Nelson L. Dionne

Born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, as part of the City's once large French Canadian community, Nelson attended Salem High School where he first learned about the Great Salem Fire of 1914 in a Civics class. His family was personally affected by the Fire, like hundreds of other French Canadian families, leading to Dionne’s interest in Salem history and emergency service.

Dionne served with the Army Security Agency from 1965 to 1969, doing communications intercept duties He served at the 7RRFS, and at Bad Aibling, near Munich during the Vietnam era. After discharge, Dionne enrolled at North Shore Community College. He graduated with an A.S. Degree in Fire Science.

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In 1978 Dionne was appointed to the Salem Police Department, which put him in a position to gather current paper. Salem at that time was undergoing massive changes due to urban renewal. In 1992, Dionne was injured while on duty as a police officer. He retired.in 1995. A series of illnesses provided the opportunity to finely read his growing collection. Unlike most collectors of Salem history, Dionne specializes in Salem’s “Industrial Century". This era began around 1873 and ends in the 1970s. He gathered current material. As Salem began to change from a self-contained community, into a bedroom for people who are part of the regional workforce. Today quickly becomes yesterday. Better to save today for tomorrow, while things are often free for a frugal history buff. History cannot depend on having local history buffs to donate anything that is or should be saved to tell the story of us to those who will follow.

Over the years, Dionne has provided many authors and reporters with photographs and printed materials, and in 2011 he joined with Jerome Curley to publish his first book, Salem, Then & Now, for Arcadia Publishing. Eventually, after over fifty years of collecting, Dionne turned over his archive to Salem State University in 2013. He donated his collection of items suitable for display to the Salem Museum at Old Town Hall.

That same year, 2013, Historic New England, one of the nation’s oldest historic preservation organizations, awarded Dionne the coveted Prize for Collecting Works on Paper.

Nelson Dionne resides on the North Shore of Boston. He is married to author Bonnie Hurd Smith.