For Harwich Health Board's Beyerl, Public Service Runs In The Family

What does a professional nutritionist eat at home?

"Plenty of vegetables," says Cynthia Taft Bayerl of Harwich.

Bayerl, who grew up the third daughter in a family of nine children in Cranston, R.I., first became interested in nutrition when she was 14. It so happened that her father George, a well-known pediatrician, worked at Rhode Island Hospital with a dietitian named Mary Andrews.

"My mom was impressed by Mary's devotion to her family, balancing her parttime job at the clinic with five children, her widowed mother living with them, and she was active in her church," Bayerl recalls. "All attributes my mother admired."

So when Andrews offered to allow Bayerl to "shadow" her, Bayerl jumped at the chance. Eventually she graduated from the same college - Mount Saint Mary College in Hookset, N.H.- and entered the same internship program that Andrews had also completed.

"Mary continued to be my mentor until her death" in 2010, Bayerl says. "Thanks to the influences of my parents and Mary, my nutrition specialty is pediatric and adolescent nutrition."

Like many who retire to this, Bayerl, formerly a 35-year Harwich summer resident, has put her professional expertise to good use as a volunteer in her town.

She worked for 29 years for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health coordinating nutrition services for the bureau of Prevention and Wellness before retiring two years ago in July. She joined the Harwich Board of Health a little over a year and a half ago, not long after she moved to Harwich full-time. She is also active with the Democratic Town Committee and with the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers Club.

She lives on a quiet street off Depot Road and this afternoon she sits in her living room, decorated with plants and prints from her late parents' home, talking about her career. And yes, she is serving coffee, cookies and a banana bread baked by her husband Andrew.

"I really enjoy it, they do a lot of really good work," she says of the health board. Coming under the board's purview are a wide swath of issues; community wellness programs are something she would like to see expanded.

"The average person is challenged in getting information on healthy eating and exercise," she says. Later she adds, "It's hard to get people who are middle-aged to think that to have an apple instead of a hot fudge sundae is great."

After graduating from college and earning a master's degree in community nutrition from the Sargent College of Allied Health at Boston University, Bayerl had a career in the field of nutrition. In 1978 her peers in the Massachusetts Dietetic Association named her "Young Dietitian of the Year" in recognition of her work as a pediatric nutrition specialist in the Cystic Fibrosis Program at Children's Hospital. Many other prestigious awards would follow. In 1986 she joined the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Since 1978 she has been a member of the Massachusetts Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and she is currently an elected delegate to the national board. This year the group is gearing up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding by a group of women in Ohio in 1917.

"I love it, I love public policy," she says. "It's very natural to me."

Public service, specifically in health issues and in politics, runs in Bayerl's genes. Her maternal great-grandfather, Dr. Thomas McNally, was the first Democrat elected as the mayor of Central Falls, R.I. in 1905. Her grandfather, Joseph Farrell, later served on the Providence City Council, and her grandmother, Alice, was a delegate for Al Smith, a Democratic candidate for president in 1928.

"This history of helping people who struggle has been in my family since my great-grandfather's time," Bayerl says. "Helping people who are challenged- veterans, newly-arrived immigrants-the board of health ties into that."

Bayerl served as president of the North Reading League of Women Voters for 20 years, and for 15 years headed up the candidate forum. Last fall she was active in the successful Mass. State Senate campaign of Julian Cyr of Truro. Like Bayerl, Cyr worked in the department of public health. She is also active with the Harwich Democratic Town Committee.

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Both of Bayerl's parents were deeply committed to helping people in the community who faced special challenges. She recalled that her father charged nurses, police officer and firefi ghters a minimal amount to treat their children. He also had a policy that after the fourth child in the family, all others were treated for free. Both of her parents were active in the local parish, St. Paul's, and in the Catholic Family Movement. Several of her siblings made careers in the health and education fields.

Bayerl and her husband Andrew have celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary. They raised their three children, ranging in age from 38 to 26, in North Reading. Their oldest daughter Katie, a graduate of Brown University, recently published her first young adult novel, "A Psalm for Lost Girls" (Putnam, 2017). The story revolves around a 17-year-old girl who might be a saint and a second girl who disappears from a small Massachusetts town. The book has already garnered accolades.