It’s the new year, a time to both take stock of the balance of life over the past 12 months and to look forward to what could be in the months ahead.
2024 was a year of big changes: devastating winter storms, a contentious presidential election and more.
We also saw the departures of many dearly beloved Mainers, who have left holes that their communities won’t easily fill. They include entrepreneurs, inventors, civil servants, activists, artists, an L.L. Bean heiress and a former governor.
Here’s a look back at some of the Mainers we lost last year:
January
Sami Manirath
Sami Manirath died on Jan. 3 at age 52.
Though Manirath only moved to Fort Kent in 2022, she quickly embedded herself in the fabric of the community.
Manirath was born in Laos, a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, as a child. She lived in Buffalo, New York, and eventually found her way to Fort Kent, where she worked remotely as a corporate attorney for the Dallas-based firm Sumner and Schick.
But while she was in Fort Kent, Manirath’s entrepreneurial spirit couldn’t be contained. She opened three restaurants — two Sami’s Cuisines in Fort Kent and Madawaska, and Club Sami’s in Fort Kent.
“She walked into my office with her ideas and nearly jumped a foot off the ground while telling them to me,”Amber Rankine, executive director of the Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce, recounted to the Bangor Daily News earlier this year. “Her energy was as light as her mood and the woman never stopped smiling.”
After her death, friends and acquaintances remembered her as a kind and generous community-oriented spirit.
“Sami stepped foot in Fort Kent and will forever leave her footprint behind,” Rankine said.
Orlando Frati
Orlando “Ollie” Frati died on Jan. 9 at age 92.
Frati was a major figure in Bangor’s business community, where he ran Frati’s pawn shop on State Street.
His father started the business, and the younger Frati began working there at age 11, eventually taking over the shop.
Despite a heavy workload, Frati was remembered for always having time for his family and called his grown children every night to tell them he loved them. Others fondly recalled him as a “cog in the community” and a “classic Bangor gentleman” who never failed to keep his kind demeanor.
He was such a part of the community that his family business was immortalized in the work of Stephen King.
Joel Raymond
Joel Raymond died on Jan. 25 at age 69.
Raymond was a fixture of the Maine music scene since the 1970s. An avid rock ‘n’ roll fan, he got into music promotion after graduating from Ellsworth High School, bringing acts such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, John Lee Hooker and an aspiring Southern rock band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to venues from Bangor to Portland.
“He was always ahead of the curve. He was always one step ahead of the latest thing,” his brother, Jack Raymond, told the BDN.
For nearly 30 years, Joel Raymond hosted a weekly broadcast on the community radio station WERU.
Raymond’s brother remembered his “eternal optimism” and that his “joy” and “fervor” for music was “infectious.”
David Mills
David Mills died on Jan. 26 at age 78.
He was a brother to Gov. Janet Mills, who remembered him as “kind and generous.” While his siblings got into politics, law and health care, David Mills spent his life caring for their grandmother and holding a string of jobs at mills, factories and tanneries.
“He was a personable raconteur on many subjects of interest, a companionable conversationalist who loved history and country music,” his obituary reads.
Kevin Howell
Kevin Howell died on Jan. 26 at age 51.
Howell had served eight years as Carmel town manager, in addition to his roles as town clerk, tax collector, treasurer, road commissioner and webmaster. Despite his many duties, he’s remembered as rarely taking a full day off.
“He was a guy of action,” Select Board Chair Dan Frye told the BDN. “He really was nonstop. He really put everything into his work.”
Howell was walking with his son on Etna Pond on Jan. 26 when they both fell through the ice. He managed to get his son out of the water and told him to run home for help.
By the time rescuers arrived, however, it was too late.
February
Fred Kircheis
Fred Kircheis died on Feb. 27 at age 81.
Kircheis, known as the “charr man,” was a longtime fisheries biologist who dedicated his life to reviving Maine’s arctic charr, the only intact native population in the lower 48 states.
He is remembered as a “consummate” and “dedicated” biologist who possessed a “wealth of knowledge.”
