Dr. Harry "Dutch" Dresser lives with his wife, Elaine, in their 170 year old home on Church Street in Bethel. Their three children have scattered a bit with Erika, the eldest, heading Santa Fe Prep's Middle School in New Mexico, Derek programming and doing network administration work for TDBankNorth in Portland, Maine, and Charles, the youngest, a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Dutch has been a lifelong innovator and change agent in business, education, and community affairs. Over his 26 year career at Gould Academy as Associate Headmaster, Dean of Academics, and Chief Information Officer, he created many new programs from cycle racing and ski patrol to programs in robotics, computer science, and celestial navigation.
Fascinated with computer technology, Dutch began a telephony based computer network among buildings at Gould Academy in the 1980's. When the Internet began to serve other than a few universities, Dutch facilitated Internet deployment at Gould Academy in 1992, before the release of Mosaic, one of the first world wide web browsers. Gould Academy moved quickly to distribute access to the young, text-based Internet to all buildings on its campus, including each dormitory room. Gould Academy, under Dutch Dresser's technical direction, was the first independent school in the nation to provide campus-wide Internet access widely across its entire campus. This was accomplished in March 1994 when fiber was run among buildings on the campus and horizontal copper was distributed throughout the buildings. Dutch did a great deal of consulting on school and rural community datification during the early years of Internet growth. Because of his work, he was invited to participate in an Aspen Institute seminar on rural datification, and was Bob Metcalfe's guest at the first Camden Technology Conference (now Pop!Tech).
Based on this early experience, Dutch founded Bethel Data Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation which provided dial-up Internet access to non-commercial customers in Bethel in 1994. The Corporation did its work for many years until commercial Internet service became a viable option for the town. Dutch founded NetExpress, Inc., a commercial Internet service provider in 1995 with his friend, David Hawkes. The company went on to provide access to a number of New Hampshire and Maine towns, including Portland. NetExpress was merged with New England Internet Services and took that name several years later. Dutch remained one of its owners and Directors until NEIS was sold.
During a six month sabattical from Gould, Dutch programmed the proof of concept school management software that was ultimately purchased by WhippleHill, Inc. and became its School Information Services package. The beta version of the school management software, written by Dutch, first ran at Gould Academy as the InfoServer, a name retained on the school's website today. The software is now used by hundreds of independent schools across this country and Canada, including Gould Academy. Dutch continues to serve as a Fellow for WhippleHill, Inc. serving as executive director of its Board of Advisors, conducting product review retreats, and doing special projects for the company's President, Travis Warren.
Dutch spent 12 years in public service as a Selectman for the Town of Bethel; for 8 of those years, he was the Board's Chair. He has served in other capacities on public boards and now serves on the Western Maine Economic Development Council Board.
Dutch is in partnership with Les Otten on The Colony, a 68 lot resort community at the base of Sunday River Resort; he serves as the President of Colony Development LLC. Colony Development and Colony Construction have built several homes for the discerning in The Colony.
For the past year, Dutch has been involved in the organization of Maine Energy Systems, LLC and now a principal and serves as one of its Directors.
In his spare time, Dutch's favorite pastime is sailing the family's International 600, KOAN. Some travel, some golf, some Porsche driving, and some skiing in the winter round on those vacation moments.