Bowdoin Magazine, Vol. 91, No. 2, Winter 2020

WINTER 2020 VOL. 91 NO. 2

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT MAINE Celebrating 200 years of statehood

Contents WINTER 2020 VOL. 91 NO. 2

“It took time to understand the culture of the Northeast.

But at Bowdoin, I found friends who became family.”

26 A Century Gone

The Medical School of Maine, founded at Bowdoin in the year of new statehood, marks a decidedly less glamorous anniversary.

—HECTOR MAGAÑA ’16

32 What We Love

18 New Mainers

Tasha Graff ’07 explores what it means to be a Mainer when, in truth, we’re all from away.

Maine and Bowdoin writers give their takes on what makes our home state so special.

46 The Consequence of Compromise

Professor Brian Purnell explores the complicated issue of Maine statehood.

Forward 5

Isaac’s Journey: Isaac Kabuika ’20 helps other

African immigrants learn IT skills.

7

Dine: A traditional Franco-American meat and potato

pie from Bowdoin Dining Service.

8

Maine Field Notes: A few favorites from the

well-traveled Bowdoin Outing Club staff, illustrated by Susan Coyne ’07.

10 How Early Maine Viewed Itself: A new exhibition of lithographs from Maine’s first fifty years of statehood.

11

Game On: The women’s rugby team wins a

national championship.

13

Staying Power: Justice Donald Alexander ’64 is the

longest-serving Maine justice ever.

Connect 49 Shane Diamond ’10 is right where he wants to be.

57 Aisha Woodward ’08 talks Maine and politics.

59 Bri Bishop ’16 on being back at Bowdoin.

In Every Issue 4 Respond 44 Q&A 48 Whispering Pines 64 Here BOWDOIN MAGAZINE WINTER 2020 | CLASSNEWS@BOWDOIN.EDU 1

“FROM HERE” Bowdoin College announced the public phase of its largest-ever fundraising campaign, with a goal of raising $500 million by June 30, 2024. More than half of the funds are earmarked for financial aid and access. The College has already raised more than $300 million in gifts and pledges during the so-called quiet phase of the campaign that began on July 1, 2018. Named “From Here: The Campaign for Bowdoin”—a nod to the current strengths of the College and the possibilities ahead—the campaign is focused on people and programs and is grounded in three core promises at Bowdoin: to ensure access and affordability, to sustain and evolve a transformational liberal arts model for an education that is interdisciplinary and innovative, and to provide the resources and programs aimed at helping graduates secure a great first job after college, leading to fulfilling and productive careers.

Simpson’s Point, Brunswick. Photo by Bob Handelman.

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Respond

Remembering Project 65

FALL 2019 VOL. 91 NO. 1

I ENJOYED READING Ray Black’s article on the fifty years of the AF/AM society at Bowdoin. When I saw the artifact about Project 65, it reminded me why I got involved as a sophomore in 1963. I truly believed that at Bowdoin the common good was something we seek. The question for me was, “What was I going to try to do about it?” It is nice to know that the current Africana Studies Program fits well with President Joseph McKeen’s original charge to the College. I hope Bowdoin continues to get students to believe in the common good.

CELEBRATE Fifty years of AF/AM at Bowdoin

Ed Bell ’66

UNITED In recounting the history of African Americans at Bowdoin, the magazine’s reporting skipped from John Brown Russwurm in the nineteenth century to the 1960s, but it missed historic efforts by Bowdoin students immediately after the Second World War. Returning veterans, unhappy to see campus discrimination, created a new, local fraternity, named Alpha Rho Upsilon, the Greek representation of “All Races United.” African Americans and other minority students

would join. In another case, when the Delta Upsilon chapter faced a veto from its national headquarters because it sought to admit its second African American member, it left the national and formed Delta Sigma, a Bowdoin local chapter.

With nearly all social life at Bowdoin then organized by fraternities, these moves in the late 1940s were of major importance.

Gordon L. Weil ’58 KIND LESSONS I read parts of Houston Kraft ’11’s essay out loud to my family, and the story

facebook.com/bowdoin

he recounted about Helga and her two hours alone in the airport brought tears to our eyes and made us reflect on times in our own lives when strangers hadn’t stopped to be kind when we needed them to, and how that affected us. Also, how there have been times when we have stepped up or haven’t stepped up, and the reasons why. It led to a deep discussion.

I appreciated how Houston broke down the reasons people don’t stop, and the distinction between “nice” and “kind.”

These are things that,

@BowdoinCollege

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as a society, we all need to think about and actively work on.

Ouda Baxter ’11 CORRECTION In the AF/AM/50 article last issue, we incorrectly stated that John Brown Russwurm matriculated at Bowdoin in 1822.

Russwurm entered Bowdoin as a member of the junior class in the fall of 1824.

STAY IN TOUCH! Reach out and update us on what you’ve been up to since graduation. Send us an email at classnews@ bowdoin.edu.

@bowdoincollege

MAGAZINE STAFF Editor Matthew J. O’Donnell Consulting Editor Scott C. Schaiberger ’95 Executive Editor Alison M. Bennie Designer and Art Director Melissa Wells Design Consultant 2COMMUNIQUÉ Contributors James Caton Doug Cook Leanne Dech Rebecca Goldfine Scott Hood Janie Porche Tom Porter BOWDOIN MAGAZINE (ISSN: 0895-2604) is published three times a year by Bowdoin College, 4104 College Station, Brunswick, Maine, 04011.

Printed by J.S. McCarthy, Augusta, Maine. Sent free of charge to all Bowdoin alumni, parents of current and recent undergraduates, members of the senior class, faculty and staff, and members of the Association of Bowdoin Friends.

Opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors.

Please send address changes, ideas, or letters to the editor to the address above or by email to bowdoineditor@bowdoin.edu. Send class news to classnews@bowdoin.edu or to the address above.

Forward FROM BOWDOIN AND BEYOND

ISAAC’S JOURNEY Isaac Kabuika ’20 came to Maine on his own in 2014 from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Eighteen and not knowing a word of English, he moved to Lewiston, a city with a sizable African community. A local church provided some support, but Kabuika was basically living alone with little help. “I was considered an ‘at-risk’ student,” he says, “and simply getting through high school and into community college was regarded as my highest achievable goal.” Kabuika had bigger ideas, though, and within two years, he had mastered the language, graduated from high school, and been accepted at Bowdoin, where he’s pursued a double major in neuroscience and computer science. “One of the problems I had when I came here was access to IT knowledge and training, simply not knowing what was out there, and it remains a huge problem in the African community.”

To this end, in his sophomore year, Kabuika designed a program to teach the basics of computer science to African immigrants in Lewiston. At the conclusion of the fourteenweek course, which he presented in three phases, two of the program participants continued on with a formal education in IT, and another recently accepted a job in the field.

In his second two years at Bowdoin, Kabuika partnered with a Washington, DC, nonprofit, that has a mission to help lowincome students explore different career paths, creating new software to scale and automate their operations.

“I’m very grateful to have had so many rewarding opportunities at Bowdoin,” Kabuika says. “I have decided to stay in the software industry after graduation, and I’m excited for what comes next!”

PHOTO: TRISTAN SPINSKI

“Teaching the IT program for African immigrants was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done while at Bowdoin,” says Isaac Kabuika ’20, who plans to remain in Maine after graduation. “I’m interviewing for an IT position in Portland and, if I get it, I’ll offer another series of classes.”

Forward Student Life

Archives

ON THIS DAY: MARCH 15 1820: Maine enters the Union as the twenty-third state.

1965: Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson calls for new legislation to guarantee every American’s right to vote, and Brunswick holds its first civil rights march, with President and Mrs. Coles and many faculty, staff, and students among the participants.

2007: The US Postal Service celebrates the 200th birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Class of 1825, with the issuance of the 39-cent Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commemorative stamp.

Longfellow becomes the twentythird honoree in the literary arts commemorative stamp series, joining other literary giants such as Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, and fellow Bowdoin classmate Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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Bootcamp Sophomores dedicate a week to career readiness.

NEARLY TWO HUNDRED SOPHOMORES returned to campus a week before spring semester classes started to attend Bootcamp—a new five-day program presented by Career Exploration and Development (CXD). Participants were immersed in a series of exercises aimed to help them better understand their unique skills, interests, and values—and how these might align with a possible career, or careers.

The goal was for students to come away with “super-concrete products”—like polished résumés, cover letters, lists of internships to apply for, and new professional contacts—said CXD Executive Director Kristin Brennan when she introduced the weeklong program to attendees. But students should also leave with

“a deeper sense of you, and your own unique search—or searches,” she added.

CXD staff reiterated throughout the program that there is not just one career or one job open to students. Statistics show that most people now end up having three major careers during their lives. So, instead of thinking that happiness comes with making the “right choice,” Brennan suggested, “How about thinking that there is no right choice, just good choosing?”

Approximately thirty alumni returned to campus to participate in industry-specific panels on topics including education and community development, finance, health care, and technology, among many others.

PHOTO: MICHELE STAPLETON

Dine

Tourtière Pie with Maine Potato Recipe by Larry Pinette Pork pies have been a Bowdoin holiday tradition for decades. The late Larry Pinette (1924–1990), director of dining service, introduced tourtière when he was fraternity chef at Chi Psi in the mid-1950s.

Ken Cardone, interim director of Bowdoin dining, says, “We add a small amount of potato to thicken the mixture, but have used the same basic recipe for years,” so we’ve added that to his recipe here.

Makes one nine-inch pie 2 cups of Maine potato (about one large), peeled and cut into ½-inch dice 2 pounds ground pork butt Oil 2 medium onions, diced

Put the potato in salted water in a medium saucepan.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and cook until tender, about five minutes. Drain and mash the potato and set it aside.

1 clove garlic, finely chopped Water Allspice (start with ¼ teaspoon) Salt and pepper DID YOU KNOW? The Kennebec variety of potatoes was bred by the Department of Agriculture in the 1940s and was adopted immediately in the state.

Called by a Maine seed catalogue “the quintessential Maine potato,” it is great for both potato chip and French fry production and is a favorite of home gardeners.

Prepared or homemade double-crust pastry

In a large skillet, brown the pork in a small amount of oil with the onion and garlic. Add enough water to cover the meat, add the allspice and salt and pepper to taste, and bring the meat to a slow boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about one-and-a-half hours, until the meat and onions are very tender and the liquid has evaporated. Mix the mashed potato into the meat mixture and set aside to cool.

Line a pie plate with half of the pastry, spoon the filling into it, and place the other half of the pastry on top. Crimp the edges of the pastry to seal, cut a few steam vents into the top crust, and bake the pie at 375 degrees for forty-five minutes, until golden brown.

Larry Pinette was a chef in Bowdoin’s dining service for thirty-three years, eventually becoming director of dining service from 1988 to 1990. The Pinette Dining Room in Thorne Hall is named for him. “Larry was a force to be reckoned with,” Cardone says. “I was lucky enough to work with him for a year before he retired.

Several of his recipes are still being used today.”

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Forward

Did You Know?

Maine Field Notes Favorite spots and moments from the Bowdoin Outing Club Illustration by Susan Coyne ’07 We’d be hard-pressed to find anyone at Bowdoin who’s logged more Maine miles than Bowdoin Outing Club Director Michael Woodruff ’87 and his assistant directors. Woodruff, who has thirty-two years of BOC trips in the books, and his intrepid staff cover hundreds of miles of Maine trails, roads, and waterways every year, sharing them with students and others in the Bowdoin community.

Artist Susan Coyne ’07, a former “BOC-er” herself, illustrates a few of the BOC’s favorite spots and memorable experiences along the way.

For additional BOC favorites, visit bowdoin.edu/magazine.

Bowdoin Outing Club contributors: Michael Woodruff ’87 (director, 1992–present); Lucretia Woodruff (assistant director, 1992–2000); Stacy (Kirchener) Linehan (assistant director, 2000–2005); Megan Hayes ’03 (assistant director, 2005–2007); Laura (Jeffris) Schoene ’05 (assistant director, 2005–2008); Bree Simmons (assistant director, 2007–2010); Devin Farkas (assistant director, 2010–2013); Sarah Johnson ’13 (assistant director 2013–2016); Adam Berliner ’13 (assistant director 2015–2018); Anna Bastidas (assistant director, 2016–present); Tess Hamilton ’16 (assistant director, 2018–present)

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Forward On View

Courses

Southwest View of Bowdoin College, circa 1822, oil on canvas, by John G. Brown, American, active 1821–1858. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Gift of Harold L. Berry, Class of 1901.

Knowing Your Backyard GIS AND REMOTE SENSING: UNDERSTANDING PLACE Geographical information systems (GIS) organize and store spatial information for geographical presentation and analysis. The class uses case studies in Maine to teach concepts about spatial analysis, says Lecturer in Environmental Studies Eileen Sylvan Johnson, who is teaching the course this semester. Examples include finding the best data sets to understand the impact of storm water on the Mare Brook watershed in Brunswick and analyzing the potential public health impacts of arsenic in groundwater. Students often get to work with local organizations in this class.

How Early Maine Viewed Itself Museum exhibition fills in the blanks.

MAINE’S LITHOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPES: TOWN & CITY VIEWS, 1830–70 reproduces

for the first time a comprehensive record of the urban prints created during the first fifty years of statehood. Held in commemoration of Maine’s bicentennial this year, the exhibition explores the history of town and city views through major lithographs and several related paintings.

Lithographs were commissioned from leading artists like Fitz Henry Lane and lesser-known local ones, such as Cyrus William King. “These artists realized some of the earliest views of these burgeoning cities,” writes Frank Goodyear, codirector of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, where the exhibition runs through May 31. “In doing so, they helped to further the public’s understanding of these places and of the new state more generally.”

The works on display were selected by Maine State Historian Earle Shettleworth Jr. H’08, and they provide insights into how these growing centers of commerce and industry viewed themselves and wished to be viewed by others. “These rare images situate these communities within the wider environment and provide an invaluable record of their early architecture and design plans,” says Goodyear.

The show is one of four Maine-themed exhibitions at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art for the state’s bicentennial in 2020: bowdoin.edu/art-museum.

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READING UNCLE TOM’S CABIN Reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin is taught by Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English Tess Chakkalakal. The course introduces students to the controversial history of reader responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery classic. Often described as the novel that sparked a war, much of it was written here in Brunswick, Maine. Students visit various historic locations associated with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, including the Stowe House on Federal Street and First Parish on Maine Street, and produce their own literary interpretation of the work.

MAINE: A COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Associate Professor of History Sarah McMahon’s seminar studies the evolution of various Maine communities—inland, hill country, and coastal. The class begins by looking at the first contact of European and Native American cultures and examines the transfer of English and European agricultural traditions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Students explore the development of diverse geographic, economic, ethnic, and cultural communities in Maine during the nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries.

PHOTO: LUC DEMERS

Game On

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Tournament MVP Safiya Osei ’21 cuts through a wave of Nor’easters.

PHOTO: BRIAN BEARD

The University of New England jumped to a lead over the Bowdoin women ruggers just one minute into the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association Division III title match on November 17, 2019, at Harvard. It would be the only score for the Nor’easters. The Polar Bears responded with four tries in the half and took complete control of the day. Bowdoin’s defense held strong throughout the second half, and, with less than two minutes to go, scrumhalf Sara Nelson ’22 and center/flyhalf Catherine Patti ’22 served the ball wide to wing Molly Petronzio ’22, who broke multiple tackles and sprinted sixty meters for the final score of the match.

Petronzio and fullback Sophia Karris ’22 both scored a pair of tries in the victory, while lock Ashlynn Autrey ’22 (12) and Patti (9) led Bowdoin’s tacklers, and prop Safiya Osei ’21 was named tournament MVP. With their 27–5 victory, Bowdoin became the first-ever Division III champions in the newly formed National Intercollegiate Rugby Association.

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Forward On the Shelf

Staff A New Coast: Strategies for Responding to Devastating Storms and Rising Seas JEFFREY PETERSON ’76

(Island Press, 2019) Drawing on four decades of experience at the EPA and the United States Senate, Peterson presents the science behind predictions for coastal impacts and evaluates the dramatic changes that are coming to America’s coasts, offering an assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for a coming coastal inundation. (With a cover blurb by Senator George Mitchell ’54, H’83.)

The Springers’ renovated Harpswell cabin.

Seaside Revival State of Maine, State of Mind: Upcountry Humor and Stories

Unfit: Jewish Degeneration and Modernism

A Bowdoin family’s camp gets a reality-show makeover.

THEODORE PERRY ’60

Harrison King McCann Professor of English

FANS OF THE DIY NETWORK’S HIT Maine Cabin Masters may have caught

(State of Maine State of Mind Publishing, 2019)

MARILYN REIZBAUM

(Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

Haunthenticity: Musical Replay and the Fear of the Real

Associate Professor of Music

Rockland, Maine: Rise and Renewal

TRACY MCMULLEN

JOHN BIRD ’59

(Wesleyan University Press, 2019)

(Rockland Historical Society, 2019)

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a recent episode titled “Old Cabin, New Tricks,” which showed the transformation of a seaside cottage belonging to Senior Associate Dean of Admissions Anne Springer ’81 and her husband, Allen Springer, Bowdoin’s William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Constitutional and International Law and Government.

If you’re unfamiliar with the program, the Cabin Masters are a homebuilder, his sister, her husband, and two childhood friends, based in Wayne, Maine. Now in the reality show’s fourth season, the team has taken on projects from some of the coziest corners of the state, giving well-worn Maine properties stylish new lives.

The Springers have owned their camp for twenty years. “It’s the perfect spot to watch the sailing team practice in Harpswell Sound and Merriman Cove,” said Anne. Last spring, the Cabin Masters crew arrived armed with big ideas and plenty of tools for giving the space a makeover inside and out. When the renovations were revealed, the Springers were thrilled with the results. “They transformed our little cottage into a place our family will enjoy for years to come,” Anne said. The episode first aired on February 10, and before and after photos are available at mainecabinmasters.com.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF DIY NETWORK

Sound Bite

Alumni Life

“ It was a war zone. A lot of my family was here; a lot of them were Scots.

A whole generation or two of my family was killed or captured and taken to Quebec as prisoners.”

Justice Donald Alexander ’64

—JASON BROWN ’91 ON HIS FAMILY’S LONGTIME CONNECTION TO MAINE, DURING A RECENT TALK ON CAMPUS ABOUT SOME OF THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS NEW BOOK, A FAITHFUL BUT MELANCHOLY ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL BARBARITIES LATELY COMMITTED.

Staying Power MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT JUSTICE Donald

Alumni Life

Bar Harbor from the top of Cadillac Mountain, Mount Desert Island, Maine.