“Fred was a wealth of knowledge in regard to Maine’s rare Arctic charr. He was easy to talk to and always willing to help. Few biologists I’ve worked with could bring it down to layman’s terms as well as Fred,” Bob Mallard from the Native Fish Coalition told BDN Outdoors columnist V. Paul Reynolds.
Today, arctic charr are established in 14 lakes and ponds across the state.
March
Mack Gwinn Jr.
Mack Gwinn Jr. died on March 11 at age 79.
Gwinn was born in Florida to a military family that bounced around the country, including to Bangor, where a 14-year-old Gwinn met his future wife, Crystal.
He continued his family’s military tradition, eventually joining the Special Forces and being deployed to Vietnam seven times between 1961 and 1972. He was awarded four Purple Heart medals and the Gallantry Cross medal with Bronze Star.
Gwinn went on to become a firearms inventor, designing the Bushmaster pistol, which he sold out of an office in Bangor. The company was eventually acquired by businessman Richard Dyke, who died in 2023, moving production to Windham. Gwinn also designed a quick-changing barrel for .50-caliber machine guns.
He held nine patents, according to his obituary.
“He was an idea guy,” his son Mack Gwinn III told the BDN. “He looked at things and asked, ‘How can I make this better, faster and stronger?’ That was just how his brain worked.”
Linda Bean
Linda Bean died on March 23 at age 82.
The granddaughter of L.L. Bean founder Leon Leonwood Bean became a business force in her own right. She founded the companies Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine and Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster.
Bean bought her first wharf in Port Clyde in 2007 before going on to buy others in Tenants Harbor and Vinalhaven. She also owned two general stores — one of which burned down in Port Clyde in 2023 — timberland, and sugarbushes.
Beyond business, the L.L. Bean heiress supported several philanthropic organizations and even made bids for political office, unsuccessfully vying for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District in 1988 and then losing a general election bid for that same seat in 1992.
After her death, Bean’s will attracted attention as her estate attempted unsuccessfully to persuade a judge to seal it.
While the will didn’t list the estate’s exact value, the L.L. Bean heiress’ estate paid a $62,200 filing fee with Knox County Probate Court, which placed the value of her holdings at an estimated $122 million.
April
Doug Hufnagel
Doug Hufnagel died on April 2 at age 78.
Hufnagel is remembered by the moniker The Coffeeman for his coffee cart business that he took on the road to the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity as well as sites in Belfast.
He grew up in Maine before his family moved to Connecticut. But he returned to Maine for good after college to put down roots at a family plot off Route 52.
Hufnagel traveled extensively from Sri Lanka to Guatemala, and he saw great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Malcom X speak.
“He lived a very big life,” his daughter Erin Grace Hufnagel told the BDN. “He did a ton of traveling, a ton of writing, a ton of learning. And he met the people along the way, and there were all these crazy connections, and the connections just intertwined into this big sort of ball of his life.”
Beyond his work as a coffee vendor, Hufnagel, true to his progressive nature, was an activist, protesting nuclear power in New Hampshire and New York. He also wrote columns for the Camden Herald and later the Republican Journal in Belfast, where then editor Tom Groening, who went on to spend 14 years at the BDN, recruited him.
In his columns, Hufnagel was an outspoken opponent of credit card giant MBNA, which he felt was “much too big” for Belfast.
“He really was a progressive voice when most people were embracing the changes,” Groening told the BDN after Hufnagel’s death. “He was a progressive contrarian.”
Joseph Brennan
Joseph Brennan died on April 5 at age 89.
Brennan, a former governor, was born to Irish immigrant parents in Portland. After serving in the U.S. Army, he graduated from Boston College and the University of Maine School of Law.
Brennan worked as a lawyer, and he was first elected to the Legislature in 1964. He went on to become a tough-on-crime prosecutor for Cumberland County in the 1970s and then state attorney general.
Brennan served as governor between 1979 and 1987, during which he enshrined some of the nation’s toughest laws against drunken driving and oversaw the implementation of the controversial land-claims settlement with the federally recognized tribes in Maine.
