Dianne S. (Snow) Salcedo

ORANGE- Dianne A. Salcedo, 79, of Maple Valley Farm, Main Street, died peacefully at home after suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), with her loving husband at her side.

Born on February 27, 1944 in Providence, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Alfred and Bernice (Mercier) Snow and grew up in Providence and Cranston, graduating from Cranston High in 1962. In 1966, Dianne graduated from Rhode Island College.

Her first husband was Edgar Salcedo. After that marriage she later met her future husband, Robert “Bob” Michaud Jr. in 1974 in the Boston area and were married in 1983.

Dianne worked for the Harvard School of Public Health working on the Six Cities Study, a landmark research project which was the first study to prove that air pollution was hazardous to human health. She developed the rigorous quality assurance procedures that allowed the researchers to incontrovertibly prove their conclusions.

In the spring of 1979, Dianne and Bob moved to North Orange where they owned and operated Maple Valley Farm for 21 years, growing vegetables and flowers.

Following retirement from farming, Dianne became the head librarian at the Moore-Leland Library in North Orange as well as a librarian at the Wheeler library downtown. She loved this tremendously as reading was her passion, and encouraging everybody to read was her vocation in life. She found great joy in helping parents get their children involved in reading; planning and conducting story hours for the nearby pre-school students, as well as recommending books to all the patrons. She retired from the library in 2013.

Dianne was a fiery believer in the value of a strong public education system and was very active in the education of the children in Orange and had served on the Orange School Committee, was a representative to the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School Board, a representative to the CAPS collaborative, served on the School Building Committee as well as the school Finance and Facilities Committee. In addition, she served on the Orange Energy committee, as well as numerous public-spirited activities such as planning and zoning ad hoc committees.

Dianne loved gardening, reading, hiking and swimming. She also enjoyed snorkeling in the tropics and was an accomplished cook who enjoyed modifying recipes. Dianne also helped the Community Church at their yearly fairs.

Dianne is survived by her husband, Robert “Bob” Michaud Jr. of North Orange; a daughter, Tanya D. Salcedo of New Haven, VT; sisters, Marilyn Emerick of Galesburg, IL and Janice Snow of Cambridge; several nephews and nieces and grandnephews and grandnieces.

There are no calling hours.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesdayday, September 6, 2023 at 3 p.m. at the Community Church of North Orange and Tully.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Dianne’s memory can be made to Doctors Without Borders USA
P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030.

Witty’s Funeral Home, 158 South Main Street, Orange, is assisting the family.

Guest book and directions online at WWW.WITTYFUNERALHOME.COM

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Dianne S. (Snow) Salcedo, please visit our floral store.