March 28, 2024
Sports Obituary

Fellow officials recall Cameron Field’s namesake was ‘great boss’

It was certainly appropriate to name Garland Street Field after J. Henry ‘Hank’ Cameron.

It was named after him when he retired as the principal at Garland Street Junior High School in 1982. He had served for 37 years in the Bangor school system.

In addition to his time spent in the school, he spent a lot of time officiating football games on the field which is used by the Bangor High School and John Bapst High School football teams.

It has also been the site of several state championship games.

Cameron died at the age of 85 on Monday.

Cameron, who graduated from Houlton High School in 1938, also officiated basketball games and became the referee assigner for high school football games in eastern Maine.

“He was a great boss. I really, truly admired him. He was one of a kind,” said Bruce Anderson, who taught physical education for Cameron at Garland Street Junior High (now Cohen Middle School) and became a football official thanks to Cameron.

Anderson said the story that best epitomizes Cameron concerns after-school bus duty.

“Every afternoon at 3:00, he would go out the back door at Garland Street to do bus duty. It didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing. He was the principal of the school but rather than assign bus duty to someone else, he did it himself,” said Anderson. “He lived by example. He didn’t try to exact more out of you than he was willing to give. He made it possible for you to do your job and he expected you to do it.

“We had a great relationship. I loved him to death and respected him,” added Anderson.

Neil Waterman, who taught seventh grade life science at Garland Street and also got into football officiating because of Cameron in 1974, said Cameron lived by a motto he would repeat at a teachers meeting at the beginning of the year.

It applied to teaching and officiating.

“He told us to be firm, fair and flexible,” said Waterman. “He was able to go to the gray area. He wasn’t just black and white.”

Waterman called him “really easy-going” and said “nothing would upset him.

“He would analyze everything and sort it out. He was nice and even-keeled as a principal and an official,” added Waterman. “He was soft-spoken and never showed much emotion. He diffused many, many situations with his calm demeanor. I very rarely saw him get upset.”

Anderson concurred.

“If you had a crisis and you thought the world was coming to an end, he would say, ‘Bruce, calm down and take a breath. Everything will be fine.’

“He had a way about him, a presence. He will be sorely missed,” added Anderson.

Another veteran official, Andy Constantine, said “I had the honor of having him teach me how to be an official. He had a professionalism not only as the principal of a school, but also by how he carried himself on the field. I was always proud to work with him.”

Constantine considered him a “perfect gentleman” and said Cameron taught him how to treat coaches and players in a constructive, respectful manner.

He also said Cameron was as consistent as they come on the field.

“He was always fair, from the first whistle until the last whistle,” said Constantine.

Anderson said when Cameron was the football assigner, he had to make tough decisions and wasn’t afraid to do so.

“He had to decide who would referee which games. He would take an awful lot of abuse at our meetings about it. But he had it in his mind who was best suited to do which game,” said Anderson.

Cameron gave Anderson a “flipping coin” he had used to determine who would kick off and who would receive at the outset of the game.

“I lost it one Saturday night doing a Bapst game. Sunday morning, my wife [Janice] and I went back to look for it. We walked up and down the field until my wife finally found it,” said Anderson.

Anderson noted that’s how much Cameron and the flipping coin meant to him.

Waterman received a stopwatch from Cameron.

“He wanted to keep us motivated and involved in the officiating world,” said Waterman. “He was a great man.”

Cameron’s funeral and burial were held Friday.


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