(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
10 years ago – May 5, 1995
BANGOR – Tabitha King, Bangor author and philanthropist, went public to reveal herself as the mystery donor who has pledged $2.5 million for the renovation and expansion of the Bangor Public Library.
King, in a meeting with the Bangor Daily News editorial board, said her promised contribution is meant to prompt Bangor taxpayers to approve a $2.5 million bond as the city’s share of the $8.5 million library project.
According to Barbara McDade, the library’s director, $3.3 million will be used for much-needed repairs and upgrading of the 83-year-old building on Harlow Street.
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BANGOR – For the last two years, children of St. Mary’s Day Care on Ohio Street have benefited from the skills and generosity of the Penobscot Job Corps students.
Twelve pieces of furniture, from toy microwave ovens to adult-sized art centers, have been donated to the day care facility by carpentry students attending the Job Corps program on outer Union Street.
Recently, Job Corps students delivered the latest creation, a full-size picnic table that will enable the preschool tykes to lunch in the sun during the sunny days of May and beyond.
Darrell Moody, 18; Fernando Gacharna, 20; and Naomi Cavone, 17, built the table in a class called Building and Apartment Maintenance. They built the structure under the direction of Randy Jellison.
The painted table would cost about $110 if bought at market value, according to Jellison. It was donated to Linda Caler’s Panda Room, which is the preschool home to some 4-year-old children from the Bangor area.
25 years ago – May 5, 1980
ORONO – Increasing numbers of women are entering male-dominated fields, but few men are moving into the sphere of women that has to do with housework and family rearing.
This dilemma, brought on because more women are taking careers and few men are prepared for the consequences, is bad for family life and children, contends Margaret McIntosh, director of college programs at Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.
McIntosh, a wife and mother with a doctorate from Harvard University, is lobbying to change the old attitude that housework and child rearing are demeaning and women’s work.
Invited to speak at the University of Maine, she believes the place to start changing this thinking is in the colleges and universities by incorporating women’s studies programs into the curriculum.
McIntosh points out that although women comprise 50 percent of the world’s population, their contributions in history, political science, literature and economics are largely ignored.
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BANGOR – If the ’30s belonged to Norby Dowd at John Bapst High School in athletics, the ’40s had many truly outstanding sports figures.
The school, which appears set to shut down next month, for 52 years has been on top of the athletic-scholastic world, but the ’40s brought them some of their early glory.
Included was the school’s first and only basketball championship in 1942, the school’s first undefeated football season and a mythical state title in 1947 and a host of top individual stars.
Dowd wound up a brilliant and inspiring coaching career in 1941 to take an important executive director position with the Bangor Chamber of Commerce, and the school scrambled for coaches in football, basketball and baseball, the three major sports at the time.
Known as the four Ms and an N, the cagers of 1941-1942 were the talk of the winter sports world in eastern Maine for that season. Seniors Bonesy McCann, Fred Marquis, Colin “Bonny” McKenna, sophomore Bob McDonald, and senior Bill Nelligan won the EM trophy before losing to the Portland High School five in the state tourney 25-18 at the Brewer auditorium.
Marquis set new school scoring records during his fabulous career at the Broadway-based school that was ordered closed a week ago by edict from Bishop Edward O’Leary.
Editor’s note: The school reopened as John Bapst Memorial High School, and continues operation on Broadway.
50 years ago – May 5, 1955
BANGOR – “This awful experience will be a part of my life forever, I think,” said Miss Elizabeth McCarthy of Bangor as she discussed the detonation of the largest nuclear device ever set off by this country, in an exclusive interview with the NEWS.
Miss McCarthy, civilian administrator of the Bangor Filter Center, was one of the observers at Yucca Flats, Nev., when the nine-times-postponed test was made.
“That such a sight could be so beautiful and yet carry such potential devastation to our country is almost too terrible to believe,” she declared. “I wonder,” Miss McCarthy said, “if all communities are prepared to cope with the destruction which will follow in the wake of such a catastrophe?”
Realizing what can happen following an atomic attack, she warned, “If they are not ready they must get ready. They can be too late with too little.”
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CASTINE – It is hard to improve on a 29-5 record, but Maine Maritime Academy baseball Coach Ken Brown has hopes of bettering even this mark.
With a host of newcomers plus a veteran squad on hand, Coach Brown believes his 1955 Middies will be able to better the team’s 1954 showing in the coming diamond campaign.
During the winter, the team was in action five times while the Middies made their annual Caribbean tour. Four games saw the MMA team on top. Their only loss was to the Dominican Republic team, which represented that country in the recent Pan American games in Mexico City.
100 years ago – May 5, 1905
BUCKSPORT – Capt. Robert H. Goodman of Bath has shipped to Portland the rigging of the Peary ship, Roosevelt. It is one of the most expensive and finest rigging outfits ever made. It is made of crucible steel yacht wire especially for this craft. The rigging was fitted in Captain Goodman’s loft by a crew of expert riggers and is ready to be put in place.
The lower rigging is 3 inches in diameter, the back stays are 2 inches and a quarter, forestay and jigstay 3 inches and a half, the foretopmast stays 2 inches and a half, and topmast stays 2 inches and a quarter. The rigging is put in with bands and shackles. There is not an eye on the whole outfit.
Rigger Goodman expects to have the rigging in position by the middle of the month.
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HAMPDEN – A mysterious but happy party started for East Hampden a few nights ago in the dead hours, bent on dipping a few hundred smelts, contrary to the statutes. They got the fish, and in about three minutes Deputy Sheriff W.W. Emerson got them. The songs and jests that were a feature on the down trip were particularly noticeable for their absence on the way back.
The three men, who were placed under arrest, and who will be hailed before the bar of justice this morning, were a prominent lawyer, an architect and a dealer in drugs. A fourth member, who stood on the bank holding a lantern and shouting, “Gee, ain’t it a big one,” when each shiny little fish was brought up, stands high in the legal calling and has been elevated recently to a position above his brother members of the bar.
Everything went beautifully until Deputy Emerson hove on the horizon. Then things happened rapidly and in a manner that caused much pain. The lawyer knew all about the matter when he saw the war gleam in the deputy’s eyes. The matter will be thrashed out in the police station sometime today. There will probably be picturesque details.
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BUCKSPORT – The county commissioners Nahum Hinckley of Blue Hill, J.P. Eldridge of Ellsworth, and O.W. Foss of Hancock, came here and went to Orland where they laid out an extension of the main road to Ellsworth. On Thursday morning they met the selectmen of Bucksport and laid out the piece of road on Main Street between Green Hill and the Buck house.
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BREWER – Frank H. Nickerson, chairman of the school board, spoke at considerable length, advising the City Council as to the amount of money to be appropriated for the use of the public schools.
Mr. Nickerson said that a new schoolhouse in Brewer was absolutely necessary and the question of building one could not be put off any longer, as all the schools in the city, he said, are overcrowded.
Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin
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