Meet our People: Robert Becker
Robert Becker, Groundskeeper Extraordinaire
If you’ve admired the neat paths, thriving plants, or peaceful scenery around the Delaware & Hudson Canal Museum, chances are you’ve seen the quiet handiwork of Robert Becker. Since 2003, Robert has been our dedicated groundskeeper, helping the museum transition from its original home on Mohonk Road to its current location in the DePuy Tavern.
Originally from West Islip, Long Island, Robert spent thirteen years in the U.S. Navy, where he specialized in maintaining essential systems like plumbing and heating. His service took him to places as varied as Hawaii, Bermuda, San Diego, Buffalo, and Norfolk, where he picked up a trace of a southern accent. After leaving the Navy, he ran his own plumbing and bath company in Virginia Beach before deciding to move closer to family in Ulster County, a place he’d visited often as a boy.
His connection to the area runs deep—his mother worked at the Mohonk Mountain House Gift Shop for over three decades and was credited with helping the shop reach its first million dollars in sales. His family eventually bought a stone house in Clove Valley in 1976, and Robert still treasures those rural, rooster-crowing days. A favorite story was the time his parents bought a huge wall cupboard at a local estate sale—only to realize it wouldn’t fit in the car with their four kids. The solution? The children climbed into the cupboard, and home they went.
When not at the museum, Robert has taken small landscaping jobs in the area, discretely not naming some celebrity clientele. You might also find him at the Grady Park Flea Market on alternate Sundays, where he sells vintage finds and his own handcrafted birdhouses made from reclaimed license plates—he calls the project “License to Nest.”
A lover of quiet, Robert appreciates the solitude that comes with landscaping: “It’s easy,” he says, “and no one bothers you.” But he’s not without a vision for the future. He dreams of a revitalized Telegraph House and a restored trout pond in High Falls where children can fish—simple pleasures that reflect his deep connection to this place and its people.
Thank you, Robert, for your long-standing dedication to the D&H Canal Historical Society and its mission.