He served in Congress, but then lost multiple statewide elections in the 1990s.
One enduring aspect of Brennan’s legacy is that he helped cement and launch the careers of prominent Maine Democrats, including George Mitchell and Janet Mills.
Philip Barter
Philip Barter died on April 23 at age 84.
Barter is remembered for the many stylized and colorful Maine landscape paintings he produced over more than 50 years.
He was born in Boothbay Harbor and went on to serve in the Army.
After bouncing around California’s beaches, Barter met Spanish abstract expressionist Alfonso Sosa, under whom he studied for two years before returning to Maine.
Once back in the Pine Tree State, Barter began using art to explore Maine’s landscapes and seasonal changes. He eventually settled in Franklin and worked as a fisherman to pay the bills.
His work has been shown in museums in Portland, Rockland and Lewiston, and acquired in many private collections.
Maine writer Carl Little, who wrote a book about Barter, called him “one of Maine’s most beloved painters” who used “wild” colors.
May
Jenness Robbins
Jenness Robbins died on May 3 at age 85.
Robbins is remembered as an innovative lumberman, a legacy carried on to this day at his family’s business, Robbins Lumber.
Under his leadership, Robbins Lumber became one of Waldo County’s largest employers. He led the company as president for 27 years before selling it to his brother Jim in 2003.
Beyond his business work, Robbins is remembered as “hugely charismatic” and having “a heck of a sense of humor.” That is evident in a prank from his childhood. During a trip with his parents to Florida, Robbins brought back an alligator, which he put in his teacher’s desk. By all accounts, the teacher didn’t find that as funny as him.
Robbins also spent time working with numerous organizations, including Waldo County Habitat for Humanity, which he helped with constructing four homes.
Moorhead Kennedy
Moorhead Kennedy died on May 3 at age 93.
Kennedy was born in New York, but settled down later in life in Mount Desert.
Kennedy was a diplomat stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, in 1979 when student protesters stormed it, taking Kennedy and more than 50 others hostage. He was held for 444 days.
The slow progress toward freeing the hostages is among the factors that drove down approval ratings for President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100. Kennedy returned home in January 1981.
After that experience, Kennedy resigned from the U.S. State Department and went on to become an author and educator. He fought for compensation for the hostages and their families, saying it was important that there be official recognition of the trauma they endured. Kennedy himself continued to have nightmares about the experience for years.
June
Dennis Hoey
Dennis Hoey died on June 22 at age 69.
Hoey, a longtime reporter at the Portland Press Herald, spent the majority of his career reporting for newspapers in his Maine hometown. He spent some time reporting at the Waltham Tribune in Massachusetts after graduating from the University of Maine in Orono. Hoey then worked at the Portland Evening Express before joining the Press Herald in 1990, where he spent the rest of his career.
In a Press Herald story marking his passing, Hoey’s colleagues remembered him as capable of being both sensitive and persistent when talking with people and for his ability to get sources on the record after hours.
“He had an uncanny touch with everyone from bad guys to politicians to grieving families,” Jeff Ham told the Press Herald, where as city editor he worked with Hoey.
August
David Lebel
David Lebel died on Aug. 20 at age 57.
Lebel owned with his wife, Kathy, Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston, one of the sites a gunman targeted in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
David and Kathy were married 37 years, and his wife remembered him as a steadfast and supportive partner with whom they created “a life filled with love.”
“If I was all in, so was he. I was incredibly lucky to have him choose me to be his wife,” Kathy Lebel wrote in a post announcing his death.
The Lebels had planned to reopen Schemengees, though at a different location. (Just-In-Time Recreation, which also was targeted in the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shooting, reopened in May 2024.) It’s unclear how plans to reopen will be affected by David Lebel’s death.
The former location of Schemengees is finding new life as a warming center and food pantry. Kaydenz Kitchen is repurposing the building and began moving in earlier this month. It was scheduled to open on Nov. 15.
November
Michael Aube
Michael Aube died on Nov. 29 at age 74.
Aube was born in Biddeford and raised in Saco, but his impact in Bangor will be felt for years to come.
