the wheel.
Dick helped define how Villages operate. In 2011, there were 44 of them nationwide, each with a central office and a professional administrator. Dick envisioned an all-volunteer Village with no central office, a radical idea before Covid, but he made it work, first for Nauset Neighbors and later for many other Villages after he joined the board of the Village-to-Village Network. Today, there are hundreds of Villages in the country.
He was also Wellfleet’s representative to the Cape Light Compact starting in 2016 and the Cape Cod Commission in 2019.
Dick passed on to his children and grandchildren his intense curiosity, his belief that we should just get out there and get things done, and his love of the natural world. Like Dick, who had climbed all 48 of the 4,000-foot peaks in New Hampshire before he retired, his son and family became “peak baggers,” his grandsons calling him from summits to share their accomplishments and rave about the views.
Family and friends remember him fondly for his love of folk music, his blueberry and banana pancakes, and his signature milkshakes. “Will you make me a milkshake please, Grandpa?” a grandchild would ask, and he would answer, “Poof! You’re a milkshake!” When a grandchild asked him to do something, he would often say, “I would, but I’m too busy,” and then do what was asked of him.
Dick taught his grandchildren how to kayak, how to drive, and how to describe the motion of a double pendulum. During the pandemic, he met daily on Zoom with two of them to teach math and science. They learned that science and engineering are the foundation and framework of everyday life.
In the last week of his life, Dick Zoomed into his PC users’ group, a board meeting of the Wellfleet Community Forum, and a meeting of his “Beer with the Boys” group, and he observed and spoke at a Wellfleet select board meeting. Less than 24 hours before he died, he mentored a network of six Villages in Florida, whose members did not know of his health status.
“You can sleep the first year that you’re dead,” Dick would say if anyone complained of having too much to do.
Dick is survived by his wife, Esther, of Wellfleet; his children, Carl Elkin of Arlington, Va. and Rachel Elkin Lebwohl of White Plains, N.Y.; his grandchildren, Elliot and Daniel Elkin and Lily, Jakey, and Miri Elkin Lebwohl; and his sister, Elaine Heitner, of Montreal, Quebec.
The funeral was held on Feb. 12 at Beit Olam Cemetery, 60 Old Sudbury Road, Wayland. There are no plans for a memorial.
The family suggests that to honor his memory friends consider subscribing to the Provincetown Independent or donating to the Local Journalism Project in Provincetown.
