WITH ALUMS REPRESENTING over 115 companies offering a wide range of employment opportunities, this year’s Career Fair was a tremendous success! The résumé writing workshops and company presentations were of great value, creating the opportunity for Maine Maritime Academy to proudly showcase its incredible students.
HELLO!!Community Event
IT WAS A GUSTY but gorgeous evening Friday, September 23, when hundreds of students, faculty, and staff, along with Castine residents congregated on the roof of Payson Hall. It was the Galaxsea Gala, and they gathered where the sea meets the stars to celebrate the beauty of the ocean and sky at night and to watch the premiere of the short film Galaxsea: A Voyage into the Bioluminescent Night. The film, directed by local Itzel-Marine Gourmelon, explores themes of beauty in darkness and overcoming fear of the unknown. Students and community residents were encouraged to dress up for a night out, to mingle with food and drink, and to listen to musical performances by the MMA Jazz Band and Boston-based indie band Hush Club.
The event included a meet and greet where attendees mingled with local groups to discuss their mission. Community tables were hosted by the International Dark Sky Association, Castine Kayak Adventures, and the Bagaduce Watershed. The crew of the Arctic schooner Bowdoin also hosted a table to raise funds for their planned trip to the Arctic. The schooner crew were also on call that day to raise the sail of the Bowdoin as the film’s movie screen. Unfortunately, wind conditions did not allow the sail to be raised, and the film was projected on the bay door at the MMA Waterfront. The Galaxsea film crew ran a silent auction and MMA Student Activities operated a raffle.
Assistant Director of Student Activities, Jessica Shively, orchestrated an exhibit of student photographs submitted to the fall 2022 photo contest. The photos, taken by students while on vacation, on co-ops, or on cruise, were printed on metal and displayed at the Gala. The art will hang in Curtis Hall to help liven the space and continue to showcase the amazing and diverse work of the MMA student body. (See page 3 for the winning photo.) Despite the brisk weather, the lively event brought together over 250 students and community residents for a memorable evening.
IN APRIL, Maine Maritime Academy named a part of the ABS Center for Engineering, Science, and Research the Robert D. Somerville ’65 Wing in honor of Somerville’s tremendous contributions to the world of shipping.
Bob Somerville arrived at the Maine Maritime Academy campus in 1961 from the County. He was raised on maritime tales of his great-grandfather, a ship captain lost at sea, and those tales gave Somerville his own love for the sea. He graduated with a degree in Marine Engineering in 1965 and began his career at Texaco, eventually rising to 1st Engineer. Three years later, he took a position with Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock in the Atomic Power Division, working on the construction of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers. He joined American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in 1970 as a field surveyor, and after a 43-year career, retired from ABS and the ABS Group of Companies in 2013.
Somerville’s great contributions to maritime industries and their workers have won him numerous awards. He was inducted into the prestigious International Maritime Hall of Fame at the United Nations in 2006. In 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Shipping of America awarded him the Admiral Halert C. Shepheard Award for his outstanding contributions to merchant marine safety. In 2009, he received the Vice Admiral Land Medal for outstanding accomplishments in the marine field from the Society of Naval Architect and Marine Engineers (SNAME). He also received the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Foundation’s Captain Emery Rice Medal in recognition of his support of maritime education. In 2011, he received the United Seamen’s Service Admiral of the Ocean Seas Award, and in 2012, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Seatrade.
Somerville is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and a Fellow of SNAME. He holds an honorary Doctor of Science from Maine Maritime Academy and an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science from the Webb Institute. Somerville has served on MMA’s Board of Trustees since 2008 and was board chair in 2016.
At the unveiling of Somerville wing, President Brennan described him as “a leader, visionary, and mentor.”
“Bob,” concluded Brennan, “I cannot think of a more deserving recognition for all you have done.”
HELLO!!