Island Thriving Four years ago, Dennis Kiley ’03 met with a few fellow islanders to begin thinking about how to reduce the carbon footprint of Mount Desert Island (MDI), the Downeast community famous for Acadia National Park. Their brainstorm turned into A Climate to Thrive (ACTT), a registered nonprofit with a staff of four and a mission to show that tackling climate change can help local communities create social and economic vitality. To date, ACTT has reduced single-use plastic and polystyrene and food waste by local businesses; collaborated with school children to implement a ban on single-use plastic bags; secured grants to set up electric car charging stations along Maine’s coast; more than doubled the island’s solar capacity; and helped local families weatherize their homes. These achievements, Kiley said, reveal the potential of individuals and small towns. “A lot of people think we can’t come up with solutions that can mitigate the worst of climate change’s outcomes, but our project on a microscopic level demonstrates that, when people come together, they can defy expectations.”

PHOTOS: (BAR HARBOR) JESSE HAMMER; (JUSTICE DONALD ALEXANDER ’64) AP PHOTO/ROBERT F. BUKATY

Alexander ’64 retired on January 31, having served on the bench for forty-one years—the longest sitting active justice in Maine history.

“During his amazing tenure, Justice Alexander has always been ahead of his time,” said Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley. “He has provided an unflinching voice in support of individual rights; he has been an outspoken advocate for the rule of law; and he is always a passionate supporter of the lawyers, advocates, and judges who are responsible for the administration and the reality of a fair, neutral, reliable system of justice.” One of Alexander’s most lasting impacts on Maine law is his book The Maine Jury Instruction Manual.

“Dog-eared versions of the manual are regularly lugged from courthouse to courthouse throughout the state,” said Saufley, “and jurors can expect to hear sections of it for decades to come as they complete their civic duty.”

Until 2014, Chief Justice William Penn Whitehouse had the longest run as an active member of the State courts. When he retired in 1913, he had served thirty-five years, one month, and twenty-five days. Coincidentally, Justice Alexander followed Chief Justice Whitehouse at hundred-year intervals. Justice Whitehouse was born in 1842; Justice Alexander in 1942.

Whitehouse was appointed to the bench in 1878; Alexander, in 1978. And just over one hundred years after Whitehouse retired, Alexander broke the record for judicial longevity.

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Forward

Maine Life

A Senator’s Eye ANGUS KING, Brunswick resident, former Maine

governor and Bowdoin lecturer, and current US senator, maintains a vibrant Instagram account (@anguskingmaine) of the photos he takes in his travels around the state and the world. He compiled a selection in the book A Senator’s Eye: Celebrating Maine, Washington, and the Joys of Scraping the Windshield (Islandport Press, 2018), and he shared a few of his Maine favorites with us.

Top left: “Big excitement at the Five Islands wharf.

Adam Armstrong brought ashore this amazing tuna he caught on rod and reel off Boothbay.”

Top right: “A Maine country road after an early spring snow provides a respite from the onslaught of politics. I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to make some small contribution to the common good in my work, but doubly blessed to be able to come home to Maine on days like this.”

Middle left: “Taking a break at Mt. Abram just west and south of Kingfield. We took all back roads through Weld, Carthage, Rumford, Bethel, and Oxford Hills (come to think of it, there are only back roads between those towns). By the way, the license plate on the bike reads, ‘DCHOG.’” Middle right: “Near Reid State Park, looking out toward Seguin Island. Maine never disappoints.”

Bottom: “Katahdin sunset, headed north. What this shot doesn’t capture is the clarity and coolness of the air on an early fall night. Spending a couple of days in The County is as good a way as I can think of to get the mind off Russia, Ukraine, transcripts, subpoenas, and troops in the Middle East. I’ll be back to that soon enough, but for the next few days, it’s farming, health care, aging issues, rural broadband—and wide-open spaces. Given my job right now, it sure is nice to have Maine to come home to.”

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PHOTOS: ANGUS KING

Athletics

Academics

THE POLITICS OF HERE For students who are curious about the political identity of the state they live in, DeAlva Stanwood Alexander Professor of Government Christian Potholm will be teaching Maine Politics in the fall 2020 semester, his fiftieth year on the Bowdoin faculty.

The class analyzes government in Maine since World War II, covering subjects such as the dynamics of Republican and Democratic rivalries, the role of the independent voter, the rise of the Green and Reform parties, the growing importance of ballot initiatives, and the interaction of ethnicity and politics.

Also studied are such phenomena as the north/south geographic split, the environmental movement, and the impact of such interest groups as SAM, the Tea Party, and the Roman Catholic Church. Students are expected to closely follow contemporary political events as part of the course.

The class has featured several prominent guest lecturers in recent years, said Potholm, including Maine governors Janet Mills, Paul LePage, John Baldacci, and Angus King. “I’m really looking forward to the student-conducted poll we’re doing in the fall,” he added, “which should tell us who will carry the state, and especially, Maine’s second congressional district.”

Campus Life

The late Nels Corey ’39, Bowdoin Athletic Hall of Honor member, on the Delta rink in the 1930s.

One Hundred Years of Hockey THE 2019–2020 season marked the 100th anniversary of ice hockey at

Bowdoin, and the Polar Bears men’s ice hockey team celebrated the milestone with a commemorative jersey patch this winter. Dating back to the 1919–1920 season, breaking only for World War II between 1942 and 1946, the Bowdoin men’s ice hockey program has accumulated more than 1,020 wins—winning more than 58 percent of their games—in the last century.

Women’s ice hockey became a varsity sport for the 1984–1985 season.

PHOTO: GEORGE J. MITCHELL DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES

Show Your Spirit on April 7 Alumni affection for the College is on proud display all year, but BowdoinOne Day is one of the best days to show your spirit.

This year, this relatively new Bowdoin tradition takes on an all-new format: From noon until 10:00 p.m. on April 7, tune in online or on Facebook to watch what happens live from campus. Expect beloved Bowdoin personalities, student performances, and entertaining antics of all sorts. This year’s goal is more important than ever before: If we receive 1,794 gifts from alumni, families, and friends on BowdoinOne Day, a group of donors will make a $1 million gift to Bowdoin’s annual funds this year. Help spread the word among the Polar Bears in your life, participate by making a gift of any size, and enjoy the show.

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this is a l ove l et ter to maine.

It’s not the kind of love letter you write at the beginning of a relationship, when you are smitten and warm and a little bit sappy. When everything is soft dew on the grass and golden sunlight on your skin, and the world smells like some kind of dream.

This is the kind of love letter you write in the winter. When the weather forecast comes right out and says, “freezing drizzle,” and the sun disappears for the day sometime around four o’clock in the afternoon. It’s the kind of love letter you write after you’ve been together for two hundred years.

It’s even the kind of love letter you write when it’s technically your big anniversary, but you’ve been together much longer, and that makes you feel good and pretty proud.

That’s how it is for us. Maine is turning two hundred in 2020, but Bowdoin and Maine have been a couple for longer than either of us can remember.

We know each other inside and out. We can’t imagine us apart. It’s hard to tell where one of us ends and the other starts.

Which is not to be smug about it. Maine is a treasure, and we know that. The fact that we get to share it with our whole community is not lost on us. It’s not just Bowdoin that happens to students here; Maine happens to them too.

With this issue of the magazine, we set out to honor and celebrate Maine’s two hundred years of statehood—while stating for the record that people loved this land long before colonial settlers arrived. We wanted to acknowledge Maine’s complex beginnings as our nation’s twenty-third state—where part of Massachusetts became a free state in order that another state might be created where human beings could still be enslaved. We wanted to be sure to say that there are always complexities—to point out that adding to the mix of people who live and work here leads not just to great new neighbors and a needed infusion of labor but sometimes to negotiations and discomfort and possibly even drama.

We filled this issue with all kinds of Maine connections and tidbits, and some of them for sure show that, as in any long-lasting togetherness, it’s complicated.

But we kept finding ourselves coming back to the love. Everyone we asked to write for us—Mainers by birth or adoption—gave us warmth in their words.

It felt fitting to work on these stories and art in the winter, when the state is kind of at its essence.

Maine is at the heart of this college. We would not be Bowdoin anywhere else.

We would not want to be anywhere else.

So, go ahead. Give us your freezing drizzle. We’ll be here.

BY TASHA GRAFF ’07

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRETA RYBUS

Hector Magaña ’16 at Kettle Cove.

Maine’s beauty is both undeniable and layered.

It is a stunning sky, a sweep of beautiful blue, a swath of green. It feels like family and fun and pictures you want to put on your wall. But Maine’s beauty also comes from its ruggedness, its feel of ancientness, even its harshness. Mainers know that it’s this combination that gives our state its true identity, and it is these very people—a mix of our oldest families and our newest neighbors— who give Maine its most beautiful depth.

THE BEAUTY OF MAINE

P

“PEOPLE TALK OF TWO MAINES,” says Nsiona Nguizani, “but there is only one Maine and here we live together.” Since August, Nguizani has been commuting from his home in Westbrook each day for his job as Brunswick’s new cultural broker, responsible for helping and welcoming the town’s eighty newest residents, who arrived in the United States last June, predominantly seeking asylum from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nguizani speaks six languages and is the first to hold this multilingual coordinator position.

Nguizani knows firsthand the challenges and opportunities of seeking asylum in Maine; he himself was granted asylum in 2012. Despite earning advanced degrees in his home country, Nguizani had to start his education over in Maine, starting with his GED, and then earning first an associate degree in business from Southern Maine Community College and then a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Southern Maine.

Education is a large part of Nguizani’s job. In addition to helping newcomers with paperwork, information, and community-building through volunteers, Nguizani serves as an ambassador of sorts, educating longtime Brunswick residents about what it means to seek asylum. “Everyone is a bit afraid of the unknown, newcomers and old Mainers. In my job, we’re always trying to work on both sides, for integration for newcomers and inclusion from the Mainers. That’s why I give everyone information; I explain and translate.”

Maine is known nationwide for being one of the whitest and oldest states in the country.

According to the latest census report, 95 percent of Maine’s population identified as white; the median age of Mainers was the highest in the nation at 44.2 years old. Such statistics cause some to think of current immigration trends as new to Maine, oblivious to the indigenous and multicultural communities that have existed in Maine for centuries.

Historians believe that the first people settled this region about 13,000 years ago. Home to almost twenty tribes, Maine saw its indigenous population drop rapidly after the arrival of European colonists in the sixteenth century, due to war, disease, and loss of territory. Today, the four remaining indigenous tribes in Maine

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are known collectively as the Wabanaki, or the People of the Dawn.

Maine’s troubled and complicated history with the Wabanaki—specifically the experiences of Wabanaki children who were removed from their homes and placed with white families— was documented through the work of the 2013 Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is now housed in Bowdoin’s Special Collections. The Commission was initiated by the organization REACH (Restoration Engagement Advocacy Change Healing), with the goal to “engage Maine people to acknowledge the full truth of the past, embrace the full truth of the present and commit to creating a just future, no matter what obstacles are in our path.” There are about 8,000 Wabanaki in Maine today, with the majority living on tribal lands.

Since the state’s founding 200 years ago, and across vast changes in technology and economic influences, Maine has relied on native people, newcomers, and immigrants, with academic institutions providing indispensable education for Mainers new and old, and leaders pressing for change and innovation to build the workforce.

“A LABORER’S PARADISE” William Widgery Thomas Jr. (Bowdoin Class of 1860) was one such leader. Just two years after graduating from Bowdoin, the Portland native was appointed as American consul to Gothenburg, Sweden, at the age of twenty-three.

He quickly learned Swedish and secured passage for Swedish soldiers to travel to America to fight in the Civil War. Over the next decade, Widgery Thomas campaigned to bring more Scandinavians to Maine. He went on a tour of Norway and Sweden, describing the benefits of moving to the United States and described his journey in a report to the Department of State: “One of the chief objects of my expedition was to diffuse knowledge tending towards emigration, and whether driving over the fields, scaling mountains, resting at stations, or coasting along the shore in steamers, I everywhere preached an immigration crusade to the laborer’s paradise in the New World.”

In both his capacity as the Maine Commissioner of Public Lands and the Maine Commissioner

of Immigration, Widgery Thomas saw the need and value of bringing immigrants to Maine to bolster the workforce and population. In 1870, he traveled to Sweden in an official role and brought back fifty-one immigrants to found the town of New Sweden in Aroostook County. To this day, New Sweden still celebrates traditional Swedish holidays, as well as Founders Day on July 23, with a current population of 602 people, according to the 2010 census.

While the circumstances and industries have changed over the years, the need for workers in Maine has remained through present day.

“WE HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT” One of Maine’s leading economists, Laurie Lachance ’83, has spent her career analyzing and making projections about the economy.

Lachance first worked as an economist for Central Maine Power and later as the Maine State Economist under three governors, across three different political parties—John McKernan (Republican), Angus King (Independent), and John Baldacci (Democrat)—over eleven years. She then worked as the president of the Maine Development Foundation and is now the president of Thomas College in Waterville, where she sees education as the most vital lever for Maine’s economic future.

“I studied Maine’s economy for twenty-nine years and every form of economic development across the state. I grew to realize over my career that we could do every form of economic development under the sun, but in this global knowledge-based, technology-driven economy, if we fail to bring every Maine person to their highest educational potential, we will never, ever achieve prosperity as a state.”

Lachance, a first-generation college student and the daughter of French Canadian immigrants, remembers stories her parents told of being unwelcome when they arrived in Maine. Her ancestors, like many other immigrants throughout the 1800s and 1900s, hoped to find work in the railroad, textile, or paper industry, populating mill towns across the state. “Even though my father owned the local grocery store in town, even though all those mill towns from Augusta to Biddeford to Sanford to Lewiston needed workers,

Nsiona Nguizani, cultural broker for Brunswick, came to Maine from Angola.

Cape Rosier.

“ONCE YOU LIVE HERE, ONCE YOU GET TO KNOW PEOPLE AND PEOPLE GET TO KNOW YOU, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MAINE IS SPECIAL.” —NSIONA NGUIZANI

immigrants were greatly discriminated against based on their language and religion. They weren’t included in local organizations.”

Lachance sees Maine’s next century as an opportunity to do better.

“The fact of the matter is, if Maine is to grow and prosper, we absolutely need to welcome and encourage immigrants to come to Maine.

This is our future. We can’t possibly have enough babies to make up for our current demographics. But when you factor in the possibility of bringing different groups of people to our state along with encouraging young people to get educated and stay in Maine, that

is central to our opportunity to grow, absolutely central to our future prosperity. We have to figure out how to make it work; we just have to.”

Like Lachance, Carl Leinonen ’77 used his Bowdoin studies in his life’s work as a labor organizer. After double-majoring in economics and government and legal studies, traveling the world on a Watson fellowship, and earning a master’s degree in economics, Leinonen began working for a local affiliate of the Maine State Employees Association, eventually moving up to the state and national level for the Service Employee International Union (SEIU). As more and more of his work became

international, Leinonen relocated to Berlin, Germany, four years ago to continue his work with SEIU, though his ties to Maine and hopes to return run deep.

Leinonen notes that Maine has attracted immigrants and retained young people for decades through the booming mill industry but, as the economy evolved and centers of economic activity shifted, so too did the ability to attract labor from Canada, other states, and abroad. “For fifty years now, we’ve seen a net drain on young talent because there are better opportunities in other locations, and that’s a challenge for Maine, especially as our population

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“MY HUSBAND SAYS, ‘BEING A MAINER IS ABOUT YOUR HEART, NOT WHERE YOU WERE BORN.’ OUR CHILDREN ARE MAINERS, NO QUESTION, BUT WE ARE, TOO.”

—THO (HUYNH) NGO ’10

Tho (Huynh) Ngo ’10 came to Maine from Vietnam.

Owls Head Lighthouse.

ages,” says Leinonen. “But what’s interesting in my work is that I see the same challenges in other countries or parts of other countries that have very similar dynamics.” Leinonen believes that Maine has to find a new path, both to keep young Mainers here after they complete degrees and to attract and retain newcomers who enter the education system and workforce.

“The more Maine can welcome immigrants, the more chance we have at creating an economic focal point to keep young people here as well and sustain the economy over a generation,” says Leinonen, using the economic principle of supply and demand. “An influx of people increases demand for local products and services, and this helps stimulate the economy and makes possible new industries. It’s not a coincidence that if you look back at history, those countries that have typically grown very quickly and have significant economies often have a very high level of immigration connected with it. The United States is a prime example of this, and why not Maine now?”

Leinonen hopes to return to the midcoast area in the next few years, where he grew up on his family’s egg farm. “My goal and dream have always been to spend as much time as possible in Maine. It’s where my roots are, my friends and family, my community. It’s home.” He believes encouraging immigrants to feel welcome in Maine is essential: “What we need in Maine’s economy and for its vitality is to embrace all sorts of different people from around the country and the world to make Maine their home.”

MAKING A HOME When Tho (Huynh) Ngo ’10 was six years old, she moved to Maine from Vietnam with her parents and siblings. “A lot of people we know say, ‘Why did you move to Maine? It’s so cold!’ But this is where we were sponsored, and it became the home we love.”

Ngo attended Portland Public Schools and credits her parents for instilling in her the value of higher education. “They didn’t tell us what to do for work, but college was always the goal.

They showed us how to work hard because they wanted better for us. That’s all we knew and that’s what they worked for, to provide us with a life that had more privilege and opportunity.”

Ngo majored in biology at Bowdoin and didn’t think twice about staying in Maine after graduation. She immediately got a job in the health care field, where she spent the next nine years of her career, before being recruited by Unum last year to work as a program manager in information technology. “When we came to America, the state helped with housing and health care, and people helped us navigate a new language and system. This not only made Maine our home, but also made it a place where I want to work, especially with the aging population. I want to give back.”

Unum, which provides group and individual disability benefits across the country, is one of Maine’s largest employers, with about 3,500 employees. One of the challenges facing Unum and other major employers in the state is the cost of health care, which indexes steeply with age.

Mike Simonds ’96, president and CEO of Unum US—where he started as a temporary administrative assistant while a student at Bowdoin—sees the shifting demographics of Maine as an opportunity. “Finding smart ways to encourage folks that have all different backgrounds and experiences to move here or stay here is a big part of where we need to go.

“We place a high value [on] and take great pride in offering robust health care for our employees,” says Simonds, “but the cost associated with that impacts our competitiveness as a business. We need young people in our state, we need young people born here to stay, and we need young people to move here and want to stay.”

Simonds, like Lachance, has hope for the state.

