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John J. McCann
2001-05-15
John J. "Jack" McCann, of Dover, N.H., died Jan. 12 from injuries he suffered one week before when he was kicked by an assailant in the parking lot of a shopping center. He was 88.
McCann was a typesetter and linotype operator at the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal in Augusta, and Boston Herald for 25 years. He was predeceased by a brother, Robert.
McCann is survived by his wife, Josephine; a daughter, Roberta; a brother; two grandsons; four great-grandchildren.
Alice M.D. Pratt
2001-05-15
Alice Madeleine Duclos Pratt of Belfast, Me., a columnist for the Republican Journal, died at her home on Dec. 31 after a long battle with cancer. She was 69.
Pratt worked for the Republican Journal for 10 years, writing her column, "From the Inside." She also worked for the Feminist Times as a copy editor.
She leaves her husband, Harris; three sons, Kenneth, Paul and Eugene; three daughters, Priscilla, Kathleen and Dorothy; three sisters and two brothers.
Bill Caldwell
2001-03-15
Bill Caldwell, longtime Portland newspaper columnist, died Jan. 5, 2001, after a long illness. He was 81.
A slight, wiry man with a grizzled face and white goatee, Caldwell was a commanding presence in his adopted home state. He was, in his time, regarded as the most popular and influential columnist in the state.
"Bill was a very colorful character, and you don't see to many like him," said Steve Riley, former Portland Press Herald editor (and MPA executive secretary) who edited Caldwell's work for many years.
Caldwell was most at home along the Maine coast, where he would travel from cove to cove aboard his 30-foot converted lobster boat, Steer Clear, and collect many of the stories that filled his columns. The columns appeared three times a week in the Press Herald and the Sunday Telegram.
"I can remember sailing into places like Christmas Cove, and people yelling, 'Hey, Bill Caldwell!' It was an amazing experience to go into a harbor with him," said George Smith, co-director of graduate studies at the Maine College of Art and a friend of Caldwell's. "He was really quite a character, an immensely charming, engaging, insightful fellow."
Caldwell was born in New York, had a master's degree from Cambridge University in England and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was wounded in World War II, when he flew 69 bombing missions. He wrote for Time-Life, served in the Eisenhower administration, published a newspaper in England, and wrote fiction. He came to work at the Portland newspapers in 1965.
"I remember assigning him to the police station," Riley said. "He was a guy who didn't have a lot of basic writing skills or journalistic skills. He mostly ignored newspaper style." But, said Riley, "he'd come back every night with three or hour good ideas." He later became an editorial writer and colu mnist.
"He was a cheerleader for Maine, actually," said Riley. "He thought of that as part of his job. Maine was his adopted state; he loved it." Caldwell's columns were built on a deep love of Maine and his easy way with Maine people, whether powerful ones such as former Gov. Edmund S. Muskie or powerless ones such as a young waitress in a topless bar forced to cover up by the Maine Supreme court.
"When people read my columns, I hope they got five or 10 minutes of enjoyment," Caldwell said upon his retirement in 1991. "That's not such a bad thing to be able to give."
Some of his 3,000 columns were published in books such as Enjoying Maine and Maine Magic.
Caldwell moved to Arizona, where he lived with his second wife, Susan Elizabeth Brown. He has two grown children.
"Maine is where his heart really is," his wife said. "He loved the politics, economy, the beauty. And he had a particularly soft spot for the fishermen."
Caldwell asked to be cremated and have his ashes placed in the ocean off Maine's coast. That ceremony will take place in June, his wife said. Reprinted by permission of the Portland Press Herald. Written by staff writer John Richardson.
Marie Almy
2003-03-15
Marie Almy, a longtime advertising director at The Times Record in Brunswick, died on Feb. 7 at Novato Community Hospital in Novato, Calif. She was 69.
Mrs. Almy, who was born in Providence, R.I., and graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1954, lived in Maine for 30 years, 17 of them in Harpswell. She retired from The Times Record after 22 years in the advertising department.