Alumni President
Bill Full ’76
Fellow Alumni,
Both you and the Academy have been fortunate to have had the services of former Alumni Association Board members Troy Malbon ’89, Steve Rendall ’96, Stephen (Jack) Spratt ’93, and Ben Strickland ’95. Each of them has put forth a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm in supporting the cause of MMA and the alumni body. I know I was speaking for all of us when I passed along my personal thanks after the recent election. It means big shoes to fill for incoming board members Tom Daley ’71, Molly Eddy ’07, Chris Mercer ’88, and Larry Wade ’64. Welcome aboard, all, and we look forward to working with you.
Volunteerism on the board is not confined to elected board members. All alumni are encouraged to volunteer on any of the four standing board committees (Working with Outside Entities, Financial Support, Alumni Engagement, Communications). Having additional voices allows those committees to do a few extra things that help both alumni and the school. Volunteers serving as Class Agents and Class Annual Fund Volunteers are always welcome too!
Volunteer to help us recruit and engage the next generation of future MMA alumni
Recent important activity by the Board has been to work with the Vice President of Enrollment Kim Reilly and Jeff Cockburn ’82 of Admissions as they develop an alumni-centric enrollment campaign that will fundamentally change the approach to developing interest in MMA by young men and women. This long-term approach to engaging the high school population earlier in their decision-making process will be key in continuing to build a vibrant pool of potential students and future alumni! The key board committee on this is Alumni Engagement, chaired by Mary Hutchins ’11. If engaging the youth and their parents in your area and developing interest in MMA is something that interests you, like all the other volunteer opportunities please reach out to the alumni office at jeff.wright@mma.edu.
It is our level of engagement with MMA that keeps the institution strong!
Sincerely yours,
Bill Full ’76
MMA PRESIDENT
Jerald “JP” Paul ’89
IN THIS FIRST President’s Watch since being entrusted with the leadership of Maine Maritime Academy, it is an honor to share some early thoughts.
I arrived in Castine as a MUG 37 years ago. Upon return, I see continuity coupled with change. I value both as I learn from our faculty, staff, students, and town residents. In 2022 we also have major challenges . . . but they are equally met with enormous opportunity.
Like 8,000 other alumni, Maine Maritime Academy provided me with a structure for learning, growing, and developing. Walking up and down the hill, standing watches at all hours on the ship, managing rigorous course loads, and jobs from work-study to town jobs combined for a challenge that pressed my limits. It was not easy. But it made the rest of life easier.
That MMA Experience makes a lasting impact. It builds character. It reinforces discipline, reliability, dependability, and a “get-it-done” spirit that is central to the Maine culture. Higher standards— what I now call “The Mariner Standard”—came both from responsibilities that were required and from the values demonstrated around me by mentors such as then-President Ken Curtis ’52. A combination of self-help and shipboard team effort taught me to focus less on excuses and more on personal responsibility marshalled toward achieving big goals. As I tell students and parents now, “MMA did not get the most out of me . . . it got me to get the most out of me.”
MMA also helped me learn how to learn. When I wanted to pursue paths that would require preparation in math and science not yet available through our curriculum, faculty members (namely, Dr. Groves Herrick and others he assembled) built one-on-one self-study courses for me such as differential equations and advanced engineering mathematics. They also guided me through preparation for the EIT Engineering exam which, at that time, was not often taken by MMA students. They showed me how to seek and assemble a team of experts whose knowledge and expertise could guide me. That lesson has served me well through decades of service.
At MMA, I learned to look past limitations of status quo and instead map a course to greater heights. I learned that there are MMA faculty and staff with that same spirit. It exists to this day. As stated by Claire Felix, MMA Class of 2022 Senior Scholar Athlete, “Finding a way to do it is what being a Mariner is all about.” We need only to identify and elevate these people and this spirit within our organization.
That MMA Experience works. The quality of life enjoyed by most MMA graduates proves it. Like many, I arrived at MMA a blue-collar kid, but my MMA years gave me the foundation for future success.