“I am very optimistic. Our education system is key, from the Maine public schools that I attended, to community colleges, as well as private colleges like Bowdoin. We are lucky in this state to be able to prepare for the future through education. We need and want people to fall in love with Maine.

We want them to stay and make their lives here.”

For Ngo, living in Maine is about community and being near family. “My parents had really physically demanding and challenging jobs their whole lives—not like me sitting in front of a computer—and I wanted to make sure I was here to support their health needs.”

Ngo and her husband live in Windham and appreciate the pace of life that Maine allows

as they raise their two young children. “We can work hard but still enjoy the seasons and that rich, local feel. I can go to Two Fat Cats to get our favorite blueberry pie or to Standard Bakery to get my mom’s favorite baguette,” says Ngo. “We call ourselves Mainers, and sometimes people correct us saying you have to be born here. My husband gets mad and says, ‘Being a Mainer is about your heart, not where you were born.’ Our children are Mainers, no question, but we are, too.”

DECIDING TO STAY Hector Magaña ’16 grew up in East Palo Alto, California, and had a list of eighteen colleges he was planning to apply to, but Bowdoin wasn’t on the list. “What could possibly be in Maine?” he asked, when he was pulled out of study hall to meet with a Bowdoin representative. A few weeks later, then Dean of Admissions Scott Meiklejohn came to talk at the school and Magaña was sold: “It was a chance to try something new, to truly be away from home, and have an opportunity to rise above some of the struggles of my community.” Magaña, who majored in visual arts and specializes in photography, quickly fell in love with the beauty of Maine, despite the difficulties of being so far away from home and in a much less diverse community.

“When I arrived,” says Magaña, “Maine was unlike anything I had ever seen. Sometimes it got to me, being the only person of color in a room. I felt misunderstood at times and I missed my home, my family, the cuisine, and the music. It took time to understand the culture of the Northeast and to not feel like an outcast or an outsider. But at Bowdoin, I found friends who became family.”

Magaña, whose favorite subjects were math and science in high school, planned on majoring in physics but registered for an art class his sophomore year. “I took a photo course with Mike Kolster, and my life changed. I met these friends who were destined to be artists, and we stuck together and stayed here after graduation.”

A week before graduation, Magaña and four of his 2016 classmates—Cody Stack, Henry Austin, Wilder Nicholson, and Noah Fardon— rented an apartment and an old laundromatturned-studio-space in Portland. “Above all,

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space is precious, and we knew we wanted to make art,” Magaña says. The artist collective, New System Exhibitions, is now entering its fourth year and has grown from five friends sharing space to an official multiuse space with arts-centered programming and a gallery.

“Part of me knew I wanted to stay in Maine from when I first arrived for Orientation, and part of it was a process of letting it happen. I knew that Portland had something to offer that my home didn’t. Portland is a special place. It’s my base for incubating ideas and art. There’s an informality in the art scene here that is welcoming to all different kinds of people and

allows for creativity. The demographics are changing, and it’s an accepting place. That’s why I’m here.”

THE BEAUTY OF MAINE “People come to Maine for different reasons.

Sometimes they have a choice; sometimes they do not,” says Nguizani. “But once you live here, once you get to know people and people get to know you, you understand that Maine is special.

I want to help keep it special for old Mainers and newcomers.”

Nguizani relies on volunteers from the Brunswick community and Bowdoin to help

his work. “I have a list of 180 volunteers, people willing to help. It is not the money here in Maine. It’s the people. Every time I ask for help, people respond. The people in Brunswick respond. For every five people we ask, at least two people say, ‘Yes, I can do that. What do you need?’ You cannot put a price on that. You cannot put a label that some politician might use for their cause or say it’s about laws or taxes or money. It’s about the hearts of people, the people willing to help.”

Sarah Seames, director of the McKeen Center for the Common Good, fosters community collaboration with a range of volunteer projects for

Hector Magaña ’16 came to Maine from San Diego, California.

Gull Crest Fields.

Laurie Lachance ’83 is a lifelong Mainer whose parents came to Maine from Canada.

Off the coast of South Thomaston.

Bowdoin students, faculty, and staff. The McKeen Center, opened in 2008, was named in honor of Bowdoin President Joseph McKeen, whose inaugural address in 1802 stated that “literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good, and not for the private advantage of those who resort to them for education.”

Bowdoin students have volunteered to work with new Mainers in Portland for many years through programs at Portland Adult Education and Portland Housing Authority. The influx of new Mainers to Brunswick this summer has shifted the focus of certain programs more locally. “We’ve set the groundwork to start recruiting students for the spring semester to assist with English tutoring, childcare while parents are tutored in English, English conversation groups, and translating materials for the Brunswick school system,” says Seames, who is mindful of the care and thoughtfulness needed to approach the work. “We’ve moved slowly on

this new work in Brunswick to make sure we are placing volunteers appropriately and not imposing on new community members as they transition here.”

Lachance sees this type of work as essential to Maine’s future. “To the extent that places like Bowdoin, in coordination with the state, can welcome, educate, and help give all people, regardless of where they come from, the opportunity to thrive, that’s the openheartedness and open spirit we need for our future.”

Nguizani doesn’t have a roadmap for the future, but he does have a goal: to help people find common good and common ground.

“I tell people, ‘Just the fact that you were born, the world will never be the same.’ I tell people that they can make a difference because of the fact that they were born. You have changed someone’s life—your mom, your dad, a sibling— just for being born. Imagine the difference you can make for being on this earth. Now a

new Mainer has arrived in Brunswick and lives are changed. We cannot go back. Lives have changed, and so we try to accommodate, by compromising, by sacrificing, by telling stories, to be together. That is common for all of us.”

He, like so many Mainers, from Brunswick to Dover-Foxcroft to New Sweden, sees hope in cultivating community. “The beauty of Brunswick—or better—of Maine, is not general assistance. It is not the weather. It is the people,” says Nguizani, before pausing for a moment.

“I will say it again, so I am sure you understand. The beauty of Maine is the people—all people, all Mainers.”

Tasha Graff is a poet and essayist and teaches English at South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine. Read more of her work at tashagraff.com.

Greta Rybus is a freelance photojournalist based in Portland, Maine. Find her work at gretarybus.com.

BOWDOIN MAGAZINE WINTER 2020 | CLASSNEWS@BOWDOIN.EDU 25

Maine became a state in 1820, and by June of that year, the new legislature funded the opening of the Medical School of Maine at Bowdoin. As Maine celebrates two hundred years of statehood, the Medical School marks a decidedly less glamorous anniversary.

BY MARY POLS

DEEP IN THE WINTER OF 1867, Dr. Theodore

Herman Jewett gave an impassioned speech to incoming students at the Medical School of Maine. The topic was what it took to be a successful doctor. Jewett, a native of Berwick, was a professor of obstetrics at the medical school housed in Adams Hall. The school, founded in 1820, was nearly halfway through what would turn out to be its single century in existence.

When Jewett wasn’t teaching, he was covering many country miles around Berwick in his carriage, tending to his own patients. His daughter, Sarah Orne Jewett, seventeen at the time of this speech and already working on the stories that would make her one of Maine’s most famous women, had been going on rounds with him since she was a child. She was two years away from publishing her first story in The Atlantic (and a few decades away from becoming the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Bowdoin). Her book A Country Doctor, a fictional tribute to the father she adored, was still just a seed in her fertile imagination.

The February speech had the tone of both a scolding and a rousing pep talk for students of Maine’s first medical school and the nation’s eleventh. A doctor’s studies cannot end after the medical degree is conferred, Jewett said, but often they do. “No class of educated men is so characterized by such neglect of regular, progressive improvement, as physicians,” Jewett told the class, which in that era had only two sixteen-week terms to go before they’d receive a medical degree.

“You must be live men,” Jewett said to the group, which would have included about eighty new students. “Thinking, studious, reflecting men, never prescribing for a name, never wedding yourself to routine.”

Jewett had a unique perspective. He was a Bowdoin graduate, a member of the Class of 1834. He’d arrived at Bowdoin not even a decade after the first class of twenty-one students had entered the medical school for a degree course that then only took twenty-four weeks to complete. He’d been there at the beginning, and now, at the school’s halfway mark, he was pushing for greatness. The school was designed to help fulfill Maine’s potential, and Jewett was committed to that.

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Statehood was integral to the establishment of the medical school. Maine was established as a state of its own, distinct from Massachusetts, in March of 1820, and by June, its first legislature had funded the medical school in Brunswick, adjacent to—and sharing buildings and faculty with—Bowdoin, then the state’s only college.

The legislature was signaling its intention to show how this new state was invested in a future in keeping with the sweeping changes of the Industrial Revolution.

The legislature granted the school $1,500 for its startup costs (“books, plates, preparations and other apparatus”), with an additional $1,000 annually. The first lecture at the new school was given the next spring by Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of Dartmouth Medical School, who led the Medical School of Maine until 1825. Smith had been asked to take the job by Reverend William Allen, Bowdoin’s second president. In writing to accept the offer, Smith was all in for the opportunity in a new state “where neither habit nor parties have laid ruthless hand on the public institutions and where the minds of men are free from their poisoning influence, everything is to be hoped for.”

No college degree was required to enter.

Indeed, a survey of doctors in Maine in 1820 found that seventy-four of the so-called doctors in the state had no college or medical degree at all. When Jewett was an undergraduate at Bowdoin, his classmates looked down upon the

medical students because of these minimal standards, a clash that would continue through the school’s history. (The older medical students, prone to partying, were apparently also considered a poor influence. Pranks flowed between the two groups.) Jewett himself had left the state to get his medical degree at an even newer school, Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia.

But Jewett, whose daughter’s biographers describe as just as attentive to his patients’ emotional well-being as he was to their physical needs, must have made an impression on the Class of 1867. They asked that his speech be printed, and two years later it was, in a pamphlet that can be found among other Medical School of Maine papers at the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives at the Bowdoin library.

When Jewett died in 1878, at sixty-three, the Medical School of Maine was on an upward trajectory, adding new chairs (physiology in 1872 and public hygiene in 1875). Maine had a new hospital by 1874, Maine General Hospital— where Jewett was a consulting surgeon—which would eventually become Maine Medical Center.

The level of scholarship Jewett was calling for at the Medical School of Maine was increasing.

Coursework was added steadily in each new decade, until 1904, when students devoted nearly three years to earning their degrees.

But, as Maine celebrates its bicentennial, the Medical School of Maine marks a less festive date,

PHOTOS AND HISTORICAL ITEMS: GEORGE J. MITCHELL DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES

the centennial of its closure. Special Collections & Archives is preparing an exhibition for this fall that traces its legacy. The history is rich, says Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, special collections education and outreach librarian. Current students hear about the lore of the cadaver hook that still hangs at the top of the stairwell in Adams Hall, where the medical students would haul up bodies to dissect. In Special Collections, they can see a full coffin lid—discovered as part of the subfloor during the 2007 renovation of Adams—left over from these purchased cadavers (as well as “a fragment that actually has the receipt of where the body was coming from,” Van Der Steenhoven says).

Some classes today, especially those within the Health, Culture, and Society Initiative, are already using medical school records, such as the hundreds of theses produced by the medical school students, in class projects. Professor Meghan Roberts’s The History of the Body class—which focuses on historic novels, namely Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Hilary Mantel’s The Giant, O’Brien, as a lens through which to look at the history of the body—recently used the records to better understand what medical students of Frankenstein’ s era were like. “So, we pulled from theses in these collections,” Van Der Steenhoven said. “They’re handwritten.

They are twelve pages long, and the subjects are really far-ranging. And you can see it sparking this interest. That ‘Wow, is this all it took to be a

PHOTO: (TONSIL GUILLOTINE) DENNIS GRIGGS

doctor? Three months and all you had to write is this final paper?’”

As Van Der Steenhoven plans the exhibit, she’s thinking not just about history but “also, pulling it forward, to how these students are engaging with these collections now.” Some might be recoiling in horror from the photographs of Medical School of Maine students cavalierly posing with “their” cadavers. Other Bowdoin students preparing for a career in medicine (8 percent of Bowdoin graduates go on to medical school) might want to learn what a doctor’s life looked like in the nineteenth century. They could spend some time with the day books of Dr. John Dunlap Lincoln, a member of Bowdoin’s Class of 1843, who went on to get his degree from the Medical School of Maine in 1846.

“Dr. John,” as he was known, practiced out of his house in downtown Brunswick. Described after his death in 1877 by the Boston Transcript as “the personification of gentle strength,” Lincoln kept meticulous records of his house and office calls from 1850 until just a few months before his death, when he closed his office for good and took to his bed. He had noted patient visits with a veritable who’s who of Brunswick history—the Merrymans, Stanwoods, Furbishes, and Skolfields, and some known only by basic identifiers such as the “Irish boy” (who lost three fingers to a hay cutter on July 17, 1850).

Like Jewett, Dr. John taught at the Medical School of Maine. And like him, perhaps, he

Adams Hall, shown with the Old Grandstand circa 1900, housed the Medical School of Maine.

Medical School of Maine Class of 1907.

A tonsil guillotine used at the Medical School of Maine. Tonsillectomy by guillotine was a popular treatment for throat infections in the late 1800s.

Opening spread: Medical School of Maine Class of 1869 with various medical instruments.

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Medical School students with a cadaver in the dissecting room, which was located at the top of Adams Hall, circa 1900.

Interior view of the College commons (now the carpentry shop) chemistry lab, which would have been used by Medical School students, 1879.

Frank Nathaniel Whittier, Class of 1885, was an advocate for the Medical School of Maine at a time when enrollment was dwindling and it was in financial decline.

Bottom: A class schedule from 1896.

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envisioned the school only gaining in reputation and size in the ensuing decades and next century.

It had long catered primarily to Maine residents; up to 86 percent of its graduates were from the state, and many, if not most, of them remained in the state to practice. But three things interfered with that hope for longevity: first, its financial situation; second, the lack of a hospital in Brunswick (Maine General in Portland was the nearest); and finally, and perhaps most important, a visit in 1909 from a man named Abraham Flexner.

Money problems had long plagued the school.

The Maine legislature, having promised the annual stipend of $1,000 to the medical school, stopped those payments in 1834. The school depended on tuition for its operating budget.

There were gifts from alumni. The Garcelon and Merritt Fund, which continues today to provide scholarships to medical school for Bowdoin graduates and Maine residents, was established with a $400,000 endowment by Catherine Garcelon on her death in 1891. Garcelon, whose husband and brother were both graduates of the Medical School of Maine, made the bequest in her will, but it was tied up in court for six years.

As the nineteenth century began to draw to a close, pressure was growing to pair the students with clinical opportunities they simply couldn’t get in Brunswick. The Portland School for Medical Instruction had opened and was operating in association with the Maine General Hospital. Brunswick students traveled there for practical experience. Meanwhile, there were advocates at Bowdoin who wanted to maintain the Medical School of Maine in Brunswick, including the College’s seventh president, William DeWitt Hyde, and a professor, Dr. Frank Nathaniel Whittier. They might have prevailed if it hadn’t been for Flexner and his infamous report of 1910, which ultimately established the standards for the modern medical school.

A Kentucky native, Flexner was the author of The American College: A Criticism, published in 1908. He’d studied classics at Johns Hopkins University, finishing his degree in just two years, and had done some graduate work at Harvard and the University of Berlin before founding a college preparatory school in Louisville. It was this work that inspired his critique. That caught the attention of the new Carnegie Foundation, which asked him to do an assessment of medical schools in North America. The foundation’s goal was to protect the general public from poorly trained physicians, and also to make sure that unwitting students weren’t led astray by what the head of the Carnegie Foundation, Henry Smith Pritchett, called “the prey of commercial advertising.”

Flexner quickly made his way around the United States and Canada, visiting 155 medical schools. His subsequent report, published in 1910, recommended that the vast majority of them be shut down. He believed that the United States was producing far too many doctors, and of low quality. In Maine at the time of his visit, eighty-one potential doctors were enrolled and the staff was thirty-five. The state’s population was 724,508, and there were 1,198 physicians.

The medical school’s dissecting room, Flexner noted, was supervised not by any of its fourteen professors but by recent graduates. Clinical instruction was by this point given at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, but that, with its “wretched dispensary,” did not pass muster with Flexner.

“Neither end of this school meets the requirements for the teaching of modern medicine,” Flexner wrote. Considering what he said about other schools, that criticism was relatively benign. Flint Medical School, a medical school affiliated with Tulane, was a “hopeless affair,” Flexner wrote. . . “on which money and energy alike are wasted.”

He recommended closing the schools at Bowdoin, Dartmouth, and Vermont. “There is no good reason why these institutions—colleges all of them—should be concerned with medicine at all,” he wrote. How many schools closed as a direct result of Flexner’s report is debatable since some were already in financial decline, including

the Medical School of Maine, but within the next decade, about 75 percent of those medical schools he’d visited were shuttered. At the time of Flexner’s visit, the Medical School of Maine was bringing in $8,100 in fees annually, but losing about $7,000 annually, and that was before World War I drastically reduced the number enrolled (in 1916 and 1917, each graduating class was only 10 students).

Fierce advocates for the Medical School of Maine remained, despite the deflating report and subsequent news in 1920 that the Council for American Medical Education would soon strip the school of its Class A rating unless it updated its equipment and labs and spent $75,000 annually. Once again, the strongest advocate was Dr. Whittier, Bowdoin Class of 1885 and an 1889 graduate of the Medical School of Maine. The College’s first athletic director (the football field was named in his honor), Whittier was professor of pathology and bacteriology, as well as Bowdoin’s doctor.

Whittier believed the school could be run without the $75,000 annual expenses as proposed.

He continued to make that argument until president Kenneth C. M. Sills announced in the fall of 1920 that the school would close in the spring of 2021. Whittier died in December 1924, after a heart attack on the train between Brunswick and Portland. His death was front-page news in the local papers. Whittier was a noted criminologist, credited with being the first to develop a method

PHOTOS AND HISTORICAL ITEMS: GEORGE J. MITCHELL DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES

of distinguishing between animal and human blood at a crime scene. He served in the medical corps in World War I and became the medical examiner in Cumberland County.

In all, the Medical School of Maine produced 2,138 graduates in its century in existence, men who fanned out across the young state and beyond, some becoming country doctors like Theodore Herman Jewett and John Dunlap Lincoln, with others going on to earn additional degrees, to practice in big cities, or to go into teaching. Likely, none were as devoted to the Medical School of Maine as Whittier. Speaking at his memorial service, Sills described the Farmington native as being, from 1897 until the school’s closing, “in a very real sense the heart of the institution,” working “indefatigably” on its behalf. Whittier was only a child in 1867 when Jewett delivered his inspiring speech to the incoming class, but he lived its ideals as a thinking, studious, reflective man. Sills noted in his eulogy that Whittier’s laboratory lights could be counted on to still be burning brightly when the rest of the campus was asleep. Both an academic and an entrepreneur, Whittier aimed to make an impact on the larger world. He saw potential in the Medical School of Maine, even at its end.

