Michael Joseph Bagiackas passed from this Earth unexpectedly on October 21, 2025, engaging with the elemental world he loved. A steady, patient and loving presence, he found meditation and direction in natural landscapes and shared his warmth and wisdom as an educator and school administrator.
Locally, he served as the executive director of the Maplehill School in Plainfield for 17 years, eventually establishing the beginnings of the farm school, and cofounded the Montessori School of Central Vermont. Before that, he served as the first cofounding head of school at Hershey Montessori School in Concord Township, Ohio, for 13 years. He developed rites of passage programs for emerging adolescents, which he later continued with visiting students from around New England at Maplehill.
In his later years, he settled into his lifelong enjoyment of puttering in the backyard. Felling trees for firewood over time, he opened up a small plateau on the slope behind our house that looks out over the river valley. This became his sacred space, where he lovingly tended young fruit trees, berries and small garden patches, enjoying quiet time for rest and reflection. His internal curiosity and search for connection to our Earth is expressed in the cairns and sculptures of found objects he built.
Michael honored beauty through simplicity with perfectly mastered pies, breads and cookies, and his signature thin-crust pizza. He held reverence for the traditional recipes of his ancestors, most particularly the Bagiackas Slovak Christmas Eve ritual meal with extended family. His life became centered around his home, tending to his woodpiles, his hearth fires, his family and friends.
Michael is survived by his wife of 45 years, Kaemaple Cotter; his daughters, Maya May Holmes and husband Brian of Eastham, Mass., and Ananda and partner Jonathan DeVilbiss of Northampton, Mass.; son, Emrys of Montpelier, Vt.; grandson, Dylan Haviland of Eastham, Mass.; sisters, Claudia and longtime partner Paul Council of East Calais, Jean Moretti and husband Nick of Basking Ridge, N.J., and Kat Connaughton and husband Pete of St. Louis, Mich.; brother, Thomas of Kent, Ohio; and several generations of extended family.
A gathering of remembrance will be held at the Plainfield Opera House on Saturday, November 1, 2025, at noon. All are welcome.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4 2025.
Huge mentor for me. Wonderful man. I can say he changed the way I looked at my life. Prayers to his family.
Kae, so sorry to hear about Michael. My thoughts are with you. It gets better. Love, you’re cousin Bob
I knew Michael was a great guy but I had no idea how many lives he had positively impacted through the years.
The 100+ humans who packed the Opera House were a testament to this.A life well-lived and sorely missed.