Building the Mollymauk

Date1956

Can Descriptions1955 date code on film. // Can label: 'Building the 'Mollymauk' in Harpswell by four lobstermen at Henry Barnes; Bill Bibber and 2 others. A Maine lobster boat built for family cruising. 1956.' // Construction of 32-foot lobster boat at home of Henry Barnes on Route 24 in Harpswell. People have picnic and others stop by to visit. Boat is dragged out of yard on cradle made of logs by two dump trucks. Boats pushed onto mudflats at Lookout Point by small bulldozer. Mollymauk is christened. // See collection file for additional information about the content of this film.

OtherPortland Press Herald Obituary, 2010 John William Loud White, 86 'It's a beautiful day on Casco Bay!' FREEPORT -- John W. L. White, 86, of Freeport, died at Maine Medical Center on April 16, 2010, after a brief and courageous battle with cancer. John grew up in Portland and Falmouth Foreside, attending Oakdale Kindergarten, Nathan Clifford Elementary, Lincoln Junior and Deering High schools. An engineer by training, his career was dedicated to Consumers Water Company where he began work in 1946, serving as President from 1966 to 1984, and later as chairman and CEO. He also served as a director of Key Bank of Southern Maine, its predecessor, Canal Bank, and subsequently Key Trust Co. As a young man growing up on the Falmouth waterfront, he fished for lobsters from his first boat, the ROSIE B (aka Rosie Bedbug), and later ran freight and passengers to Chebeague Island aboard his trusty JUNIPER starting in the summer of 1940. Following in the footsteps of his father, Ernest, and his older brother, Richard, he started his college education at Dartmouth but left to join the Navy and, as a member of their V12 officer training program, graduated from MIT, received his Navy commission at Columbia and then went on to Supply School at Harvard Business School. After graduating, John served as Lt. JG aboard the DE 414 LeRay Wilson in the Pacific at the end World War II. It was while studying in Cambridge that he met and courted Marian Morton, his beloved 'Molly,' whose heart he won sailing in Tech dinghies on the Charles River. They were married for 61 years. His strong allegiance to Dartmouth's class of 45, where he captained 'Cabin and Trail,' a division of the Dartmouth Outing Club, led him to build loyal relationships with the college and his former classmates. He often regaled his family and friends with the story of his 'one (and only) long leap' from the college's Vale de Temp 40 meter ski jump. He was passionate about skiing and the outdoors making annual hunting trips to Kingfield where he bought a camp 'on the Island' in the 60s to serve as a base for mountain activities for the whole family. He was determined to help his children acquire his love for nature. They each learned to ski and hunt from a young age. Their first downhill experience was at Sawtelle's Hill in Freeport and later at Sugarloaf in Carrabasset Valley where he helped conceive and build the Dick Bell Interfaith Chapel. He knew all the best smelting spots in Freeport and made sure his kids did too. And his love for jigging codfish helped convince his children that cod tasted 'better than steak.' His conservationist vision helped move Yarmouth Island in Quahog Bay, which he and Molly co-owned with the Pulsifer family, into the Harpswell Heritage Trust for perpetuity. John created an annual picnic for Dartmouth alums in Punta Gorda, Fla., where he and Molly spent many happy winters as devoted members of the Whispering Pines and Cedar Village communities. They also helped organize and host an annual 'Maine Picnic' in Florida to which they invited 'anyone with any connection to the State of Maine!' John dedicated much of his later life to many important community organizations and projects including the South Freeport Church, Maine Historical Society, Maine Medical Center, The Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the Maine Seacoast Mission and the United Way. In recent years, he was instrumental in helping raise funds to build the Freeport Community Center. John believed: 'A good Maine Yankee lives frugally in order to be able to be generous. To have a happy life it is desirable to repay society for one's good fortune.' He was a loyal member of the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association, the Portland Marine Society (of which his grandfather, Capt. Frank White, the part owner and master of the ADA L WHITE, was an early member), as well as the Portland Fraternity Club. John was well known for his whistling and singing of favorite hymns and popular tunes. You could always hear him coming before you saw him. He was passionate about his gardening, his bee keeping and his animal husbandry (pigs, chickens, goats, dogsÉbut beware the errant woodchuck who tried raiding John's summer garden and found himself in the sights of the well-oiled 22 caliber rifle!) John had a life-long love for 'simply messing about in boats' or 'puttering' as he called it. There wasn't a problem that couldn't be solved with enough heading twine, duct tape, or WD 40! His final waterfront job was on Easter Sunday when he and his grandson, Asher, went down to Strouts Point Boatyard to remove the Christmas wreath from the bow of the MOLLY W, the last of his many boats and a well-known presence on the Harraseeket River. More than anything else in life, John enjoyed being 'out on the water.' No matter the weather, rain, sleet, sun, or wind, it was always 'A beautiful day on Casco Bay!' in John's eyes. He loved taking his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as neighbors and out-of-town visitors, out 'hauling.' If the fishing wasn't particularly good, John was not above planting 'a keeper' in a trap in order not to disappoint his guests. In his adult years, he never sold a lobster or a crab, always gave them away and made sure that his stern man of the day went home with something to 'put in the pot.' John and Molly cruised the coast of Maine every summer for more than 60 years, first in their 18' sloop the SKIDART and later, with their four children and a menagerie of dogs, cats, and kittens, aboard the MOLLYMAUK, a 32' Maine lobster boat, they had built by Henry Barnes of Harpswell in 1956. In subsequent years, they gunkholed their way along the coast aboard their Pearson 31, BANJO, and Morgan 38, SNOWBIRD. John liked to claim that he had 'a mooring waiting in every port between Portland and Roque Island' and he discovered hundreds of 'secret' clam, scallop, and oyster beds along the way. Wherever he went, from Fort Kent, to Key West, Fla., from Paris, Maine to Paris, France, John made close friends and found 'small world' connections. John's eternal optimism, generosity of spirit, commitment to community, great sense of humor, and faith in the goodness of humanity all served as examples to family and friends alike. As one of his longtime friends wrote him in his last days: 'John, I learned new things about leadership and motivating people from your example, and I never wondered why you had so many firm friends and acquaintances and why they had such deep respect for you. I knew why. It was the quality of the man. YouÉ John White.' John is survived by his sister, Margaret Wilson of Falmouth Foreside; his four children, Martha W. and her husband Jim Burns of South Freeport, Nathaniel Warren-White and his wife Betsy of South Freeport, Marian Blackwell of Bradford, Mass., and Benjamin L. White and his wife Judy Sohn-White of So. Brookline, Mass. In addition, he will be sorely missed by his five grandchildren, Julie Kimber of Brunswick, Asher Nichols of Chestnut Hill, Mass., Josh Warren-White of Berkeley, Calif., Emily White, of So Brookline, Mass., and Adam Blackwell, in his third year at Northeastern University. He had a special bond with his four great-grandchildren and for Christmas, the last two years, he carefully chose each of them, Will, Esme and Molly Kimber and Charlotte Nichols 'just the right' teddy bear. The family wishes to extend its heartfelt thanks to the incredible team at Maine Medical Center and their Palliative Care Group as well as the great doctors and staff with Intermed for their compassionate and professional care. A memorial service will be held at the South Freeport Church on Saturday, April 24, at 10 a.m., with reception to follow at the Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot St. http://obituaries.pressherald.com/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/obituary.aspx?n=john-william-loud-white&pid=141993985#sthash.SKglgoNQ.dpuf