Mary Pols is the editor of Maine Women Magazine and a former film critic for Time magazine. Her father was a Bowdoin philosophy professor, and her mother earned a Bowdoin degree in 1979.

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what we

L VE about our dry-humored authentic hardworking beautiful unassuming ever-surprising state

ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAT CORRIGAN

So much of what we love about Maine is intertwined with the character of our College—Bowdoin is what it is very much because of where it is. While Maine is undoubtedly about lobsters and lighthouses, it’s also much more than that. What is most Maine to us are aspects of this place and its people that you really have to live here to know. We asked six writers with Maine and Bowdoin connections to tell us stories that show what makes our home state so special.

Brock Clarke shows us the wild heart of Maine character that tourists seldom see.

We’re All Related A FEW YEARS AGO, at the beginning of one of my introductory fiction workshops at Bowdoin, my students and I had been talking about the weather, about how odd and end-of-days-ish it had been, and one student, a Maine native, said, “Well, as we say in Maine, if you don’t like the weather, then just wait a minute.” I laughed and told him that in every place I’d lived (New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Massachusetts, even California) people had said the exact same thing about their state’s weather, and that when it came to homespun aphorisms regarding the meteorological, the citizens of Maine were absolutely no different than the citizens of Ohio. The student (hi, Anders!) just looked at me as if I’d told him that his mother was not actually his mother, which of course was my intention.

She decided to drive home with the safe stuck

under her car, and that’s how the police found her: by following the trail of scorched

pavement the safe had left behind.

Which is not to say that Maine isn’t special.

But it is to say that the things that are said to be special about Maine are said so often that they end up not seeming so special, so often are they insisted upon.

I’ll tell you what’s special about Maine: Steve, my across-the-street neighbor. This is in Portland. Steve has lived all his life in Portland, is the latest of several generations who have lived all their lives in Portland. Steve is the kind of Maine native who doesn’t get talked about enough. He does not ski. He does not

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snowmobile. He has no feelings about or experience with blueberries, or lobsters, or island life, or mountain life, or lake life. He has never had a mill close on him, but he did get fired from one once, or maybe he quit, or maybe it was a little of both. He did not go away and come back and realize his lifelong dream of starting a five-star restaurant in a grist mill, nor did he go away and come back and realize his lifelong dream of converting his great-grandfather’s milking shed into a studio where he will paint world-famous watercolor paintings of the fields surrounding what had once been his great-grandfather’s milking shed. Steve did not go away, and so there was no need for him to come back. He would not know how to say, or want to say, “You can’t get there from here” in the way Maine natives are expected to say, “You can’t get there from here.” Instead, Steve sounds like he is a member of a lost tribe that long ago got separated from the rest of its people in Revere, Massachusetts. Steve is an avid smoker of cigarettes, and he is also a committed silk screener of T-shirts, many of them featuring our hero Tom Brady, one of them featuring Tom Brady urinating on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. (Goodell himself is a part-time Mainer, although I don’t think he’ll be inviting Steve over to his house for dinner any time soon.) I often run into Steve when he’s outside, smoking, which he refers to as “ripping a butt” (this is what he says: “I’m gonna rip a butt,” even when he’s just a second earlier finished ripping a butt), and about 50 percent of the time, he’ll take out his phone and show me his latest silkscreen design, and about 20 percent of the time, he’ll tell me to hold on, then finishes ripping his butt, runs inside his basement apartment, runs back out, and gives me a Tom Brady T-shirt. I offer to pay him every time, and the only time I’ve ever seen Steve mad is when I’ve offered to pay him for one of his T-shirts. Finally, I got smart, and the last time that Steve gave me a Tom Brady T-shirt, I told him to hold on, ran inside my house, ran back out, and gave Steve a copy of

one of my novels. He took a look at it, smiled widely around his cigarette, and asked, “You wrote this?” I told him I did. “When?” he asked, and I laughed, because I don’t think anyone has ever asked that particular question about one of my books. I told him, “Oh, over the last few years.” “Awesome,” Steve said, and stuck it in his coat pocket. I didn’t expect him to read it; I just wanted him to have it, and I would bet Steve feels the same way about me and his shirts. But the next time I saw him, a week or so later, he said that his girlfriend had been reading the book aloud to him at night, and that image, and that sentence, made me want to cry. I wonder what Steve would have done if I had cried. I could imagine him patting me on the shoulder, offering me a butt; I could imagine him laughing at me; I could imagine him ignoring me entirely. Lots of things seem

possible with Steve, and that’s just one of the reasons I say he’s special.

Anyway, I didn’t cry. Instead I said, “Awesome,” and waited for Steve to say how much he was liking the book. Instead, Steve asked me where I got my ideas. I told him the truth, which is that I often steal them.

For instance, just that morning, I’d read in the newspaper about a woman, somewhere in central Maine, who’d stolen a safe from a convenience store, but then found, once she’d gotten it out of the store, that she didn’t know how to open it. So she decided to open the safe by running it over with her car. Except it got stuck under her car, and, not knowing what else to do, she decided to drive home with the safe stuck under her car, and that’s how the police found her: by following the trail of scorched pavement the safe had left behind.

“Hey, that was my sister!” Steve said.

“Really?” I said, because it seemed plausible: because there are so few people in Maine, and it also seemed to me that if Steve were to steal a safe, that he might have stolen his the way the woman had stolen hers. But then Steve laughed, and I realized he was kidding, and that while Anders had made an assumption about what it’s like to live in other places, I’d made one about what it was like to be from this one.

“Sure, Brock,” Steve said. “We’re all related.”

Then he patted me on the shoulder, flicked his butt into the street, and then went back into his apartment.

Brock Clarke is A. Leroy Greason Professor of English and chair of the English department. His latest novel is Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?

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Hope Hall ’92, P’19 contemplates the bridge tradition builds from past to present.

Maine’s Herd: Shaped by the Seasons IN MAINE, we mark passing months in sound—

drips of clear sap in tin pails, calls of irrepressible peepers, whirs of iridescent dragonflies in their late summer blue.

Seasons here are hard-won. Each month is a fresh proclamation—a surprise—even though we can feel the transition brewing beneath the surface as sure as a pulse. Traditions enable Mainers to find rootedness despite the ever-shifting weather. The markers of nature force us to adapt, while also reminding us that on a larger scale the cycles of life are predictable. In this way, our traditions both ground and nourish, allowing us to grow as nimble as birches.

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Our yearly celebrations in Maine are a doorway back in time—a bridge to the present—and a promise that, no matter what happens, we have in us a pattern of resilience.

Farming is one tradition here that runs deep.

My entry into farming came through my Grandpa Lew, who always cautioned, “Don’t rush the season, kid!” In the ten years since we began Sunflower Farm Creamery, our days have become punctuated by caring for a herd of thirty dairy goats, an herb garden, and a cheese kitchen. I hear his words often and work to find ways to linger in and celebrate what each month offers.

Although the solitude of farming can be challenging—hundreds of hay bales to load, the loss of a loved animal, hours of digging out after a storm, or a succession of goats kidding in the middle of the night—there is always the guiding sense of connectedness to all who farmed before you, and to all who are sharing this exact moment with you right now, on far-flung farms scattered throughout Maine.

Because small farms depend on the community, we have a comforting attachment to our farm friends, building traditions year by year with everyone who makes the trip to buy cheese or visit the herd. People come in spring to meet

the new babies, in summer to do yoga in the pasture, in fall for Open Creamery Day, and in winter to leave Christmas trees for the goats to eat. We have seen many families grow up, grieved with others as they have lost parents, and met new folks each year.

One of our favorite traditions is Kid Snuggling Days. In April, we welcome hundreds of families who patiently wait in long lines for a chance to hold a newborn baby goat. As we settle two-pound Nigerian dwarf kids into people’s arms, it is not uncommon for them to burst into tears, and it is equally likely for them to fall into the kind of focused silence usually only seen in a church.

People return year after year, searching for proof that spring, this precious sleeping quality in our hearts that speaks of love, is still very much alive after the cold winter.

One Sunday during kid visiting hours, the barn was especially full of people when a pair of does both went into labor on opposite ends of the barn. My husband, Chris, easily delivered triplets, and the barn cheered as he held each one up. Strangers, farm friends, and family were all caught up in the miracle of new life together.

In another stall, our sweet doe Chianti struggled for hours. In time, the noisy barn cleared, the veterinarian arrived, the doors closed, and I continued to lean into the task at hand—trying to save my goat mama who had impossibly stuck kids. The rest of the world disappeared. We have assisted in hundreds of births, but this was the first we could not right. After losing her, I knelt down in the shavings, lowered my head, and wondered how I would return to the world outside the barn after such a loss.

Sliding open the doors, I was greeted with the most joyful sight! Children of all ages, a grandma in a wheelchair, mothers and fathers and teenagers, all sat with their feet facing the center of a circle while thirty baby goats pranced and entertained in the middle. Even as I had slipped between seconds and lost track of time— become stuck in the season of loss—the farm’s spring tradition had continued more beautifully than ever, just outside the barn. Their smiles were contagious, a field of fireflies suddenly illuminating the dark space in my mind.

I learned later that two older women, who had both grown up on farms, quietly noticed the

situation and took charge. They handed off the babies to trusted adults to carry outside, led the crowd out of the barn, and then instructed those gathered in the sun to encircle the newborn goats so they could continue to celebrate the beautiful spring tradition of welcoming new life.

Chianti’s collar hangs in the barn on a nail where I placed it that evening years ago. I was bone tired and sad, but, thanks to the sweetness of tradition, I also felt immeasurably lucky to call this farm and this state home. Again and again, the farm traditions have shown me that

People return year after year, searching for proof that spring, this precious sleeping quality

in our hearts that speaks of love,

is still very much alive after the cold winter.

to be grounded in any place is a gift, because it gives us the courage and permission to be rooted everywhere—even in ourselves.

When we participate in and carry on traditions, the whole community is drawn closer around what matters most. Lobsters on a dock, fireworks over the harbor, the satisfaction of a cord of wood stacked well—whatever your yearly practices might be—their repetition is as essential to our humanity as breathing. And, on those occasions when life throws a punch and we lack the strength to navigate the path forward, the community in our state circles around us with familiar ritual until we are back on our feet. This is what I love most about Maine.

Hope Hall ’92, P’19 is a high school English teacher, writer, Nigerian dwarf goat farmer, cheesemaker, and yoga teacher. Her brother, Fred ’88, and daughter, Tess ’19, often volunteer at Hall’s Sunflower Farm in Cumberland, Maine.

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Elise Juska ’95 on the pleasure of hard work

The Wide Spot in the Road IN 1929, when my grandmother was in high

school, she cleaned the rooming house in her rural hometown of Dennysville, Maine. She was one of eleven children. Her father was a true Maine woodsman, a foreman at a logging camp, a tall, tobacco-smoking man with hams for hands. He walked eight miles to a log cabin, where he lived while he was working, then walked eight miles home.

My uncle was raised on Swan’s Island, in a fishing family. In the 1950s, he took a boat to high school in Southwest Harbor and lived there during the school week. Eventually he relocated to Camden, where he hauled lobsters in the summers and dragged scallops in the winters, going out on the water with his brothers for weeks at a time. When he came home, his beard was covered in ice.

In Maine, hard work seems inevitable and unavoidable. Given the harsh winters, the distance, and the isolation, the rigor is built in.

In Dennysville, as in so many small towns, the work migrated with the seasons. In the summers, locals went blueberrying, a job that sounds quaint but involves stooping for several hours to rake berries off low bushes in long, rock-strewn fields. In the fall, they gathered in the coffee shop/general store to make Christmas wreaths.

Work in Maine seems to occur with a conspicuous lack of complaint. In 2007, I spent a year on Mount Desert Island, where I was quickly schooled in preparing for winter:

putting on snow tires and procuring firewood and kindling and sealing windows, tasks that were approached with something like eagerness. A storm in the forecast was met with a matter-of-factness that bordered on excitement.

After the snowfall, the streets were cleared with remarkable efficiency.

Maybe, to some extent, the beauty of Maine helps temper the difficulty. It would be tempting to romanticize the snowstorms, the fishing boats gliding in the harbors—I remind myself that my uncle lost the majority of his hearing to the motors on the boats.

In the late 1930s, my grandmother and two of her sisters migrated south, to New Jersey, in search of work as teachers. One brother followed them but changed his mind in Grand Central Station, repelled by the crowds and noise, vowing: “Take me back to the wide spot in the road and I’ll never leave.” He returned to the space and quiet of Maine and served as his hometown postmaster for the next sixty-three years.

Nearly a century later, to be in Maine is to bear witness to that same strong work ethic: uncomplaining, undaunted, resolute. What you don’t find, it would appear, is the stress. Mainers labor from dusk to dawn but seemingly without the high pitch of pressure—the contemporary anxiety—that so frequently accompanies work so demanding. Is it practical necessity that dilutes it? The presence of beauty? Of fellowship among neighbors and friends? Something

about the approach to work in Maine feels refreshingly sane, rational, almost relaxing— and, even in isolation, communal too.

In 1998, my aunt was principal of a rural elementary school in Pembroke when the Great Ice Storm knocked out power and encased large swaths of the state in thick ice. People weren’t afraid, she said; they felt prepared.

The National Guard arrived, generators were brought in, and more than one hundred neighbors took shelter in the school for over a week.

In the 2010s, I spent my summers working on Orr’s Island, fifteen minutes from Bowdoin.

I rented a cottage in the woods on the edge of a quiet cove, where I wrote every day, all day.

Lobster boats puttered by in the mornings. In the afternoons, I’d often stop by the island candy store. On foggy early June days there’d be no other customers, but behind the steamed windows I might find a group of high school students baking batches of candy in preparation for tourist season. I’d head home and wave to my neighbor across the road; he’d built his own house.

My landlord those summers was a chemistry professor who had taught at Bowdoin. He was retired but still worked constantly. He maintained his house and property. He rose at 5 a.m. and baked bread. He was always writing and researching a new article or book. His home office, overlooking the water, was piled with impressive towers of books and papers—hard work, but he spoke of it with palpable pleasure.

It was not unlike the note in his voice when he described the beauty outside his office windows in winter: the weather could be harsh, he told me, the cold bitter, but the mist on the water’s frozen surface looked like it was dancing.

Something about the approach Elise Juska ’95 is an associate professor at the

to work in Maine feels refreshingly sane, University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her latest novel is If We Had Known. rational, almost relaxing.

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Bree Candland ’01 on taking Bowdoin and Maine pride everywhere

Wearing It Well MAINE’S BICENTENNIAL FLAG is the first flag I’ve ever flown. With a large green pine tree against two blue stripes—one for the sky and the other for the water—and Maine’s motto, “Dirigo,” or “I lead,” emblazoned at the top, it represents Maine’s natural beauty perfectly. After my first day back at school this year, it waved outside, and our mailman stopped to chat with me about it because he didn’t recognize the flag and told me it was the first like it he’d seen on his route. My face lit up with pride.

My partner, Dan, and I spent Christmas on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Lana’i with two Bowdoin friends, Jon and Rachel, I’ve known

for more than twenty years. Over the week we spent there, I realized I’d packed no fewer than five articles of clothing with either a Maine or Bowdoin College logo. We were only gone for eight days. I love to wear Maine and Bowdoin gear when I travel so strangers will approach me and tell me their connection to Maine or to Bowdoin. The last time I visited Jon and Rachel, we spent part of our first day together on Maui.

On a short hike to a waterfall, we ran into someone wearing Bowdoin gear and stopped to chat and exchange class years. In April 2018, I noticed a teenager sporting a Bowdoin T-shirt at the gate for a plane bound for New York. She

ended up sitting in the seat directly behind me.

It took just a few minutes at cruising altitude for us to strike up a conversation—to exchange names and information (she was Bridget, Bowdoin Class of 2022), discuss our mutual excitement about Bowdoin, and for me (I’m a teacher and just can’t help it) to offer her some advice about classes and extracurriculars on campus. During that same trip, my best friend and I drove from Davis, California, to Los Angeles. My friend had to take a work call, so we pulled over and I had a chance to briefly explore the adorable town of Solvang. A car pulled into a parking space right next to where

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I was walking on the sidewalk, and my Upward Bound colleague and fellow Bowdoin alumna Ellie Brennan got out! She was visiting her sister in Los Angeles, and they were road-tripping north. We ran into each other on a small side street in a small town in California on a random Thursday. I’ve heard a saying that “Maine is the world’s biggest small town.” It’s true. It’s true about Bowdoin, too. Both bring people together. Both connect us to one another. It’s just beautiful.

I’ve heard a saying that

“Maine is the world’s biggest small town.”

It’s true. It’s true about Bowdoin, too.

Dan and I were in New York City in the fall to see my friend Geno in Come From Away on Broadway. We had breakfast with Dan’s friend, John Cariani, who grew up in Presque Isle, Maine, and wrote the play Almost, Maine. After breakfast, we went in search of a particular scone that John likes in the Theater District, where we ran into his friend, Lewis, who stars in The Book of Mormon. It took barely a minute of chatting to share that we’d all grown up in Maine—in Orono, Bangor, Presque Isle, and Houlton. There’s something special about that Maine connection that bonds strangers. There’s a feeling of kinship and belonging that comes from growing up in this state that I don’t think people elsewhere necessarily feel.

Mainers not only seem to make time for one another, but they are also at the ready to help one another. Maybe it’s because we live in a state with blistering cold and beautiful pine trees that sometimes get blown down in wind storms. We lost power in Brunswick a few Octobers ago for several days because of high winds. My power came back early, and I hosted many friends to charge devices, shower, and get warmed up. A couple of weeks ago, a bus driver

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in my school district noticed an elderly man stuck in freezing water, pinned under his tractor when he was out clearing snow from his driveway. She and a student jumped off the bus and saved his life. Mainers show up for one another.

I think of Maine as being fiercely independent, too. Why was an elderly man out clearing his own driveway in the first place? Because he’s from Maine, and Mainers roll up their sleeves and get to work. There’s an adage that “as Maine goes, so goes the nation.” We’ve elected independent candidates to the US Senate and to the Blaine House—in fact, we’ve elected two independent governors in the past forty years and are now led by Maine’s first female governor. We’re also one of only two states that can split our electoral votes. We were one of three states among the first to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2012. Mainers and their no-nonsense, independent, “you do you” approach have on many occasions put us on the cutting edge of reform.

