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Meet Our Staff

Will Beemer WILL BEEMER: Will Beemer is a founding member of the Timber Framers Guild (www.tfguild.org) and served as Co-Executive Director for 11 years. He's been a builder for over 40 years, and an educator in the building trades for thirty of those. Along with his wife, Michele, he owns and operates the Heartwood School for the Homebuilding Crafts in Washington, Massachusetts, which has been teaching courses in timber framing, home building and other trades since 1978 (www.heartwoodschool.com).
Will has taught timber framing around the world, including Patagonia (with Rocky Mountain Workshops), at Palomar College in California, North House Folk School in Minnesota and numerous Guild workshops and projects. He has authored many articles on basic and advanced timber framing techniques and is a regular contributor to Timber Framing (the quarterly journal of the Timber Framers Guild), Fine Homebuilding, and has also written for Wood Design & Building and Joiner's Quarterly.

Skip Dewhirst SKIP DEWHIRST: Skip is founder of Meerkat Design and Handwork. A furniture maker and timber framer, he has been actively pursuing his passion for woodworking and teaching for twenty years and is looking forward to his fourth year of teaching at Pingree Park. When not building timberframes or teaching, Skip can be found building custom furniture in his shop in Worcester VT.

Glenn Dodge GLENN DODGE: A life-time resident of New Hampshire, Glenn grew up playing and occasionally working on a dairy farm in the little town of New Boston that his family has operated since the 1920’s. As a child he fell in love with the many old timber framed hay barns on the property and then worked building log homes to get through college, graduating from New Hampshire Technical Institure with an Engineering degree in 1987. He started designing and building timber framed structures shortly thereafter and in 1993, began studying and modifying the French Scribe system into what has become Plumb Line Scribe, and now uses it exclusively. He has taught many workshops on Plumb line scribe and snap line square rule including the octagonal Knob Mill barn in Milton NH, and most recently at the Geo-Scribe workshop in Fort Collins in October of 2010. Glenn is still living happily in New Boston with his wife and three children and is excited to return to Pingree Park where he attended an engineering workshop in 2001.

Neil GoddenNEIL GODDEN: Neil Godden received his degree in Civil Engineering from the University at Buffalo in 1996. Combining his love for wood with his engineering degree, he discovered timber framing. Neil then worked as an apprentice under master builder, Jack Sobon, using only hand tools for 3 years. Neil has designed and crafted many timber structures, including sheds, pavilions, homes, and large barns. Neil harvested timber from his own property with oxen to build his timber frame home. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and their two children. Neil enjoys co-teaching the Cruck Framing class with Jack Sobon at the Heartwood School in the Berkshires. He was also an instructor for the Timber Framers Guild, Long Island Bayles boat shed project a few years back.

Peter Haney PETER HANEY: Peter has been a builder and woodworker for over twenty five years. The founder and workshop organizer of Rocky Mountain Workshops, he has travelled the world organizing building workshops and bicycle tours.  Peter is experienced in both timber framing and log building.   Peter lives and works in Fort Collins, Colorado.


Josh Jackson JOSH JACKSON: Josh received his BSME from Yale University in 1989 and, after a brief stint in the real world doing energy efficiency work at PG&E in San Francisco, discovered the Holy Grail of timber framing as an apprentice at the Heartwood School in 1992. He has been designing and building everything from lamps to timber frames since, specializing in organic shapes and materials. Having co-founded Timber Homes LLC, Josh now lives in one of his own with his wife Geraldine in Middlesex, VT, and continues to enjoy teaching at RMW, Heartwood, and Yestermorrow as well as designing and crafting fine frames and furnishings.

Chris Drake CHRIS DRAKE: Chris’ love of building began early and led him to study civil engineering and construction management as an undergrad at Colorado State University as well as structural engineering as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. After earning his Masters degree in 2004, he worked building log homes in Western Colorado for a year before moving to Denver where he joined a local structural engineering firm and earned his Professional Engineering License in 2008. Since that time, Chris has had the opportunity to pursue his long held passion for timber framing. Having completed multiple courses through Rocky Mountain Workshops and the Heartwood Apprenticeship, he currently works for Frameworks Timber in Fort Collins, Colorado where he is an apprentice in the Timber Framers Guild Apprenticeship Program.