Biography
Berenice R. Tuttle devoted much of her life to community service and to running the family business, Tuttle Publishing.
Born into the prominent Tuttle family of Rutland, she worked for the family's printing and publishing business as a young woman. She graduated from Smith College in 1902, having spent her summers working in the company's editorial department. After graduation, she worked for the company and for two years in the editorial department at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in New York.
In 1935, at the age of fifty-five, she became president of the Tuttle Company, when it was one of the largest publishers of genealogies in the country. Tuttle Publishing is still in business today.
Beyond her family's business, Tuttle's two major interests in life were welfare work and women's clubs. One of the founders of the Rutland Woman's Club, she became president of the club from 1914-1916 and was president of the Vermont Federation of Woman's Clubs in 1931-1933. In addition, she served as one of the directors of the National Federation of Woman's Clubs and served as Vermont's parliamentarian.
Tuttle's interest in child welfare led to her appointment as chair for Vermont's "Children's Year" in 1917. She helped organize the Vermont Conference of Social Work, served as president, and founded the Vermont Children's Aid Society. Tuttle's extensive civic involvement also included membership in the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, and the Rutland Playground Association. She served on the Rutland school board for sixteen years, was the first commissioner of Girl Scouts in Rutland, founded the Zonta Club (a service organization for women), and served as director of the Vermont Tuberculosis Society and secretary of the Ladies' Hospital Aid Society.
With a colonial ancestry, Tuttle was also regent of the Ann Story Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a member of the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames, and secretary of the Daughters of Colonial Wars.
She contributed articles to various journals and magazines and became a member of the Vermont Writers' League. Tuttle was listed in Who's Who of New England Women and Who's Who of American Women. In 1920, Tuttle served as Secretary of the Republican State Convention and as an alternate to the Republican National Convention, which chose Warren G. Harding as presidential nominee and Calvin Coolidge as vice-presidential nominee.
Tuttle also was involved with the Rutland Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School, the Sunset House, a home for the elderly, and the Mid-Vermont Artists' Association. Devoted to making Vermont a better place, Berenice Tuttle was described in the Vermonter magazine in 1933 as "vigorous in administration, buoyant, irrepressible, adored."Education
Smith College (1902)Occupation
Executive
Editor