Maine was also home to notable Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who rose in the Senate in 1950 to assert the right of independent thought in her famous Declaration of Conscience speech.

Mainers are generally practical people, and they voted their support for her for more than twenty years in the Senate. Smith was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and to actively seek the presidential nomination of a major political party. I grew up in Bangor and drove by the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building on my way to school every day in high school. In Maine, speaking up for independent thought and committed service to fellow Mainers can lead to a federal building built in your honor.

No matter where I have the privilege to travel in the world, there’s no greater feeling than seeing the Maine state line sign on the Piscataqua River Bridge or the “Welcome Home” sign in the Portland Jetport. My heart swells every time I see the new Welcome Home sign along the Maine Turnpike in Kittery, too— I think that says it all about what it feels like to call Maine home.

Bree Candland ’01 is a traveler, music lover, animal enthusiast, and social studies teacher at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, Maine.

Gerry Boyle P’08, P’13 on unremarkable hardiness

Peg MY FRIEND PEG passed away a few weeks back. Peg

was ninety-four, and in the last couple of years had some health problems that caught up with her but about which she never complained.

Right up until the end, she had the same comeback when people asked how she was doing: “Well, I woke up on the right side of the sod.”

Peg always said this with a grin, often standing in the doorway of her barn, which was attached to the white clapboard house that has been in her family for several generations. It was built about the same year Maine became a state, along with the rest of the homes in our Central Maine village. Peg lived there alone (she never married), without a television or a computer.

She was a gifted musician, and the music that sometimes emanated from her windows on summer evenings came from her cello, not Alexa.

I thought of Peg when I was asked to write about the character of Mainers, because it has been people like her who have endeared me to my long-ago adopted state. They’re capable, independent, resourceful, generous, and unassuming. They see nothing remarkable about these qualities, because often they live in communities made up of people like them.

This was certainly the case when Peg was a young girl here. Her forebears served on town boards, as town officials. Her great aunt was town clerk, doing business from a front room in the house, which hasn’t changed much since (the sign now hangs from a nail in the barn). It wasn’t that Peg was stuck in the past. It was just that, in her life, the past continued to be the present.

I should point out that Peg had spent time elsewhere. Her mother left Maine for the Midwest, and Peg taught music there before she came back to the village. She taught music in the village, too, introducing a couple of generations of children—and their parents, of which I was one—to the Suzuki Method and miniature violins with rubber bands on the necks. Peg continued to play in community symphonies and quartets, including one that rehearsed just down Harpswell Neck.

That was on Fridays. I would see her trundling past in one of a succession of Subaru station wagons, the last of which is parked in her barn.

She drove until recently, when she conceded that although she was capable of the actual driving, climbing in the car and getting around once she arrived at her destination was a problem. But, in her mobile years, Peg traveled the state on birding trips, wildflower-hunting expeditions, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing jaunts, and, of course, to play music. They were, as it’s put in “The Offer of the College,” “generous enthusiasms.” More recently, after turning ninety, she mostly stayed home.

That was okay with her—or, if it wasn’t, she never let on. When others might have greeted visitors with a recitation of their health problems, or maybe lamented being lonely, Peg saw no point in complaining. She was of a generation of Mainers who faced obstacles squarely, took fortune and misfortune in stride, and didn’t allow the luxury of whining. “It’s a short cut in the long run,” Peg would say, advising

Maine is a state of mind, and the longer you’re here, the deeper it seeps in.

someone to face a problem head-on, do the hard work now to reap benefits in the future.

It wasn’t that Peg was a martyr—anything but.

It was more that, like a lot of Mainers, she felt that her life should be full and productive, and it was her responsibility to make it so. In her sitting room, filled with the artifacts of a century or more, she read The Economist cover to cover.

In the last weeks of her life, she continued to do the same with The Wall Street Journal. When her eyes were failing, her caregivers read both publications aloud to her as she kept abreast of the financial news of the day. She did just that as long as I knew her. I recall a time when a fellow member of the board of our village library, who had some financial acumen, started to educate her on the workings of the markets. He was, as they say, brought up short. Another thing that Mainers know—you never judge a book by its cover.

I hope that this story isn’t too much of a digression, that readers don’t find it too hard to see that one person’s quiet life can exemplify the spirit of a state. For me, people like Peg embody what Maine is about—and you don’t have to live in a rural town or have multigenerational roots and a house that could be a museum to be about that yourself.

Maine is a state of mind, and the longer you’re here, the deeper it seeps in. That can happen in four short years on a college campus (I’m a case in point). The vibe that you feel will remain with you long after you leave and may influence the life you lead elsewhere. It also may be part of the state’s allure, the pull that brings you back—for a visit, for a longer stay, for a lifetime.

Gerry Boyle P’08, P’13 is the author of fifteen mystery novels set in rural Maine and is the editor of Colby Magazine. Raised in Rhode Island, he has lived in Maine for forty years.

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Jason Brown ’91 on memory and belonging in this rugged place

Tree Cutting THE HEATER WAS BROKEN in my grandfather’s

Datsun, and there was a rusted hole in the floor between my feet where snow and sand from the road spurted up as if from an open blender. I must have been about twelve, growing fast, and my rubber-bottomed boots were already too small. I felt my toes tingling as we crossed the Carlton Bridge heading east from Bath.

My grandfather and I were late to our task this year of chopping down a Christmas tree on MacMahan Island, where our family spent the

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summers. At the landing next to a lobsterman’s wharf, the old spruce formed towers of snow.

A thin layer of ice sheathed the seaweed at the shoreline. The island sat no more than half a mile across the passage. Steam poured out of the channel as if from a boiling pot and swept south around the tip of the island into the open water of the Sheepscot Bay. My grandfather brushed off the aluminum boat that lay chained next to a tree. I took the other end and we shuffled to the water where I

boarded first because I was the lightest; then the sled and my grandfather’s pack; finally my grandfather stepped into the bow and pushed us off.

At the island dock, my grandfather muckled the skiff to the cleat, and we set out. My grandfather trudged ahead, breaking snow as we passed cedar-shingled cottages. My feet were stinging now, as cold as the tip of my nose. They could sting for a good while before I had to worry, but I was already worried. Complaining to my grandfather would have been a betrayal not just of my grandfather but also of our ancestors who had come to Maine. My grandparents, who relished privation as a form of sacred communion with the past, often talked about them; the earliest, David Thompson, arrived in 1607 with the doomed Popham colony, who must have suffered more pain than I had ever known.

In the thickly wooded common land on the north end of the island, I lifted my legs high, and the snow clung to my wool pants. My grandfather grabbed the neck of a spruce. It was a healthy tree but a little flat on the backside. He shook the next one free of snow—too short. I shook a couple too, none of them just right. When my grandfather shook the trunk of an eight-footer, the limbs sprung loose from the snow and the air filled with cold white dust. The crystals settled on his face. “Not this one,” he said and reached out to shake the next tree and the next like a minister greeting his parishioners.

Finally, we found the perfect tree, a tall symmetrical cone. I brushed my glove over the needles, letting them snap back to form, and lowered my nose to inhale the sweet smell of spruce. In the summer there were other smells: the warm salt air mixed with moss, the rotting marsh, the stench of muck at low tide and bracken, now covered in snow.

My grandfather untied the saw and started on the trunk while I held the tree from above.

When we laid the tree on the sled, I noticed the sawdust collected on the packed snow of our footprints. For no apparent reason, my grandfather knelt and laid an ungloved hand on the ground. The skin of his face, blanched by the cold, tugged around his cheekbones. His blue irises were the only color in his face, and I saw, maybe for the first time, that he had once been my age.

Nostalgia is, among other things, a form

of forgetting disguised as recollection, often for the purpose of covering up a history

we don’t want to face.

For my grandfather, MacMahan was a perfected version of where he had spent his summers as a boy, on Squirrel Island near Boothbay Harbor just east of us. My great-great-grandfather Jacob Ham bought Squirrel Island with other investors and in the late 1800s transformed it into a summer colony for wealthy city people. Squirrel was my family’s contribution to “Vacationland.”

Jacob Ham grew up on a farm in the days before Vacationland existed. Later he became a grain merchant and eventually the first mayor of Lewiston, where my family had settled in the early 1700s during the bloody struggle with the French and native people to determine who belonged in the Province of Maine.

In the summer I lived among summer people on MacMahan, though I did not feel that I belonged. The families there had money while mine did not. In the winter, I lived among non-summer people in Hallowell; I didn’t think I belonged there, either, in part because our family had lived out of state. As a child I was anxious about where I belonged, and later, when I left Maine for work, I became prone to nostalgia.

Nostalgia is, among other things, a form of forgetting disguised as recollection, often for the purpose of covering up a history we don’t want to face. But nostalgia is also a mechanism by which we recover the past to give our lives shape and meaning. Our way of seeming to take back what has been stolen by time in order to fix it in amber.

On the way to the island dock, my nose twinged with woodsmoke from Fred Taft’s farmhouse,

the only winter residence of the island. Fred, an old family friend, worked at the Bath Iron Works in the machine shop and crossed the channel every morning to go to work. The birches he had been cutting in recent weeks lay stacked in a neat pile. Pale tree stumps rose above the surface of the snow. Beyond Fred’s house a dark patch appeared on the open water—a north wind heading our way. We had to hurry if we were going to cross back to the mainland before the gust hit us.

I couldn’t feel the front of my feet. For the moment I was grateful that the aching had vanished. Once we reached the car, I would take off my boots and socks, wrap my hands around my toes, and wait for the pain to return.

Jason Brown ’91 is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon. His latest book is a novel in stories called A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed.

Pat Corrigan is an artist based in Portland, Maine, who makes paintings, drawings, illustrations, murals, and comics. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune, among others.

In the same year as Maine’s bicentennial, Chris Potholm ’62, P’95, DeAlva Stanwood Professor of Government, begins his fiftieth year teaching at Bowdoin in September. An expert in Maine politics and a longtime Registered Maine Guide, Potholm reflects on the “wild, wild East” spirit of the state and what’s kept him in Maine and teaching at Bowdoin.

We’re Home What is a little-known fact about Maine politics that our readers might find particularly interesting?

One of the things that’s always intrigued me is that, if you look at the environmentalist movement in Maine, you tend to think that it’s led and dominated by Democrats. But, in fact, in the 1970s and ’80s it was the Republicans who took the lead in protecting the environment.

Even today, if you ask a question like “Do you donate to or belong to an environmental group?” you are still going to get a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats to answer that with a yes.

What might be top of mind for Maine political insiders today, and five or ten years from now?

When I was doing the research for The Splendid Game, I went to the Muskie Archives and I looked at some early polling from 1954. The two biggest issues were jobs in Maine and keeping Maine kids in Maine. A few years ago, when Governor [Paul] LePage came to our class, the class asked him a similar question.

His answer: number one was jobs, and number two was, “How can I keep you students here in Maine?” This fall, Governor [Janet] Mills visited our class. Same thing. Jobs. Keep the young people here. She said that the state needs refugees; we need young people. We can’t

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keep our economy going, can’t keep it vibrant otherwise. She added a new part to the answer, though—addressing the opioid crisis.

Do you have a favorite course that you’ve taught at Bowdoin?

A few years ago, I introduced a new course called Women at War that’s been extremely exciting. It’s been so rewarding to come into class and have something new to talk about and new to research.

I feel so blessed that every day I get to do some reading, I do some writing, and I teach. Then I get feedback. I learn. I wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning and I can’t wait to go to class.

What does Maine’s bicentennial mean to you?

No matter how much Maine changes, that underlying frontier element is still there. It’s the wild, wild East. In 1820 we break away, and we break away for reasons that are still valid today. People went to the frontier to be free and to work hard and to have some communal activities. You help me build my cabin, I’ll help you build your barn. So, coming together to do certain things, but always wanting to be free from the government or the church or whoever would be pressing down their values on you.

one with the natural world more than in other places. I’ve never gone out and walked through the woods and didn’t feel better when I came home. There’s something to the wilderness here and a sense of well-being. I did politics for forty years. Flying down from Bangor to Portland the night before an election, looking down, seeing all those little lights and having some idea of how it was going to come out, and maybe some inflated notion that I had something to do with that. It’s a sense of oneness. I get that sense if I’m Aroostook County. I get it in Hancock County. I feel at home in Maine in a way that I never felt at home anywhere else.

People cock their heads when you wax eloquent on that because they don’t get it. But if you get it, you know what we’re talking about.

Professor Potholm’s books include works on war (Understanding War, War Wisdom, and Winning at War); on Maine (This Splendid Game, Maine: The Dynamics of Political Change, An Insider’s Guide to Maine Politics, and Tall Tales from the Tall Pines [fiction]); and on Africa (Four African Political Systems, The Theory and Practice of African Politics, and Swaziland). He is currently researching Hiding in Plain Sight: Woman Warriors throughout Time and Space.

How would you sum up your love for Maine?

It’s the totality of the experience. The good and the bad. That can-do spirit. The attempt to be

For an extended version of this Q&A, visit bowdoin.edu/magazine.

PHOTO: BOB HANDELMAN

Professor Chris Potholm ’62 and Drew Chamberlain ’20, one of his students, on a walk across the Quad in November.

Column

Maine Statehood and the Consequence of Compromise MAINE OWES its statehood to slavery. Remember this [as] we celebrate Maine’s two hundredth anniversary. In the midst of the platitudes and sales that will accompany the state’s bicentennial, remember the context that created Maine.

Freedom for Mainers exacerbated slavery for black people, and strengthened slaveholders’ power.

The Missouri Compromise enabled Maine to become a state.

In 1818, Missouri applied to become a slave state. If Missouri permitted slavery, the South would control twelve states to the North’s eleven and disrupt a tenuous balance of power.

Slavery was only one difference between the regions.

Northerners favored a strong central government, cities, high tariffs, infrastructure, farming, manufacturing, and banking.

Southerners desired a weak central government (except when prosecuting fugitive slaves and securing land), low taxes, and profits from slavery funneled back into plantations.

By the 1820s, the North’s economy no longer needed slave labor, although northern shipping, fishing, farming, and finance profited mightily from the South’s slave society. Few Northerners wanted to abolish slavery; most wanted slavery, and black people, to remain in the South.

Maine provided a solution for the dilemma Missouri caused.

Congress declared in 1819 that Maine’s admission as a free state would be tied directly to Missouri’s entrance as a slave state. Congress should have called the compromise it passed in 1820 the Missouri-Maine Compromise. Without Maine, the balance between slave and non-slave states could not have

Mainers should celebrate the leaders who voted against Maine statehood, because they refused to support the spread of slavery.

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been achieved. A rule also emerged for slavery’s future. For roughly thirty years, Missouri’s southern border marked the wall that separated slaveholding from non-slaveholding states.

Maine’s independence strengthened slavery elsewhere.

As slaveholders’ power grew, so did an abolitionist movement. A party opposed to slavery’s spread arose in the North. The South, foreseeing slavery’s demise, attempted to dissolve the Union. Civil War ensued. Hundreds of thousands died. Much of the South smoldered in defeat. Slavery fell in blood and ash. Its death nearly cost the nation its life.

Mainers rightly celebrate their role in keeping the nation together, especially during the Civil War. Maine takes pride in that terrible event’s creation of what Abraham Lincoln called the nation’s “new birth of freedom.” Mainers fought and died to save the Union. After Gettysburg, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the professor from Bowdoin College, emerged an unlikely war hero. Hannibal Hamlin, an anti-slavery Democrat from Maine, was Lincoln’s first vice president. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the antislavery sensation Uncle Tom’s Cabin while living in Brunswick in 1852.

Maine served as a terminus of the Underground Railroad, a series of safe houses that enabled untold numbers of black people to escape the United States and find freedom in Canada. In 2020, these important people and events of Maine’s history deserve honor and remembrance.

If not honor and pride, then honesty and integrity require that, alongside the expressions of jubilee, Mainers recognize how their independence came with a cost. After 1820, slavery spread. In the 1830s alone, 300,000 black men, women, and children were forced to move south, and between 1800 and 1860, more than one million black people, slave and free, were forced to move as the South’s demand for labor in cotton and sugar fields grew. This internal migration and domestic slave trade destroyed black families, inflating prices for black men in their prime working years and black women in their prime birthing years. The domestic slave market placed a premium on black women as breeders of slaves.

The spread of slavery in the US perpetuated rape and sexual violence, separated babies from parents, and promoted citizenship based on white racial purity.

These are not the topics a state usually includes when it recognizes its origins, but Maine is in a unique position to signal to the nation an important lesson: compromising on evil has incalculable costs.

Opposite page: Maine’s admittance to the US in 1820 as a free state allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state in 1821, equalizing the number of free and slave states.

Five of Maine’s seven congressmen—Martin Kinsley, Joshua Cushman, Ezekiel Whitman, Enoch Lincoln, and James Parker—wanted to prohibit slavery’s spread into new territories. In 1820, they voted against the Missouri Compromise and against Maine’s independence. In their defense, they wrote that, if the North, and the nation, embarked upon this Compromise—and ignored what experiences proved, namely that southern slaveholders were determined to dominate the nation through ironclad unity and perpetual pressure to demand more land, and more slaves—then these five Mainers declared Americans “shall deserve to be considered a besotted and stupid race, fit, only, to be led blindfold; and worthy, only, to be treated with sovereign contempt.” As we approach the bicentennial of Maine’s statehood, Mainers should celebrate the leaders TEXT REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM PORTLAND MONTHLY, SEPTEMBER 2018.

MAP: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, GEOGRAPHY AND MAP DIVISION

who voted against Maine statehood, because they refused to support the spread of slavery.

Maine occupies a unique position in the nation’s history. It can name as heroes in a bicentennial celebration legislators who stood against its independence. They knew that freedom that promoted slavery was not freedom at all, and not worth the price. In commemorating them, we can build the courage to follow their lead on current issues of consequence. One hundred years from now, when a new generation of Mainers gathers to mark statehood, it will look back on 2020, the year we remembered those who stood against independence, and for freedom.

Brian Purnell is Geoffrey Canada Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History at Bowdoin.

BOWDOIN MAGAZINE WINTER 2020 | CLASSNEWS@BOWDOIN.EDU 47

Whispering Pines

Out of a Crucible Maine statehood was forged from conflict and compromise.

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, Maine emerged as a state from

a crucible into which competing political, religious, and economic forces had been thrown, with powerful leaders raising the temperature. Statehood was far from inevitable.

People in the District of Maine considered separating from Massachusetts toward the end of the American Revolution, when it was apparent that Boston lacked the resources—or the inclination—to protect the sparsely settled Maine coast from British warships. Arguments for separation dated to the mid-1780s and resurfaced periodically in subsequent years.

