MAKING A NAME

“He embodies what Bates rowing is about,” said Aidan Braithwaite ’23 of Milton, Mass., who learned about Sylvester from Peter Steenstra, the men’s and women’s teams’ head coach. “The consistency and hard work shown by his military service and being a part of the community that you’re in. It’s a quality I think he and others have that we should strive toward.”

Sylvester was born in Lewiston in 1924 and has lived in Auburn for most of his life. He was a “newsie” for the local paper, graduating from Edward Little High School and attending Bates for a year before being called to serve in World War II.

With the 295th Combat Engineers, he landed on Omaha Beach five days after D-Day, when the beach was still covered with the bodies of American soldiers, and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

After the war, he returned home to Auburn, attended Bates, then went to work in local banks and in telecommunications. He married a local gal, Elaine Miller, in 1949. After retiring, he and Elaine started a morning routine, coming to campus for breakfast at the Den. (Everyone remembers how Elaine always made sure that Ralph had his napkin in the right spot.)

And that’s where they met Steenstra, who would head to the Den for breakfast after his team’s early morning rowing practice on the Androscoggin River.

“I’m having scrambled eggs and toast, and I got to talking to him,” said Steenstra, turning toward Sylvester during the dedication. “Probably to you it seemed like just kind of chatting away over some breakfast, but to me it meant quite a bit. Being able to chat with someone who had such a vast experience in the world helped me keep things in perspective.”

In recent years, Sylvester has slowed down a bit, understandably. Following the 2019 death of Elaine after 70 years of marriage, the staff at Dining Services has helped Sylvester keep his Bates morning ritual going.

They invited Sylvester to have his breakfast (and sometimes lunch) in Commons, which is easier for him to enter. More recently, during COVID, the staff delivered a hot meal to Sylvester each day at home on Josslyn Street. (Sylvester has recently moved to the Maine Veterans’ Home in South Paris.)

In Commons, everyone knew Ralph’s table, up front near the desk station for Dining Services staff. There, staff brought him his breakfast: Eggs (omelet, over easy, or scrambled, they’re all good); a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar, milk, and raisins; and a cup of coffee, with a little cream.