During her time in Maine she was active with the Harpswell Heritage Trust, the Harpswell Garden Club and the Midcoast Hospital Auxiliary. She moved to Novato in May of 2002.
Mrs. Almy is survived by her husband, Donald Almy of Novato; two daughters, Sara Almy of Novato and Donna Almy of Sebastopol, Calif.; one son, Anthony Almy of Pleasanton, Calif.; her mother, Mary Iannetta of Providence; and a sister, Sidra Luciano of Fountain Hills, Ariz.
Memorial donations may be made in Mrs. Almy’s name to Novato Community Hospital – Novato Health Partnership, addressed to Novato Community Hospital, Development Director, 180 Rowland Way, Novato, Calif. 94945.
Joseph Cabaniss Jr.
2001-11-15
Joseph Cabaniss Jr., 75, of Isleboro, Me., died on Sept. 6 in Mid Maine Medical Center.
In 1984, he co-founded the Isleboro Island News and served as its advertising manager until his death.
He is survived by two sons, Joseph and Gray.
John N. Cole
2003-01-15
John N. Cole, an influential journalist and environmental activist who co-founded the Maine Times and became a member of the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in 2000, died on Jan. 8 at his home in Brunswick at the age of 79. He had been suffering from cancer.
Cole worked as editor of the Kennebunk Star, the Brunswick Record and the Bath-Brunswick Times Record before joining with Peter Cox in 1968 to launch the weekly Maine Times. The issue-driven statewide paper became a passionate advocate for protecting Maine's environment.
In nominating Cole and Cox to the MPA Hall of Fame, former Maine Times managing editor Douglas Rooks said that they "profoundly affected Maine journalism for the better, helping to end overly cozy relationships at the State House among lobbyists and legislators, empowering ordinary citizens to take part in government (and) inspiring new generations of Mainers."
Cole, a New York native who graduated from Yale University, was an airman in the Army Air Corps. He flew 35 combat missions over Europe in a B-17, for which he received five Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
During his career in journalism, which began in the 1950s, he wrote scores of articles for national magazines, and wrote and published 13 books, including, "Striper: A Story of Fish and Man," which inspired protections for the once-endangered striped bass.
"Anybody pulling in a striped bass today can thank John Cole for the restoration of this important fishery," The Times Record of Brunswick said in an editorial on Jan. 10.
In an interview with the Portland Press Herald, Cox said his longtime friend was "a beautiful writer and passionate about everything."
"Whatever the issue, we followed the story doggedly. Although we lacked the resources and made some mistakes, we followed our instincts and followed the story," Cox said.
Cole's many awards, in addition to the MPA honor, included a Yankee Quill Award from the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists, an Associated Press award for Best Political Reporting, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Natural Resources Council of Maine, and an Outdoor Life Award for Environmental Writing.
The speech he gave at his induction into the MPA Hall of Fame, on Sept. 29, 2000, at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, will be remembered as a spirited, irreverent, off-the-cuff speech that left many in the audience laughing.
"He was a personality," Phyllis Austin, who began writing for Cole at the Maine Times in 1973, told The Times Record. "When he covered something, there would be a stir in the room, because everybody knew he would write something risky about it. John's voice was always strong, and true and singular."
Rex Rhoades, the MPA's president, said, "Everyone who works in newspapers in Maine is going to feel a loss with the death of John Cole. He showed everyone a different brand of journalism than what the state was used to."
Cole was a writer until the end, contributing columns to The Times Record and The Forecaster in Falmouth. His last column appeared in The Forecaster on Jan. 10.
In the column, which he filed less than a week before his death, Cole wrote about a 15-foot drift boat that one of his sons had built for him and given to him on Christmas Day. He looked forward to launching it in May. "In my mind's eye," he wrote, he had "already rowed her around Middle Bay."
Marian McCue, Cole's editor and friend at The Forecaster, wrote in an appreciation on Jan. 10: "He had a strength of conviction, a bravery, a willingness to call things as they are and to take on the powers that be. That will be the story that I hope many people will long remember, and that will inspire Mainers, and perhaps those young journalists out there, to live their lives, as he did, unafraid to take on the big story and the big challenges."