Settlers had come to resent absentee landowners from Massachusetts and England who paid comparatively low tax rates on their holdings. Economic differences played out in political affiliations. Federalists favored a strong central government and were often from wealthy families, while Democrat-Republicans championed state-level control, and included farmers and tradesmen. Newspapers gravitated toward these political poles. Competing commercial interests between coastal towns and interior settlements fueled discord, and the War of 1812 once again left the region unprotected from British attacks.

Bowdoin College was rooted in this unsettled terrain.

Many of Bowdoin’s overseers and trustees had advocated for separation, from Federalist clergyman Samuel Deane to Democrat-Republican entrepreneur William King. In 1814, King wrote an anonymous letter to President Jesse Appleton, implying that Appleton was guilty of treason for visiting British-held Castine during the War of 1812.

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The treasurer of the College was King’s brother-in-law and business partner, Benjamin Porter. In 1815, Porter faced a reversal of financial fortunes, and he defaulted on his bond as treasurer. King had guaranteed Porter’s bond, and he was embittered when Bowdoin trustees froze King’s assets (including ships about to sail) until the matter was resolved.

After Appleton’s death, King was instrumental in bringing in William Allen, a Democrat-Republican, as Bowdoin’s next president. Allen had been president of Dartmouth University, a short-lived attempt by the New Hampshire Legislature to wrest control from the independently chartered Dartmouth College. In 1819, the US Supreme Court decided in favor of the college (Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Wentworth), and Allen was out of a job.

King established himself as a leader of the DemocratRepublican party in Maine. When Baptists sought to establish a college because they felt that the dominant Congregationalist character of Bowdoin blocked the education of Baptist youth, King became a trustee of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution in Waterville in 1818 (later Waterville College and then Colby College). Following the Brunswick Convention of 1816, in which the separation movement lost credibility by “creative” vote tallying, King presided over the 1819 Maine Constitutional Convention, which voted for separation. By then, Massachusetts Federalists no longer wanted to control the district; the Maine DemocraticRepublican majority had changed the complexion of the Massachusetts legislature and congressional delegation.

The next hurdle was Congress. House Speaker Henry Clay announced that he would not support Maine statehood if there were restrictions on slavery in Missouri. In the Senate, an amendment linked the fates of Maine and Missouri; two Maine delegates ultimately voted for the compromise, despite strong opposition back home.

Initially an opponent of the compromise because of the slavery issue, King came full circle in order to avoid having Maine revert to Massachusetts’s control. He was elected as Maine’s first governor in 1820 and set about settling old scores. As governor (and a Bowdoin trustee), King wanted to pack the College’s governing boards with political appointments, since Bowdoin had received state funds. In 1831, the unpopular William Allen was removed as president by the Maine Legislature. Ironically, the precedent established by the Dartmouth case favored Allen this time (William Allen v. Joseph McKeen), and he was restored as president in 1833.

The words of Civil War veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes might apply to Maine statehood: “…in our youth our hearts were touched by fire.”

John R. Cross ’76 is secretary of development and college relations.

ILLUSTRATION: ERIC HANSON

Connect ALUMNI NEWS AND UPDATES

WHERE ELSE? After playing four years of varsity women’s ice hockey at Bowdoin (and all the hockey and training that led to Bowdoin), my original plan after graduating was to pack up my car and be a ski bum for a season or two to decompress.

But I participated in Speak About It—a performance about consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships—during my senior year, and I made the decision to start a nonprofit based on the show. I moved to Portland in June 2010 and haven’t looked back. Where else would I want to be? I actually have a tattoo with the state of Maine in it!

As the communications director at EqualityMaine, I get to work with and for the LGBTQ+ community. My role focuses on telling powerful stories about the work that my incredible colleagues are doing to create safer schools and more affirming workplaces, support and pass LGBTQ+ inclusive policies, and host events to both showcase the vibrant LGBTQ+ community and allow us to be ourselves. And for me, I throw in some entertaining GIFs to keep it interesting.

I’ve always said that my favorite part about living in Portland is that you can be on a beach or skiing within an hour. I grew up in a small town in northern New Mexico where the unofficial slogan is “carpe mañana”—the pace is a little slower and more relaxed. I think Maine has that same “live and let live” mentality.

My favorite “only-in-Maine” story is from my first winter in Portland after graduation. It was the first storm of the season, and everyone was stocking up on goods just in case we lost power and had to eat the contents of our refrigerators. I was at Hannaford getting Oreos, peanut butter, and a bottle of whiskey, and the person behind me had a gallon of milk, a handle of Allen’s Coffee Brandy, and a single roll of toilet paper. The single roll was, I thought, the riskiest part.

For more of our interview with Shane, visit bowdoin.edu/magazine.

PHOTO: CHRISTINA ARTIST_CREDIT WNEK

Shane Diamond ’10 is right where he wants to be. “I’m very fortunate in my role with EqualityMaine that I can show up to work as my authentic self and can work and speak from my experience as a transgender man,” he says. “EqualityMaine, along with strong partners and allies, has passed a number of significant laws—making Maine a safer and more affirming place to live, work, and visit for LGBTQ+ people.”

Connect

1958

Bruce Chalmers ’59, Ron Kirwood ’59, Norm Nicholson ’56, and Ted Gibbons ’58 celebrated together at the Chalmers’s house in October.

Bruce’s wife, Laurie, said, “It was a ‘Go U Bears’ evening!”

Steve Hunt ’83 and Joel Sherman ’61 made a Bowdoin connection at a special birthday celebration for Joel’s across-the-hall neighbor, Yuko Hunt, who happens to be Steve’s sister-in-law.

Bowdoin football teammates Mort Soule ’67, Rob Pfeiffer ’67, Wayne Burton ’66, and Jim Day ’66 posed together at the Middlebury game on October 26. Rob, a recent inductee into Bowdoin’s Athletic Hall of Honor, passed away from cancer on November 9.

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Robert Foster: “I believe I may still hold the world’s record for expulsions, as Dean Kendrick sent me packing on three separate occasions. I finally graduated at age sixty-four and was pleased to ascend the same steps as my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather for my diploma. Although my life’s path seems a far cry from the lessons I learned at Bowdoin, I could not have painted those pictures and written those books without the structure and direction taught me by my professors ‘under the pines.’ I worked for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Newsweek, and was publisher of a neat trade book in Camden, Maine, named The National Fisherman. I’ve flown for the Navy and finally graduated from Bowdoin after earning my last two semester credits studying in Rome. I did extensive painting there and in Paris. Was lucky enough to be able to retire from commerce at fifty-two, buy a beautiful old wooden schooner, rebuild her, and sail for ten years with my new bride in the Caribbean. After a dismasting, we returned to Boothbay Harbor, where I applied for my lobstering license, bought a tiny strip-plank boat (boy, do they leak), and fished thirty traps on the side for five years. The name of our company was Fosta’s Lobstas, and it was disbanded by my accountant after losing gobs of money for five years. Just before we moved to Tucson, I took a fun job with the old Sample’s Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor as marketing director. I brought in for repair such vessels as Gazella Primera, Philadelphia’s official boat; Belle Aventure, a 102foot antique wooden Fife; a Harvey Gamage 134-foot school schooner, and numerous other wooden boats.

It was a wonderful job for a guy who

loved antique vessels, and it lasted until 2008, when it seemed all large wooden boats went into storage.

I’ve written two books—Ad Man: True Stories From the Golden Age of Advertising (like “Mad Men,” only sexier and funnier) and Cadet (a compendium of my misadventures as a Naval aviator, funnier than Ad Man). So that’s the whole ugly mess. I’m married to a beautiful woman twenty years my junior who graduated from Wheaton and attended Bryn Mawr for a time as an archaeology student. I am a happy, totally fulfilled man.”

Bob Plourde: “Jeanie and I are reasonably healthy and very happy in our villa in Liberty Village, Peru, Illinois. It’s a full-service continuing care retirement community in a great town. Just an update for us: Married in 1958, worked with Sears Roebuck and then Montgomery Ward until 1984, and after that my own business until 1989, when I had cancer. Scared, decided to retire with not a lot of money, but have made it through and we are safe, financially. We snow-birded from Illinois to Florida from 1989 until 2012, but bought here in 2004.

Have heard from Hody White about his 5K run. Other than that, no real contacts from Bowdoin. Lost track of Mike Curtis.”

Paul Todd: “Judy and I will probably start reducing international travel, but this year we visited Costa Rica in spring, MIT reunion in June, and Tanzania/Zanzibar in June/July.

The Costa Rica adventure included rafting Class III and IV whitewater and visiting Tropical Paradise Garden in Golfito, which is owned and operated by my cousin ‘Papi’ Beatham, who was also a very close childhood friend. Be sure to go there if you are in Costa Rica (open to the public by appointment). Also had

Remember

FACULTY/STAFF

The following is a list of deaths reported to us since the previous issue. Full obituaries appear online at: obituaries.bowdoin.edu

James H. Goddard Jr. ’51 October 1, 2019

Kenneth Fontecchio ’64 October 12, 2019

Harry B. McCracken Jr. ’51 October 18, 2019

David L. Abbiati ’65 November 11, 2019

Edward F. Woods ’43 January 5, 2020

Theodore G. Rand ’51 October 1, 2019

John R. Harding ’66 September 30, 2019

Franklin N. Calderwood II ’45 August 11, 2019

Paul Revere Jr. ’53 October 15, 2019

Robert H. Pfeiffer ’67 November 29, 2019

Donald M. Lockhart ’45 October 31, 2019

John N. Wisner Jr. ’53 September 16, 2019

Charles D. MacGillivray ’74 January 3, 2020

William T. Talcott Jr. ’45 December 25, 2019

Robert W. Goddard ’54 November 19, 2019

Paul F. Lambrecht ’75 October 29, 2019

Edward B. Chamberlin ’46 November 22, 2019

Horace A. Hildreth Jr. ’54 December 12, 2019

David S. Sinnott ’83 December 12, 2019

Michael A. Antonakes ’47 December 16, 2019

Donald Cruse Jr. ’55 November 30, 2019

Bruce R. Speight ’96 September 20, 2019

Charles W. Pinkham ’47 October 2019

John P. Leahy ’58 November 27, 2019

Heather A. Colman-McGill ’03 November 6, 2019

Robert J. Macartney ’49 December 4, 2019

Clyde L. Pingree ’58 November 5, 2019

Anne E. Evans ’12 November 7, 2019

Robert W. Allen ’50 November 19, 2019

Carl A. Russell Jr. ’58 October 3, 2019

Spencer G. Vespole ’13 December 13, 2019

Charles H. Miller ’50 September 9, 2019

Peter N. Anastas ’59 December 27, 2019

GRADUATE

William T. Norton ’50 December 17, 2018

Harrison M. Davis III ’60 November 26, 2019

Clarence E. Butler G’62 December 1, 2019

Andrew F. Thomas ’50 December 28, 2019

Robert S. Hurd ’61 December 9, 2019

Winthrop H. Segur Jr. G’65 November 9, 2019

Paul J. Zdanowicz ’50 January 2, 2020

A. David Parnie ’61 August 9, 2019

Thomas P. Gelinas G’68 December 30, 2019

Richard N. Coffin ’51 November 4, 2019

James H. Coots ’63 August 31, 2019

Joseph V. Kane G’73 December 16, 2019

PHOTO: ARTIST_CREDIT

Valencia Menard November 18, 2019 Elizabeth T. Noe November 9, 2019 Susan M. Snell October 5, 2019

Bowdoin obituaries appear on a dedicated online site, rather than printed in these pages.

Updated regularly, the improved obituary format allows additional features that we can’t offer in print, specifically the ability for classmates, families, and friends to post photos and remembrances.

BOWDOIN MAGAZINE WINTER 2020 | CLASSNEWS@BOWDOIN.EDU 51

Connect to rescue a drowning companion from the surf (still able to do this).

We were in Tanzania during the zebra/wildebeest migration and visited, among others, Kilimanjaro coffee plantation, Maasai village, Olduvai Gorge (early hominids), Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti National Park. Then we relaxed on the beach in Zanzibar and mixed with local residents, and upon snorkeling got depressed about the worldwide decay of coral reefs.

Please campaign to curtail global climate change! We held the annual family reunion (eight grandkids) at our cottage on Green Lake, Maine.

We have a granddaughter who is a grad student in chemical engineering (the field of my teaching) at the University of Maine–Orono, and one who is a grad student in astrobiology (a field of my research) at Harvard.

We are still dancing ballroom, Latin, and a little Argentine tango (Judy had a knee joint replacement).

At home in southern Indiana I am a Presbyterian elder, and Judy is church treasurer—they may be getting tired of us. Theologically, I have fond memories of [Emeritus Professor of Religion] Bill Geohegan at Bowdoin.”

Constantine Tsomides: “We’ve designed and completed a number of national design award-winning buildings throughout the northeast.

One of our national awards was for the Atrium at Cedars in Portland; another was for the Osher Inn Assisted Living Facility at Cedars in Portland (Bowdoin alumnus and benefactor of Osher Hall, Bernard Osher ’48). A copy of our recently completed project was featured in Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Mozart program; and we completed a series of seniors’ affordable housing projects for Volunteers of America throughout Maine

(Portland, Peaks Island, Saco, Augusta, Thomaston, and Belfast).

View our list of awards and publications on our website, tsomides.com.”

1959

In Rockland, Maine: Rise and Renewal, author John Bird explores the city’s history from its founding to the present day, with hopes that those who held on to its past reputations will appreciate how the city has turned into a cultural destination over the past three decades.

Released through a partnership with the Rockland Historical Society and Maine Author’s Publishing, the work includes four newspaper headlines that signified events that made Rockland’s recent renewal possible—the opening of the Farnsworth Art Museum in 1948, the opening of the city’s industrial park in 1977, the closure of the SeaPro fish waste processing plant in 1988, and the near cancellation of the city’s signature event, the Maine Lobster Festival, in 1990. At just over 500 pages, it isn’t an exhaustive history of Rockland, according to Bird, but it is one of the first books to record the modern age of the city. From a Bangor, Maine, Bangor Daily News article, October 15, 2019.

Peter Pappas: “An article recently published in the Military Officers Association of America Magazine highlights my Bowdoin relationship to include the ROTC program at Bowdoin: ‘I graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 1959.

In the ROTC program, I elected to take a regular Army assignment and ended up in Fort Knox, Kentucky, for US armor training. After training, I was assigned to B Company, 2nd Medium Tank Battalion, 66th Armor, 4th Armored Division, in the tiny village of Illesheim, Germany.

Shortly after my automatic

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“As I returned the salute, I began reading the sergeant’s nametag: P-R-E-S-L-E-Y. It was Elvis in the flesh.”

—PETER PAPPAS ’59, RECALLING A BRUSH WITH THE KING WHILE STATIONED IN ILLESHEIM, GERMANY, IN 1960.

promotion to first lieutenant, I was selected to be company commander of B Company. What a great honor!

Our mission in Germany was to be prepared to hold back the Russians should they elect to advance into West Germany. We had designated battle positions at Grafenwoehr and periodically would practice moving into those battle positions. On one of our division’s winter exercises, our battalion deployed to Grafenwoehr.

My seventeen tanks and armored personnel carrier support vehicles were in place when I received a call from our advance security scout unit: “Lieutenant, you better come to this position ASAP. There’s a three-star general here, and he wants to see you right now. He’s from 3rd Armored Division.” I could only think I was going to get chewed out one more time. My driver sped our Jeep toward the general’s

position. As we approached the general’s Jeep, the driver of his vehicle, a sergeant, jumped out and offered me a sharp salute. As I returned the salute, I began reading the sergeant’s nametag: P-R-E-S-LE-Y. It was Elvis in the flesh. I shook his hand and started chatting with him. Our conversation was abruptly interrupted by the general, who wanted to know where division headquarters was located. They were lost. I said goodbye to Elvis and the general but never forgot this incredible encounter. Today, whenever I meet a veteran, I offer my hand with, “Shake the hand that shook the hand of Sgt. Elvis Presley.”

Unlike other celebrities, Elvis stepped up to serve his country. The King was a true American patriot.’”

From a Military Officers Association of America Military Officer Magazine story, January 2020.

ILLUSTRATION: ERIC HANSON

1966

Wayne Burton: “Rob Pfeiffer ’67 died of the Agent Orangeinduced cancer he incurred when he served as a Marine officer in Vietnam. I was last with him at the Middlebury game this fall when he, Jim Day, and I—who comprised the right side of the Bowdoin line in the fall of 1965 and blocked for halfback Mort Soule ’67—enjoyed the day. ‘Pfeiff,’ who was recently inducted into Bowdoin’s Hall of Fame, was a great, great guy and friend to everyone. Jim Day and I are also Vietnam veterans and mourn not only Rob’s untimely passing, but all others still dying as a result of the war we couldn’t win and shouldn’t have fought.”

1969

Bill Williams: “Each Monday evening at 7:00 p.m., WJFF Catskill Radio (wjffradio.org) devotes the opening segment of its hour-long weekly news and culture radio magazine, Making Waves, to the Kingfisher Project (thekingfisherproject.org), ‘a volunteer-based community information project aimed at creating greater awareness and understanding of the heroin and opioid epidemic in our community and across the nation.’

Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to have been a guest on the show a number of times. I am delighted to announce that I have been offered the opportunity to host the show once each month. Set your calendars now for ‘First Mondays with Bill Williams.’”

1973

Niland Mortimer: “Moved from San Francisco to Boston and looking forward to connecting with Bowdoin classmates and friends.”

1975

Reunion

“Bourgeois Guitars has partnered with Eastman Music, and it means good things for Lewiston [Maine]. In an open letter to customers, founder Dana Bourgeois said growing the company in the world market meant finding a strategic partner with proven international distribution and manufacturing, and he found that in the Pomona, California, company.

Bourgeois Guitars specializes in high-end, handmade, six-string, flattop acoustic guitars. Eastman Music makes archtop, steel-string, classical and electric guitars, violins, woodwinds, and brass wind instruments.

In addition to expanding market reach, there are plans to expand offerings for both of them. The hope is for the line to debut next year.”

From a Lewiston, Maine, Sun Journal article, October 15, 2019.

Philippa Gordon: “My middle daughter, Annie Rachel Gordon Bromberg, died on January 11, in home hospice care, of a brain tumor diagnosed in 2018. She was twentysix years old. Besides her parents, she is survived by an older and a younger sister.”