MMA also instilled motivation to help others through service-over-self as shipmates do, working together as One Ship. It prompted me to create a scholarship for MMA students two decades ago. Similarly, along with my wife, Kristy, we returned to MMA this year to join a team committed to service for future generations of Mariners.
The return has been everything we imagined and more. We’ve found opportunity to serve in ways that we predicted. In greater measure, however, we have been blessed with additional opportunities to serve as we synchronize with our current MMA and town, which has been a great learning experience. Coming back to school, back to this school, has been a wonderful learning experience. Former President Brennan stated it well in his farewell letter: “Learning is not what you do only in your school years. It’s what you do every day of your life in order to seek new understandings and new appreciations.”
In this role as leader of an institution within higher education, I am thoroughly enjoying learning the unique dynamics of MMA collaboration and shared governance that are the foundation of decision making in academia. We have much talent here from which to draw. And we have diverse perspectives that make for rich contributions and new ideas.
Compared with the 80s, we also have more opportunities that can be leveraged for MMA to become The #1 Maritime College in the World (a topic ripe for more detailed discussion in an upcoming President’s Watch). Kristy and I are grateful to everyone who has welcomed us home. I personally thank each of you within the MMA Community and Castine who, once again, have rallied around me in “self-study courses” as our community maps a course for our MMA of the Future.
Jerald “JP” Paul ’89, President
Leroy Evrard is retired and resides in Harpswell, Maine, with his wife, Jean.
HELLO!!Thomas Oughton writes, “I miss sailing and the sea, but I’m still plugging along maintaining our small farm of asparagus and blueberries.”
HELLO!!Jay Kerney, pictured here in Morocco, has been nominated for the Maritime Administration’s Merchant Marine Medal for Outstanding Achievement for a heroic incident that occurred while he was a student in 1961. The nomination, supported by Peter Wurschy, classmate and Regimental Commander in 1965, was resubmitted March 2022 and awaits final disposition.
An upperclassman received third degree burns over 35 percent of his body as he accidentally vaulted hip-deep into an open pit of boiling water in the school’s steam lab. The water had been drained from a boiler just minutes before. The victim’s scream attracted Jay’s attention, a freshman assistant watchman. Jay yanked the victim to the lab floor. Further injury was averted as he immediately started removing portions of the victim’s clothing. Jay sustained injuries as well, recalling “the injuries that I sustained were painful but superficial burns on my hands and forearms. The paramedics on the scene treated the burns with some type of ointment and bandaged me up. I remember being asked if I wanted to be relieved or return to my duty station. I elected to return to my duty station in the steam lab as it was about 2300 hours and it was only a short time before I was to be relieved by the midnight to 0400 watch.” Good luck, Jay.
HELLO!!Jay Kerney, pictured here in Morocco, has been nominated for the Maritime Administration’s Merchant Marine Medal for Outstanding Achievement for a heroic incident that occurred while he was a student in 1961. The nomination, supported by Peter Wurschy, classmate and Regimental Commander in 1965, was resubmitted March 2022 and awaits final disposition.
An upperclassman received third degree burns over 35 percent of his body as he accidentally vaulted hip-deep into an open pit of boiling water in the school’s steam lab. The water had been drained from a boiler just minutes before. The victim’s scream attracted Jay’s attention, a freshman assistant watchman. Jay yanked the victim to the lab floor. Further injury was averted as he immediately started removing portions of the victim’s clothing. Jay sustained injuries as well, recalling “the injuries that I sustained were painful but superficial burns on my hands and forearms. The paramedics on the scene treated the burns with some type of ointment and bandaged me up. I remember being asked if I wanted to be relieved or return to my duty station. I elected to return to my duty station in the steam lab as it was about 2300 hours and it was only a short time before I was to be relieved by the midnight to 0400 watch.” Good luck, Jay.
HELLO!!Sam Rowe wrote this spring that he was “visiting some friends from the Sonatrach LNG plant near Oran and a power plant that I worked at near Algiers. Side trip to Istanbul planned for July.” Rowe lives in Mashpee, Mass.
HELLO!!
