Meet Our Officers
VGS By-Law #5 states: Officers of the Society shall consist of a President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. Their elected terms shall be for two years. Our current officers are:
President: Henry Stish
Recently retired after a 38-year career with the Department of Defense, Henry Stish brings a lifelong passion for genealogy to his role as VGS President. Since moving to The Villages in 2022, Henry has been an active VGS member, participating in multiple Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and delivering numerous presentations on leveraging artificial intelligence tools to enhance the discovery and presentation of family histories. He is a native Minnesotan with Polish, Norwegian, and Irish roots.
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Vice President: Mary Ellen Radloff
Raised outside of Philadelphia, Mary Ellen grew up in a family, proud of its Irish roots, however she knew very little about her paternal side as her grandparents were Irish immigrants and died when her father was young. Mary Ellen met her husband, a fellow US Army officer, while stationed in Germany (his native country). Mary Ellen retired from the US Army Reserves in 2003, taught foreign languages at various high schools and universities and worked for the Department of Defense for 15 years before retiring to the Villages in 2020. While stationed in Germany in the 1980s, Mary Ellen had the opportunity to attend a class given by a member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints on family history. In a conversation with her husband’s family, his uncle gave her a copy of the Ahnentafel for his grandfather. Her mother gave her what little information she had on her family. Military life made family research difficult so the initial start was packed and moved many times until the move to the Villages and the opportunity to be a member of the VGS. Mary Ellen has been a member of several SIGs and attributes the information and skills learned as being instrumental in her finding cousins for both herself and her husband, as well as adding documented information to both her maternal and paternal family histories
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Secretary: Deanna Lammes
Deanna Lammes views her position as VGS Secretary as an opportunity to combine her passion for genealogy with her appreciation for the contributions of other members who make The VGS the valuable organization that it is. Deanna is a native of northern New York State. Following college graduation, she taught French and Spanish in central and western New York. She then graduated from the University of Rochester's business school with an MBA and joined the Xerox Corporation where she held various positions in the Human Resources function until retirement.
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Treasurer: Nancy Flanigan Schultz
Nancy was born and raised in the Mid-Hudson Valley in rural New York State, 100 miles north of New York City. Retirement in The Villages afforded the opportunity to finally pursue her interest in family history, with the Villages Genealogical Society becoming a critical asset for learning and interacting with like-minded people. By the time the pandemic struck in 2020, she had accumulated enough research to write her first book, Flanigans in Amenia: The Irish Famine Immigrant Experience. Recognizing the VGS's contribution to her development, she was motivated to give back. She has served as the Program Chair for the Preserving Family History special interest group since 2020, is currently a member of the VGS Pasta Group, a committee charged with envisioning innovative services and programs for VGS members, and was elected Treasurer for the 2026-2027 term.
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