Richard P. Boothby Jr. ’45

FALMOUTH — Richard Perkins Boothby Jr. of Falmouth died peacefully on August 28, 2014 in the loving company of his four children.
Dick was born in St. Louis, Miss., February 25, 1925, the son of Pauline Jameson of Colebrook, N.H. and Richard Boothby Sr. of Lewiston-Auburn, Maine. Dick grew up in Auburn and later in Portland, graduating from Deering High School. He entered the Maine Maritime Academy during the early years of World War II, took his officer’s commission, and joined the Navy. During the war, he served on the Liberty ship James C. Cameron in the South Pacific and Japan. Given wartime shortages, the ship lacked an official medical officer and Dick’s layman’s knowledge of medicine outfitted him to fill in. For many of his shipmates, Dick thus became ‘Doc.’

Returning to Maine after the war, Dick entered Bates College, the alma mater of both his father and mother. Bates figured prominently in Dick’s life and in the history of the Boothby family. Dick was the great-grandson of the founder and first president of Bates, Oren B. Cheney. It was also at Bates that Dick met his wife, Carolyn Coburn. Together they raised their four children, first in Cape Elizabeth and later in Cumberland Foreside. As a young man, Dick joined his father as an executive in the shoe industry, working for the Holmes Stickney Co. in Portland and later for the Gould and Scammon Co. in Carlisle, Pa.  The large, rambling summer cottage on Pleasant Pond in Turner, bought in 1933 by Dick’s father, became the much-beloved gathering place of family life for two generations. Affectionately called ‘Boothby’s Labor Camp’ by the children, the Turner property became the site where many of the family’s deepest and richest memories were forged.

Dick enjoyed an ardent love for the New England mountains and he took the family skiing and hiking nearly every weekend over the fall and winter months. Later in life, Dick and Carolyn extended their ski adventures
Richard Perkins Boothby Jr. with trips to Colo. and Switzerland. Also an avid tennis player and golfer, Dick remained active to the very end of his life.  Dick’s other great life-long passion was photography. For every house he ever owned, he designed and built a darkroom for black and white printing. Time out for portraits and group pictures was a predictable part of every family gathering. Family meant everything to Dick and he unstintingly nourished his children with a gentle, sensitive spirit, a relentlessly inquiring mind, and an ever-ready warmth of love and generosity. He is survived by four very grateful children and their spouses; James Coburn Boothby and wife Lorraine Ambrose Boothby of Edgewater Md., Richard Perkins Boothby III and wife Rebecca Nichols of Baltimore Md., Barbara Boothby Perry and husband Jeffrey Perry of Cumberland, and David Cheney Boothby and wife Bonnie Spencer, of Waterford. Dick is also the proud grandfather of seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Dick is survived by his sister Barbara Boothby Wendt and her husband Frank Wendt of Westport, Conn. He was predeceased by his wife Carolyn in 2010 and by his grandson, Oliver Foster Boothby, in 2006.

The Boothby family would like to extend a huge thanks to the many wonderful people at Seaside Rehabilitation Center who worked so compassionately with Dick in his last months.
A memorial service to celebrate Dick’s life will be held on October 4, 2014 at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary of the South Freeport Congregational Church, 98 South Freeport Rd., Freeport ME.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made in Dick’s name to the:
Boothby Family Fund Scholarship
at Bates College.

Donors may give online at bates.edu/give and reference the fund in the comments field. – See more at: http://obituaries.pressherald.com/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/obituary.aspx?pid=172309574#sthash.gBdKI6gA.dpuf