Charlie Thalheimer and Patricia Ahrens Thalheimer: “We had a family celebration in Brunswick in late September. We all had a fantastic time as we connected with our Brunswick and Bowdoin roots. Our weekend included a visit to the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, the campus, and Estes Lobster House. The Coastal Studies Center visit was especially meaningful to me and my siblings as we all had spent time visiting Bill (Class of 1927), Irma, and the farm as kids. It was great for the entire group to see the wonderful things Bowdoin has done with the property. Exciting to learn of the environmental programs that will have a significant influence

Vicky Lorant and Jeff Emerson ’70 paused at an overlook on the Grand Corniche coastal highway in Côte d’Azur, France.

Kenny Nelson ’65, Chape Whitman ’74, Eric Baxter ’75, and Ted Gibbons ’58 traveled to Egypt where, as Chape said, they “held the October meeting of the Bowdoin Club of Giza.”

Alumni represented their alma maters at a gathering in Menauhant, Cape Cod, last summer to celebrate the wedding of Lee Merrill (University of Vermont and Babson), son of Walker Merrill ’50, who is flanked by Chuck Carrigan ’75 and Clyde Gunsaulus (Trinity College).

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Connect on our care and nurturing of our planet. Visiting the campus on a perfect late September day was rejuvenating, and finishing the day with a family celebration at Estes was delightful and delicious. Brunswick and Bowdoin are part of our family’s fabric. It was wonderful to share this with the entire family of Harold Thalheimer ’47 and Alice Thalheimer.”

1978 Nurtured and Supported “I arrived at Bowdoin, one of a handful of students from California, and found myself completely at sea—ill-prepared academically, immature socially, and completely unaware of all that is New England—as evidenced by the one sweater I packed.

I was nurtured, supported, educated, challenged, and cheered on not only by Bowdoin students but also by the faculty, administration, staff, and alumni—graduating with honors to make my way in the world.

It is this comprehensive connection that I had then—and still have—that makes Bowdoin so important to who I am. It’s why I have supported the College historically and why I am so pleased to be able to make a more significant commitment as part of my estate plan.”

—Elizabeth K. Glaser ’81

You, too, can have a lasting legacy at Bowdoin.

To learn how you can make a difference, contact Nancy Milam or Liz Armstrong in the Office of Gift Planning at giftplanning@bowdoin.edu or 207-725-3172.

bowdoin.edu/gift-planning

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Dan Ahern: “Still enjoying life on Oahu, where I continue to serve soldiers and their families as G9, US Army Installation Management Command-Pacific. Aloha, a hui hou, and Go U Bears!”

Reed Bunzel: “My latest crime novel, Seven-Thirty Thursday, was just released by Suspense Publishing in Los Angeles, and, as they say in the writing trade, it’s getting some nice ink. The Providence Journal mentioned it in the same review as Lee Child and Nelson DeMille, noting ‘Bunzel’s Seven-Thirty Thursday is an intensely personal tale that echoes of both Greg Isles and John Hart. . . . This establishes him as a kind of William Faulkner of the thriller-writing world.

His effortless prose crackles with color and authenticity as the brooding Charleston skies set the stage for the storm that’s coming.’”

Betsy Haas Anderson: “Professor Emeritus Steve Cerf and his husband, Ben Folkman, and I met at the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday, April 13, 2019, for a stellar, first-time-this-season performance of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried. It was so special seeing both of them, as well as having the opportunity to appreciate my education at Bowdoin—I had taken The Music Dramas of Wagner my senior year, offered by Steve and Bob Beckwith. It was one of the highlights of my education at Bowdoin!”

1980

Reunion

Jocelyn Shaw: “We had a fun summer traveling hither and yon and catching up with some Bowdoin folks. We saw David Bradshaw ’72 and Leslie Bradshaw in North Carolina in June, and Joanna and Mike Evans ’81 in Michigan in July.

We took our regular trip to Rhode Island in August and stayed with my father, Craig Shaw ’52. We also spent time with my brothers and their wives: Carla and Randy Shaw ’82, Adam and Sue Shaw, and friends Jean Daley and John Ottaviani ’79, and MJ and Theo Aschman ’78. I also got to travel to Japan in October for a braiding conference (fiber, not hair!). I spent three weeks, mostly in Kyoto, and had a great time.”

1981

In May, Detroit Tigers Senior Director of Medical Services Kevin Rand was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. The Cape Elizabeth native just completed his thirty-seventh season as a professional baseball athletic trainer, which included twenty-five seasons aiding and mending athletes at the major league level. From a Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society announcement, May 19, 2019.

1986

Henry Moniz has been appointed executive vice president, chief compliance officer, and chief audit executive of ViacomCBS, the corporation formed by the merger of CBS Corporation and Viacom, with interests in film, television, publishing, and digital media. He will lead a global, multidisciplinary team to help ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulatory requirements, manage

risk, support the development of company culture, train employees and stakeholders on best business practices, and support the board of directors in its governance/oversight role. From a ViacomCBS press release, December 12, 2019.

1987

Dan Rosner: “Life is good.

My kids are attending engineering colleges in New England, and I’ve just knocked ‘play heavy metal music in Seattle’ off the bucket list.” (“Nothing Else Matters,” by Metallica, on his cello. Watch video at tinyurl.com/y2f3kqap.)

Alan Tinkler: “I recently started my year as board chair for the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), an organization that ‘encourages the study of poverty as a complex social problem by expanding and improving educational opportunities for college students in a wide range of disciplines and career trajectories.’ Through its programming, SHECP and its member institutions prepare students for a lifetime of professional and civic effort to diminish poverty and enhance human capability, while also supporting connections among students, faculty, staff, and alumni engaged in the study of poverty.’”

1988

Heidi Bonner: “At the seventy-fifth annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in September, I was presented with the 2019 Inclusion, Access, and Success Award. Established in 1984, the award honors persons who have been instrumental in making postsecondary education opportunities available to historically underrepresented students. I have

served as director of college advising at Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School since 2010.”

Maine Governor Janet Mills’s administration has announced that Catherine W. Dempsey and Everett B. Carson ’69 have been selected for membership on the Maine Climate Council, which was proposed in April 2019 and passed with bipartisan and overwhelming support in the legislature. The group is charged with establishing strategies and initiatives to help the state meet its greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy generation targets as it works to combat climate change, and to make sure that communities, industries, and people are resilient to the changes the state is facing.

From a State of Maine press release, September 19, 2019.

David Ruccio ’76, Carl Leinonen ’77, Dale Belman ’76, and George Hasiotis ’76 convened in July to celebrate David’s retirement as professor of economics at Notre Dame.

Colonel (Ret.) Dan Ahern ’78 and his wife, Beverly Porter Ahern, are enjoying life on Oahu, Hawai’i.

1993

Brian L. Berlandi “has been selected as a New York Metro Super Lawyer for 2019 in the areas of business and corporate law, an honor reserved for those lawyers who exhibit excellence in practice. Only 5 percent of attorneys in the New York Metro area receive this distinction.

He is cofounder and partner of Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas.” From a Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP press release, October 3, 2019.

“The College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Massachusetts, has hired Sister Deirdre Griffin as its director of international programs. Griffin will be responsible for supporting the college’s international students, growing traditional and faculty-led study abroad programs, and developing a community of global learning that celebrates diverse cultures and explores current issues. Griffin entered the Sisters of St. Joseph

Ben Folkman (former lecturer at the College and Steve Cerf’s husband), Betsy Haas Anderson ’78, and George Lincoln Skolfield Jr. Professor of German Emeritus Steve Cerf attended the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday, April 13, 2019, for a performance of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried.

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Connect Reed Bunzel ’78 holds up his latest crime novel, Seven-Thirty Thursday.

of Springfield community in 2017 and made her initial profession of vows in July. During her twenty-year career as an immigration lawyer, she has worked in private practice, managed interpreter services in the Massachusetts courts, and coordinated refugee resettlement services. She has worked at Jewish Family Service and the Gray House in Springfield, providing a variety of transitional and support services to diverse, global populations.”

From a MassLive Media online news announcement, December 5, 2019.

1995

Reunion

New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr brings his “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) to selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019.

1998 David Bradshaw ’72 and Leslie Bradshaw ’80 met up with Jocelyn Shaw ’80 and her husband, Doug Hannink, during their travels through North Carolina in June.

Conor Williams ’05 and Gwennan Hollingworth ’06 welcomed Dewi Paulus Williams on June 4, 2019. Dewi joins his brother Owain (eight) and sister Carys (six).

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“The Maine Justice Foundation recently announced that Susan Faunce had been elected to join their board beginning in January 2020.

Faunce is a trial attorney at Berman & Simmons in Portland, Maine, with an expertise in personal injury and medical negligence. She now leads the firm’s mass tort practice.” From a Maine Justice Foundation press release, January 14, 2020.

2001

“Two Maine artists have landed an ambitious public art commission at a new convention center in Seattle that could be worth up to $1 million.

Wade Kavanaugh of Bethel and Stephen B. Nguyen of Portland will create a site-specific piece of permanent art for the Washington State Convention Center, a sprawling complex under construction in

downtown Seattle. They signed the contract in October and are in the process of designing their artwork, which is expected to evoke the natural power of the landscape of the Pacific Northwest.” From a Portland, Maine, Portland Press Herald article, November 11, 2019.

2003

“Middlebury Associate Professor of Political Science Keegan Callanan has been appointed to the National Council on the Humanities (NCH), a board of twenty-six private citizens that advises the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He began his six-year term in September 2019.

Callanan, who teaches courses in the history of political philosophy and contemporary political theory, said the White House Presidential Personnel Office contacted him in 2018 to ask for an interview, which led to his nomination to NCH. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions has jurisdiction over the nomination process, which took twelve months.

Callanan was sworn in to his new role in August. NEH is an independent federal agency created in 1965 and one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States, typically making grants to cultural institutions such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television and radio stations, and to individual scholars.”

From a Middlebury.edu news article, October 2, 2019.

Sarah Ramey has just published her first book, The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir (Doubleday, March 17, 2020), an account of her fight to find a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness, while also giving voice to the millions of (mostly) women who suf-

fer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions—autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. From the publisher, December 18, 2019.

2004

Andrew King: “I performed [piano] solo and with soprano Julie Reumert to a sold-out house at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on November 8, 2019. The evening was sponsored by Nordic Night and featured music by Liszt, Nielsen, Mahler, Ravel, and Delibes. Ms. Reumert and I are currently collaborating on a CD of art songs by Sibelius and Nielsen, set to be released in the fall of 2020.”

Jonathan Perez: “I have a new book, The Cartographer of Crumpled Maps: The Justice Elegies, a metaphor of traveling through our reimagined ‘crumpled’ memory—of slavery, the Great Migration, and urban gentrification—toward a unified pastoral of understanding, beauty, and empathy. As senior assistant district attorney on social justice policy at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, working for justice every day, I’ve written this book as the first in a three-part epic of criminal justice pastoral odes to be published in the next two years.”

Juleah Swanson: “Steven Fatur (Tufts ’08) and I were married on a farm outside Boulder, Colorado, on October 5, 2019. We met through mutual Bowdoin friend Rachel Vanderkruik ’07.”

2005

Reunion

“The electronic music duo Max Lewis and Mirza Ramic—a.k.a.

Arms and Sleepers—have released their new single, ‘Give Me This,’ from their ninth studio album, titled

PHOTO: ALLYSON ESLIN

Safe Area Earth. The duo has been actively releasing music since forming in Boston, Massachusetts, back in 2006. Their sound has spanned electronic, trip-hop, ambient, and hip-hop genres, among others.

With several dozen releases and extensive worldwide touring under their belt, the duo is now gearing up for what looks to be their most serious musical undertaking yet: a six-part music release to be made available throughout 2020. ‘Give Me This’ is the first taste of what’s to come next year. Taken from the first of six upcoming releases, the single is a confident opening statement that combines elements of the older, more melancholic Arms and Sleepers sound with the heavier electronic music leanings of the last full-length album, Find The Right Place.” From a Future Archive Recordings announcement, September 13, 2019.

Rachel Tavel: “Fabian Winter and I got married this past summer, on July 6, 2019, in the backyard of my family home in Stanfordville, New York. Multiple alumni, including my two brothers, Nate Tavel ’08 and Robo Tavel ’16, were in attendance.”

2006

Antwan Phillips “has been named as one of the 250 most influential Arkansans by Arkansas Business. The Arkansas 250 is intended to be a mix of household names, rising stars, and those who prefer their influence and accomplishments to remain behind the scenes.… It is important to us that this list includes people actively plotting the course of our state.

Phillips is partner at Wright Lindsey Jennings. His primary practice includes transportation defense, dental malpractice, municipal

Aisha Woodward ’08

Catching Up

WONKY FOR MAINE Aisha Woodward ’08, chief of staff for US Congressman Jared Golden (D-Maine), is based in DC, but her heart is back home.

POLITICS IS A CHALLENGING BUSINESS—particularly in the current

climate, where so much about our system feels broken—but I am motivated by playing a small part in trying to counteract the cynicism that many Mainers (and folks across the country) feel about the role that government and elected representatives can play in their lives. When our staff are able to dig into a problem and help solve it for real people, I feel like we are still engaged in work that matters.

BECAUSE I GREW UP IN MAINE, I didn’t anticipate that my time at Bowdoin would change my feelings about the state.

Interestingly, though, it was the experience of viewing my home state through the eyes of fellow students who grew up in other parts of the country that made me look at Maine with a fresh perspective. The things my friends appreciated— the beauty of our landscape and coastline, the way a fresh snowfall changes the acoustics of the outdoors, the convivial atmosphere of a candlepin bowling joint—were features I had largely taken for granted as a kid. Leaving Maine after college only intensified those realizations. I’m fortunate to have a job that allows me to return to Maine regularly, and it has been a great joy the past few years to see several Bowdoin friends decide to return to Maine to make a life, too.

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Connect James Gadon ’07 and Dan Spears ’81 made a Bowdoin connection at the BI Island Hopper Songwriter Fest in Captiva, Florida, where James was performing and Dan was manager of the event.

finance, and local governmental relations. He was instrumental in the election campaign of Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., and is active in education and other community initiatives within Little Rock. He cohosts the Rock the Culture podcast and was part of Scott’s transition committee.” From the Little Rock, Arkansas, Arkansas Business supplement, November 4, 2019.

2007

James Gadon: “In September, I played at the BMI [Broadcast Music Incorporated] Island Hopper Songwriter Fest on Captiva Island in Florida. I played four sets of inthe-round performances with some of Nashville’s top songwriters. For my last performance, I shared the stage with Sawyer Fredericks, who won season eight of The Voice. Dan Spears ’81, who is the vice president of industry relations at BMI, books and runs the festival.”

2008 Polar Bear alumni and supporters attended a warm gathering at Waldo’s Chicken in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 29, 2019: Charles Whitmore ’07 (with sons Aiden and Parker), Ben Osher ’15, Zac Stone ’04, Rob Montes ’04, Eric Goitia ’15, Cisco Montes ’15, Jack Hill ’65, Edgar Rothschild ’73, and Pamela Martin.

New Hampshire Bowdoin alumni Kyle Morrison ’19, Daniel Lulli ’18, Marty Dang ’18, and Drew Prescott ’18 hiked Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains together.

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Steve Kolowich, who has been a contract assignment editor in features at The Washington Post since January 2019, will become a full-time editor on the Style team at the paper. Kolowich joined the Post from the Chronicle of Higher Education, where he worked for six years as a feature writer covering college campuses as a battleground for national politics, among other topics. One of those stories became an award-winning audio story for This American Life. He has also worked at Inside Higher Ed and has freelanced for Slate, Deadspin, and Washington City Paper. He will continue to edit a broad range of stories, and also help with Style’s 2020 campaign coverage. From a washingtonpost.com announcement, December 19, 2019.

2013

Carolyn Gorajek: “Pat [Lawlor] and I got married this August in Boothbay Harbor surrounded by family, friends, and lots of Polar Bears!”

2014

Karina A. Graeter is the new coordinator for regional sustainability and coastal resiliency at Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission (SMPDC) announced it has hired as its. She will be responsible for developing local and regional climate action and coastal resiliency plans. For the past two years, she has served as the sustainability coordinator for the University of Maine. From a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, seacoastonline.com article, January 16, 2020.

Dylan Hannes: “Eric Thompson ’11 and I, along with one other person (she didn’t go to Bowdoin but we won’t hold that against her), founded 6Pages to solve a problem we experienced ourselves: In organizations, decision-makers often don’t have time to gather enough context to make effective decisions.

6Pages is a market-intelligence service that helps leaders/executives make better and faster decisions in response to far-reaching shifts in business and technology—and feel more comfortable and informed about these fast-moving areas. Eric and I met and became friends in Brunswick, and Bowdoin provided many valuable experiences that I can personally speak to coming in handy for founding 6Pages. I can safely say 6Pages wouldn’t have come to be without Bowdoin!”

Madelena Rizzo: “I married Thomas Fernandez (Saint Joseph’s University–Philadelphia, class of 2012) on September 6, 2019, in Radnor, Pennsylvania. We were

so happy that so many Bowdoin alumni and friends could be there to celebrate!”

Sam Silverman: “I produced New York City’s first-ever Bagel Festival.

There were lots of Polar Bears in attendance. The event was a smash hit, and I’m currently working on the next iteration for the spring!”

2015

Reunion

Maine artist and longtime Bowdoin art instructor John Bisbee is leaving the state for a temporary job in New Jersey, where he’s been hired to introduce art into a massive eco-friendly redevelopment of a gritty industrial site where 35,000 workers once built warships for the US Navy.

Bisbee is taking a dozen studio assistants and former students from Bowdoin with him—Elijah Ober, Tom Ryan ’12, and Cody Stack ’16 among them—to begin making art for the 130-acre site in the Newark suburb of Kearny. They will work with other artists across disciplines and from other parts of the country to convert one warehouse into an arts center and inject contemporary art into the entire development. Bisbee is calling his project Gardenship, in reference to New Jersey’s nickname—the Garden State—and the site’s former use as a shipyard. From a Portland, Maine, Portland Press Herald article, October 27, 2019.

2016

“Courtney Koos is currently the engineering crew member aboard the historic yacht Maiden for a thirty-month voyage around the world aimed at promoting access to education for girls. Worldwide, about 130 million girls don’t have the support they need to get a primary and secondary education, according to a 2018 fact sheet from the UNESCO

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS

Institute for Statistics. That is simply unacceptable to Koos and also to Tracy Edwards, who started the Maiden Factor as a way to tackle this problem in partnership with other nonprofit groups. This world tour began in Hamble, United Kingdom, in November 2018, and after making twenty-three stops in thirteen countries, the voyage is expected to end in the Mediterranean in May 2021.”