He graduated in 1972 from Boston College, where he met his future wife, Marian Loughlin. He went on to work for the offices of U.S. Sens. Ed Muskie and George Mitchell and Maine Gov. John McKernan.
Then, in 1981, he accepted a position at the Eastern Maine Development Corp., where he served as president and CEO from 1981 to 1992 and again from 2009 to 2018, when he retired. Beyond that, he served as state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program in Maine from 2001 to 2009, as well as commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development and as a member of the state board of education.
Aube’s passion for economic development served Bangor well. He was a key figure in the creation of the Cross Insurance Center and the revitalization of the waterfront.
In 2019, the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce awarded Aube the Norbert X. Dowd Award, the chamber’s lifetime achievement award.
He served two terms on the Bangor City Council in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including a stint as “mayor.”
Sen. Joe Baldacci, who served on the City Council with Aube, told the BDN in December that Aube was a “smart and steady voice” and he treated everyone “fairly and respectfully.”
December
L. Sandy Maisel
L. Sandy Maisel died on Dec. 9 at age 79.
Maisel taught political science at Colby College in Waterville, where he maintained a visible public presence, in contrast with many other academics.
Maisel came to Maine via Buffalo, New York, to work for Democrat Bill Hathaway’s 1972 U.S. Senate campaign, in which he successfully ousted Republican Margaret Chase Smith. Maisel’s own bid for Maine’s 1st Congressional District wasn’t as successful. In 1978, he finished last among four candidates in the Democratic primary.
His arrival in Maine coincided with a job offer from Colby College, where Maisel originally envisioned just spending three years. He ultimately spent more than 50 years there.
He went to Harvard University and went on to earn a doctorate from Columbia University.
David Mallett
David Mallett died on Dec. 17 at age 73.
Mallett was a legendary singer-songwriter born in Dover-Foxcroft. A multitude of artists performed his songs, including Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, and Pete Seeger.
After dropping out of the University of Maine in Orono after a year, Mallett began writing songs and performing in cafes and bars. He was eventually discovered by Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. Stookey helped Mallett record his first album in 1978. Mallett went on to record 16 albums until his last in 2016.
Mallett even opened for Johnny Cash when he performed in Bangor.
Mallett went on to spend a decade living in Nashville until he inherited the family farm in Sebec in the early 1990s. He came back home to Maine, where he lived until his death.
His musical legacy lives on in his sons Luke and Will, who formed the Mallett Brothers Band in 2009.
Francis Rist
Francis “Skip” Rist died on Dec. 22 at age 87.
Rist, who was born on Sept. 24, 1937, was well-known throughout Bangor for his signature creation — the Coffee Pot sandwich.
That sandwich was a staple at the Coffee Pot on State Street, a shop Rist’s father opened in 1921. Rist began working there at age 13. It was a “job he thoroughly enjoyed” right up to his retirement in 2009 at age 72, according to his obituary.
His creation is often imitated (and in the past, fought over), featuring ham, salami and cheese, along with white onion, green pepper, tomato, pickles, red pepper flakes and oil for toppings.
Rist’s impact on the community could be seen by all on his last day at the Coffee Pot, when customers lined up outside in 19-degree weather for one last order.
As Warren Zevon said, enjoy every sandwich.
Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin died on Dec. 29 at age 87.
Though associated more with Broadway and showbiz than Maine, Lavin was born in Portland, giving her Pine Tree State roots.
She moved to New York City after graduating from William and Mary College. There she sang in nightclubs and ensembles before getting her big break in the Broadway musical “It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman.”
Lavin would go on, in 1987, to win a Tony award for her performance in Neil Simon’s play “Broadway Bound.”
But she is most well-known for her role of Alice Hyatt in the CBS sitcom “Alice,” which ran from 1975 to 1986. Lavin became a model for working-class mothers, and the show popularized the phrase “Kiss my grits!”
Lavin was working right up until the end; in December, she was promoting the Netflix show “No Good Deed,” in which she appears, and filming the Hulu series “Mid-Century Modern.”
