1938

Two recently received magazine articles regarding Red Boutilier tell of his dedicated love and interest in detailing boat launching along the mid-Maine coast over the past 30 years using his speed graphic four-by-five-inch camera. Working as a freelance writer and photographer, he has amassed a collection of photos and negatives of fishing and sailing boats that fill two rooms in his house in Medomak, Me.

Red moved to Medomak in 1960, purchasing a farm after a career that included stints as a reporter with newspapers in Saratoga Springs and Utica, N.Y. During WWII he was employed by the Bath (Me.) Iron Works and in 1954 he became involved with harness racing and worked as director of publicity at racetracks between Florida and Maine.

The article in the October/November issue of Maine Boats and Harbors has this to say about Red: "Now approaching 80, Red can sense certain things closing in around him. Museums are making approaches to him about how he intends to dispose of his wealth of pictures and stories. Other retired folk with an interest in maritime history ask him over cups of coffee hoping to talk over their projects and tap his knowledge. But he hardly has time. He is still doing what he loves and what he lives by. He is the man who tells stories and takes pictures of boats in Maine."

Again from Dwight Parkinson, who reports that Austie Grant and wife Helen took a European cruise last August. They flew to Venice and then cruised to Athens, Eleusis, Capri, Rome, Pisa, Barcelona, and some other cities—but probably not in that order.

And now for two questions, the answers to each should prove most interesting. Having been out of college for 58 years this June I wonder how many of you have celebrated SO years of marital bliss and how many will do likewise this year? Also, how many great grandchildren do we have?

And now I will close with this Irish blessing: "Do not resist growing old. Many are denied the privileged."