Cole is survived by his wife, Jean, and six children.
Paul M. Downing
2002-05-15
Paul M. Downing, 75, of Brunswick, a retired reporter and photographer, died on March 6 at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick.
Downing began a long career as a journalist at the Lewiston Sun in 1944. After working as a reporter and photographer for the Brunswick Weekly for 10 years, he joined the Bowdoin College news service as a full-time photographer in 1961. He also worked for the Kennebec Journal.
Downing joined the Portland Press Herald in 1968 as a copy editor. A year later, he joined the reporting staff and was assigned to the Brunswick area. He worked for 23 years at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram.
He wrote a booklet called "Tin Can Sailors" about ships built by Bath Iron Works during World War II. He also worked on the last centennial book about Brunswick, and a book transcribing the diary of John Chamberlain, brother of Civil War Gen. Joshua Chamberlain.
He leaves his wife, Cheryl.
Virginia W. Hannan
2001-09-15
Virginia Winslow Hannan died July 7, 2001, at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport. She was 77.
Hannan wrote the Union news for The Courier-Gazette in Rockland after she taught in Union and Washington for 27 years.
She was predeceased by her husband, Stuart. She leaves a son, Dexter; a daughter, Susan; four grandchildren; a brother.
James J. McCaffrey
2001-09-15
James J. McCaffrey, a former newspaper publisher and advertising executive, died July 21, 2001, at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He was 79.
McCaffrey began his career in advertising in the 1950s at Young and Rubicam as an account executive, then at Ogilvy and Mather. In 1962, he teamed up with David B. McCall to create the advertising firm of McCaffrey and McCall Inc.
His company became one of New York's pre-eminent advertising agencies for about two decades. McCaffrey later served as the agency's chairman of the board for 10 years. He was also the president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
After he retired in 1973, he became a state senator representing Hancock County and embarked on a career as a newspaper publisher. In 1980 he launched the Castine (Maine) Patriot. He sold the newspaper in 1982.
Besides his wife, Virginia, he leaves a daughter, Anne, and three granddaughters.
Gerald Lewis
2001-11-15
Gerald Lewis, 72, died of lung cancer Oct. 24 at Mid-Coast Hospital in Brunswick.
Lewis wrote a column in the 1960s called "The Old Feller," which ran in the Boothbay Register in Boothbay Harbor and other weekly newspapers. In the 1970s, Lewis wrote "Up Here in Maine" for the Bangor Daily News.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann; a daughter, Elizabeth; a stepson, Paul; two stepdaughters, Jill and Anne; two brothers; four grandchildren.
Norman J. Macdonald
2002-05-15
Norman J. Macdonald of York died in York Hospital April 21 after a long battle with cancer. He was 77.
Macdonald was a meteorologist on WBZ-TV from 1960 to 1977, when he began his radio career with Weather Services and then with AccuWeather. In 1992, he and his wife, Carol, moved to York, and he wrote weather-related articles for Foster's Sunday Citizen of Dover, N.H., and The York Weekly.
Besides his wife, he leaves two sons, Collin and Brian; two daughters, Christina and Lauren; a stepson; two stepdaughters; nine grandchildren.
James A. Moore
2001-11-15
James A. Moore, 90, of Glen Cove, Maine, died Oct. 11 after a long illness.
Moore, began his lifelong career in journalism as a mailroom employee of the Portland Press Herald, the Evening Express and the Maine Sunday Telegram. He later worked as a technician on teletypes in the Maine and Boston bureaus of The Associated Press.
In 1940, Moore became a reporter and photographer for the Press Herald?s Rockland office, and received national and local recognition for his photographs. He was a past member of the National Press Photographers Association's New England chapter, and served as the Maine group?s treasurer.
Surviving Moore are his wife, Cecile; three sons, James, David and Richard; four grandchildren; two brothers.