From an Ellsworth, Maine, Ellsworth American article, October 16, 2019.

Cody Woods, currently studying at the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, was one of fourteen students selected to receive the 2019 Alva S. Appleby Scholarship from the Maine Dental Association Charitable Foundation. From a Bangor, Maine, Bangor Daily News article, January 7, 2020.

2017

Katie Craighill was one of two artists featured in the exhibition The Wild and the Mundane, at the St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School gallery in Sewanee, Tennessee. The show combined drawings and paintings that highlight ways in which people relate to the environment. From a Winchester, Tennessee, Herald Chronicle article, February 6, 2020.

Graduate: “The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has published Linear Algebra and Geometry, by Al Cuoco G’74 [and coauthors]. The book is organized around carefully sequenced problems that help students build tools and habits that provide a solid basis for further study in mathematics. Requiring only high school algebra, it uses elementary geometry to build the beautiful edifice of results and methods that make linear algebra such an important field.” From an AMS email announcement, December 13, 2019.

Bri Bishop ’16

Catching Up

THE JOY OF SHARING Back on campus as an assistant director of annual giving, Bri Bishop ’16 turns BowdoinOne Day into her everyday.

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART OF MY JOB IS MEETING WITH ALUMNI AND LEARNING ABOUT WHAT THEY’RE DOING NOW AND HOW THEIR EXPERIENCES AT BOWDOIN SHAPED THEIR LIVES. A lot of people

found their passion at Bowdoin, and many of us found our best friends for life. Many met their partners during school or at a reunion years later. Many of us found job opportunities and incredible life experiences through the expansive Bowdoin network, and alumni are responsible for extending the power of that network. Bowdoin plays a role in all of our stories.

I WAS A LITTLE NERVOUS WHEN I CHOSE BOWDOIN FOR SCHOOL,

so close to where I grew up, that I would become restless in Maine. The opposite turned out to be true. I met so many other students who were Mainers and learned about what Maine meant to different people. The joy of sharing Maine with people from elsewhere was not something I expected, and watching others fall in love with this special place only made me love it more.

For more of our interview with Bri, visit bowdoin.edu/magazine.

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Celebrate

1. Ben Messerly ’11 and Lindsey Thompson ’10 were married on August 17, 2019, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Pictured: Jack Morrison ’11, Jonathan Coravos ’11, Neil Moses ’80, Chris Messerly ’81, Nathan Merritt ’11, Anna Messerly ’09, Aaron Cole ’11, Ryan Jewett ’11, Allison Palmer ’11, Bridget Moses, Lindsey and Ben, Jackson Sawatzke, Katherine Stewart ’12, Reed Gilbride ’11, Robby Bitting ’11, Emily Lamberty, Sam Smith ’10, Kendra Kesty, Isaac Ardis ’11, Gillian Baptiste ’11, Sara Faurer ’11, Joanne Messerly ’80, Sam Howe ’11, Mark Mirasol ’10, Leah Stecher ’10, Maryellen Hearn ’11, Nora Krulwich ’11, Sacha Chiniara ’10, and Joe Babler ’10.

2. Caroline Geoghegan ’12 and Eric D’Elia ’11 were married on September 14, 2019, in Scarborough, Maine. Pictured: Aditya Basheer ’11, Jason Guzmán ’11, Charlotte Ryan ’12, Tyler Anderson ’10, Matt Knise ’10, Randy Shaw ’82, Emily Lombardi ’12, Oscar Peña ’12, Anne Springer ’81 (Bowdoin staff), Sarah Piasecki ’09, Sarah McMahon (Bowdoin faculty), Sam Bitetti ’07, Rahul Mohan ’11, Christine Bitetti ’07, Michael Power ’11, Stephen Sullivan ’11, Eric and Caroline, Kaitlin Clifford ’12, Kat McNeil ’12, Aviva Mattingly ’15, Anna Ackerman ’12, Tom Henshall ’15, Aileen Tschiderer ’12, Kathryn Deneroff ’12, Sam Packard ’12, Barrett Takesian ’12, Andrew Fried ’08, Kent Winingham ’12, and Andy Bernard ’11.

3. Kate Hourihan ’07 and Nick Webb (University of Washington ’05) were married on July 13, 2019, in Teanaway, Washington. Pictured: Brook Shaffer ’07, Max Goldstein ’07,

Charles Stern ’09, Willy Oppenheim ’09, Kelly Rula ’07, Nick and Kate, Jonna McKone ’07, Rachel Phelan ’07, Cotton Estes ’07, John Hourihan ’77, and Mike Long ’05.

4. Brooks Winner ’10 and Jennifer Woodman (Tufts ’08) were married on June 22, 2019, in Hope, Maine.

Pictured: Max Taylor ’10, Sammie Francis-Taylor ’09, Sean Morris ’10, Kate Emerdello ’10, Brooks and Jennifer, Luke Emerdello ’10, Elissa Rodman ’10, Cassie Rodrigues ’10, Simon Ou ’10, Niko Kubota ’10, and Jeff Bush ’10. Not pictured: Caroline Moore ’14, Shannon Grimes ’14, and Lane Sturtevant ’15.

5. Madelena Rizzo ’14 and Thomas Fernandez (Saint Joseph’s University–Philadelphia ’12) were married on September 6, 2019, in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Pictured: Bridget Connolly ’14, Matthew Rasmussen ’14, Hope Marden (Bowdoin staff), Shane Verville, Gillian Kramer ’17, Joseph Durgin ’13, Sarah Frankl ’16, Madelena and Thomas, Wiley Spears ’14, Casey Stewart ’14, and Sarah Wood ’14.

6. Maddie Smith ’14 and Ryan Newell (Colby ’14) were married on August 3, 2019, in Bow, Washington.

Pictured: Hannah Glover ’13, Emily McDonald ’14, Steph Lynn ’14, Ryan and Maddie, Meg Bunke ’14, Clare Stansberry ’14, Michael Ben-Zvi ’13, Josh Burger-Caplan ’14, and Georgia Whitaker ’14.

7. Leah Wang ’12 and Kevin Smith ’11 were married on August 24, 2019, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Pictured: Maggie Brenner ’10, Curtis Morrill ’12,

Maggie Williams ’12, Jack Hilzinger ’12, Ellen Rogoz ’12, Chester Eng ’11, Bree Dallinga ’06, Reed Gilbride ’11, Leah and Kevin, Ben Johnson ’11, Jake Shorty ’12, Sadie Nott ’12, Robby Bitting ’11, Kara Bernert (Bowdoin exchange 2010–2011), Evan Fricke ’11, Katherine Stewart ’12, James Michael Carney III ’11, and Nathan Merritt ’11.

8. Carolyn Gorajek ’13 and Patrick Lawlor ’13 were married on August 31, 2019, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Pictured: Emily Clark ’15, Dave Bean ’13, Julia Livermore Sheehan ’13, Stu Sheehan ’13, Chelsea Gold ’13, Julie McCullough Hanley ’14, Jack Carrier ’15, Cody Dussault ’15, Dave Nemirov ’15, Matt Egan ’12, Dylan Hannes ’14, Liz Clegg Egan ’12, Louise Johnson ’14, Toni DaCampo ’13, Caroline Logan Handy ’14, Pat and Carolyn, Kurt Herzog ’13, Lucy Morrell ’13, Casey Blossom ’13, Hannah Wright ’13, Molly Popolizio O’Callahan ’14, Tara Connolly ’13, Aaron O’Callahan ’12, Meg O’Connor ’16, Gen Barlow ’13, Taylor Wilson ’15, Zita DePetris ’13, Ellie Moore ’13, Mike Lozzi ’13, Connor Handy ’13, Max Rosner ’13, Brian Durkin ’13, Dan Hanley ’14, Sether Hanson ’13, Pierce King ’13, Keegan Mehlhorn ’12, and Conor O’Toole ’14.

9. Rachel Tavel ’05 and Fabian Winter were married on July 6, 2019, in Stanfordville, New York. Pictured: Kreshnik Zejnullahu ’05, George MacLeod ’05, Crystal Stone ’05, Roberto Tavel ’16, Nathaniel Tavel ’08, Laura Han ’05, Allison Barz Leahy ’05, Emily Pendergast ’05, Rachel and Fabian, Molly Juhlin ’05, Amy Hodges ’05, Kerry Elson ’05, and Katie Walker Toohil ’05.

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10. Calli Coffee ’12 and Fernando Cantu ’12 were married on August 3, 2019, in Tamworth, New Hampshire. Pictured: Derek Brooks ’12, Ricky Cui ’12, Matthew Hillard ’12, Alexa Barry ’12, Daniel Lowinger ’12, Gina Lonati ’12, Freedom Holland ’12, Calli and Fernando, Andre Walcott ’12, Michael Del Muro ’12, Victoria Hricko ’12, Stephen Shennan ’12, Jasmine Mikami ’12, David Tenorio ’12, Colin Fong ’12, and Octavian Neamtu ’12.

11. Ashley Cotton ’01 and James Weiss (Princeton ’96) were married on October 5, 2019, at The Landing, Industry City, Brooklyn, New York.

Pictured: Chris Day ’99, Nicole Day ’01, Maureen Harrell ’01, Dana Thomas ’01, Anne Cotton ’72, Ashley, Kimberly Sillman ’01, Lauren Johnson ’01, Caroline Little ’01, and Lee Cotton ’71. Not pictured: Brownie Carson ’69.

12. Becky Tanenbaum ’04 and Will Lacey (University of South Carolina ’09) were married on October 5, 2019, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Pictured: Courtney Csikesz ’04, Brittney Prince ’04, Hillary Peterson ’04, Sarah Rinn ’04, Eileen Naples ’04, Kristin Pollock ’04, Will and Becky, Melissa Miness ’04, Ellen Parman ’04, Rebekah Metzler ’04, Kate Lackemann Phillips ’04, Ryan Naples ’04, Sam Esterman ’04, and Ben Peterson ’04.

13. Lindsey Horowitz ’12 and Douglas Johnston ’12 were married on December 15, 2018, at Douglas’s family home in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, overlooking Buzzard’s Bay. Pictured: Coby Horowitz ’14 (Lindsey’s brother and officiant), Lindsey, and Douglas.

14. Jeff Widmayer ’97 and Michelle Impey ’99 were married on July 27, 2019, in East Burke, Vermont. Pictured: Rhett Hunter ’98, Nina Hunter ’99, Emily Dryden ’99, Michelle and Jeff, Jeremiah Goulka ’97, and Joshua Sturk ’97.

15. Jack Dingess ’09 and Beth Camphouse (James Madison ’09) were married on September 28, 2019, in Allison Park, Pennsylvania.

Pictured: Phil Tonucci ’10, Jason Koperniak ’09, Sean Welch ’09, Ben Larkins ’09, Beth and Jack, Mike Welsh ’09, Gus Spaulding ’09, Peter Merry ’67, and Ian Merry ’09.

16. Toni DaCampo ’13 and Michael Lozzi ’13 were married on June 29, 2019, in Cape Neddick, Maine.

Pictured: Genevieve Barlow ’13, Dominique Lozzi ’12, Larkin Brown ’10, Casey Blossom ’13, Michael and Toni, Stacie Sammott ’13, Carolyn Gorajek Lawlor ’13, Molly Popolizio ’14, Patrick Lawlor ’13, Lucy Morrell ’13, Zita DePetris ’13, Elibet Moore ’13, Kelly Pope ’12, Hanna Wurgaft ’14, Casey Correa ’14, Alexander Milley ’13, Luke Regan ’13, James Honan ’13, Conor O’Toole ’14, Aaron O’Callahan ’12, Rob MacGregor ’13, Sara Kwasny Mahoney ’13, Chris Mahoney ’13, Daniel Findley ’13, Jay Spry ’13, and Robert Toczylowski ’13.

Assistant women’s softball coach Jen Burton took the photo.

17. Juleah Swanson ’04 and Steven Fatur (Tufts ’08) were married on October 5, 2019, on a farm outside of Boulder, Colorado.

Pictured: Jennifer Montalvo ’04, Mara Gandal-Powers ’04, Karen Jacobson ’04, Abbie Perelman ’04, Sophia Lenz ’04, Steven and Juleah, Gia Upchurch ’05, Rachel Vanderkruik ’07, and Mathilde Sullivan ’07.

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18. Georgia Nowers ’12 and John McGinnis ’15 were married on June 22, 2019, in Southampton, New York.

Pictured: Pat Noone ’12, Lindsay McNamara ’09, Annie McNamara Evans ’12, Dave Westhaver ’12, Daniel Evans ’12, Celeste Swain ’12, Ella Curren Paskalides ’12, Emily French Smith ’12, Joe Smith ’12, Peter Troubh ’12, Ian Vieira ’12, Alec Root ’15, Tim Coffey ’15, Ryan Collier ’15, Josh Friedman ’15, Donald Chute ’15, Max Fenkell ’15, Kendall Carpenter ’15, Connor Quinn ’15, Barry Mills ’72, Sydney Miller ’12, Morgan Estey ’10, Michael Schlagel ’15, Sophie Feller ’12, Caroline Tory ’12, Taylor Escajeda ’12, Christopher Omachi ’12, Rebecca Levin ’12, John and Georgia, Benjamin Tsujiura ’12, Sarah Vallimarescu ’12, McKenna Teague ’12, [Andrew] Boomer Repko ’10, Leah Anderson ’15, Pam Herter ’15, Karen Mills, Molly Rose ’15, and Danny Palumbo ’15.

19. Emily McNeil ’14 and Jimmy Rohman ’13 were married in June and celebrated their wedding on October 19, 2019, in Brunswick, Maine. Pictured: Billy Rohman ’11, Katherine McNeil ’12, Scooter Walsh ’10, Stanton Plummer-Cambridge ’13, Pete Woods ’13, Gabe Faithful ’13, Adam Berliner ’13, Cathleen Smith ’13, Maeve O’Leary ’14, Liza LePage ’13, Julia Graham ’13, Ali Fradin ’13, Molly Fisher ’13, Nora Biette-Timmons ’14, Lulu Oakes ’13, Aggie Kelly ’13, Jimmy and Emily, Carl Speilvogel ’13, Emma Stanislawski ’13, Clare Sutphin ’14, Sam Patterson ’14, Gus Vergara ’13, Amanda Zalk ’14, Mik Cooper ’14, Samuel David Bruce ’13, Sarah Nelson ’14, Gaby Wilson ’14, Casey Grindon ’13, Alex Pigott ’14, Meghan Marr ’14, Daniel Dickstein ’13, Isaac Brower ’13, Peyton Kelley ’13, DJ Nurse ’13, and Phil Cuddeback ’13.

Not pictured: Mike Bottinelli ’13.

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Here

BY EDGAR ALLEN BEEM SOLIDARITY Colonial settlers had a penchant for choosing foreign names out of solidarity with freedom fighters around the world. Peru was chosen because the South American country declared its independence from Spain in 1821, the year after Maine became a state. And Mexico, originally called Holmanstown, was named after the country, which also achieved its independence from Spain in 1821. Denmark was so named in 1807, the same year the British navy attacked Copenhagen. Moscow was first called Bakerstown and then petitioned to be called Northfield. But, as there was already a Northfield, Maine, the townsfolk settled on the name of the Russian city abandoned and burned by its citizens in 1812 rather than surrender it to Napoleon’s army.

THE CLASSICS High-minded settlers also embraced the ancient world by giving their frontier towns classical names such as Athens, Carthage, Corinth, Smyrna, Solon, and Troy. Many place names changed over time, such that Troy was originally named Bridgestown after one of the first proprietors, then became Kingsville after Maine’s first governor (William King, a longtime Bowdoin overseer and trustee), then Joy after Boston merchant Benjamin Joy, and Montgomery after the English general who fell at Quebec, before settling on Troy in 1827. Not only did names change, but it is not unusual for a Maine town to have conflicting creation stories. In some accounts, for instance, Mars Hill was named for the hill where the apostle Paul debated the Athenians. That is the origin of the Mars Hill in North Carolina, but it is more likely that the Maine hill and town were named for Canadian Hezekiah Mars, who camped at the base of the hill for three years before sailing off to England.

Of Maine’s 455 towns and cities, at least eighty bear the names of foreign countries and cities, more if you count all the English towns and foreign figures that lent their names to Maine places.

IT WAS A TYPO

TOWN SMORGASBORD

Norway, Maine, may have gotten its name due to a clerical error.

The town petitioned the General Court to be named Norage, a Native American word for “falls,” but the town records were destroyed in a fire in 1843 and no one seems to recall exactly how “Norage” turned into “Norway.”

The naming of Sweden is lost in the mists of time, but Maine has several towns that do owe their names to Swedish immigrants, among them New Sweden (founded by William Widgery Thomas Jr., Class of 1860) and Stockholm. And the Aroostook County town of Linneus is named for Swedish botanist Carl Linneus (1707–1778) because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts gave the land to Harvard College in 1804 to endow a botany professorship.

HYMNAL China and Poland were chosen not because of any affinity for the namesake countries, but because the founding settlers enjoyed the hymns of Connecticut hat maker and composer Timothy Swan (1758–1842). Japheth Washburn (1746–1828) wanted to name his town Bloomville, but it was thought to be too similar to Bloomfield, a now-extinct town twenty-five miles away, so he named the town for his favorite Swan hymn, “China.” Some accounts indicate that Poland was named for a Native American chief, but the more accepted explanation is that Moses Emery (1744–1839), a delegate to the General Court, chose the name of his favorite Swan hymn, “Poland.”

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NOT BRUNSWICK There are several Maine towns with German ancestry, among them Bremen, Dresden, Frankfurt, and Lubec, but Brunswick doesn’t seem to be one of them, as local historians George and Henry Wheeler explained in their 1878 history. “The name Brunswick was probably given to the town in honor of the House of Brunswick, to which family of the then-King of England belonged. So far as is known, there were no Germans among the early settlers, so it is hardly likely to have been named for the German city.”

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

GETTING THERE A landmark tribute to foreign Maine is the World Traveler Signpost at the intersection of routes 35 and 5 in Lynchville, a little town on the Crooked River north of North Waterford. Erected in the 1930s, the sign indicates the way and the mileage from the backwoods crossroads to Norway, Paris, Denmark, Naples, Sweden, Poland, Mexico, Peru, and China. This 1950s photo of the signpost being consulted by a runaway boy was a bestselling postcard for decades. In 2017, Down East magazine selected it as one of the Ten Iconic Maine Photos of all time.

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Inside 18 New Mainers 26 What Happened to the Medical School of Maine?

44 Q&A with Professor Chris Potholm