HALL QUARRY – Crosby Greening Mills died peacefully Oct. 26, 2007, sitting in his favorite “Red Sox watching chair” at his home. He was born a Thanksgiving baby, Nov. 27, 1920, to Marion and Jesse Mills, on Clark Point Road, Southwest Harbor. Crosby graduated from Pemetic High School in 1940, where his team played the first basketball game at the then new gym. An outstanding athlete, he excelled at all sports, especially baseball. He was pitcher of renown, who played in the old Eastern Maine semi-pro leagues in the ’40s and ’50s. While stationed in Hawaii, during World War II, he reached a high point in his baseball career; he was chosen to pitch three innings in an Army All-Star game that included many major league players, including Ted Williams, who, he would always add, “did not get a hit off of me!” He was offered an opportunity to try out for the Phillies, but eventually decided to stay in Southwest Harbor and live on his beloved Mount Desert Island. Crosby married Esther Rees in 1941. Years later the marriage ended in divorce. Their children are Sonia Mills Field of Southwest Harbor and Dalen Crosby Mills of Southwest Harbor and Port Orange, Fla. Crosby worked for the JN Mills Oil Co., until Jesse, his father, retired in the mid-60s. At this time, Crosby became owner and continued to run the company with his son, Dalen, until 1985. Upon Crosby’s retirement Dalen bought the family business. In 1964, he married his beloved wife, Louise Phippen Hebron. Their daughter is Michelle Mills Solomon of Portland. Crosby was an active member of his community. A volunteer fireman, he told exciting stories of fighting the Great Bar Harbor Fire of 1947. He taught Sunday school at the Southwest Harbor Congregational Church and was a Scoutmaster for years, annually busing his Explorer Troop to Baxter Park to amp and hike on Mount Katahdin. Crosby coached both Little League and Pony League, and is remembered fondly by many of his players. In 1960 his Pony League team, anchored by the pitching and hitting of his son, Dalen, won the Hancock County Championship. For years, he and his dear friend and classmate, the late Fred Berry, umpired local high school baseball in Hancock County. In the late ’40s and early ’50s, Crosby played trumpet with Jitterbug Les White and The Coasters, a local dance band that played at Hancock and Waldo County dance halls, and many a junior and senior prom. In the 1950s, Crosby, an accomplished swim-mer and diver, entered the relatively unknown world of scuba diving. That led him to a second career. Word spread along coastal Maine, of a Southwest Harbor man who could recover lost objects and do underwater repairs; Crosby’s phone began to ring. Weir owners wanted him to tie down and mend their nets. His story of recovering a sunken barge at 20 below off Bartlett’s Island Narrows is compelling. He was flown all over Maine, to look for and recover drowning victims. In fact, his diving stories have captivated children and adults for years. Family and friends will always remember Crosby’s claim that he and his late friend, Bowen Marshall, dived, not jumped, “that was too dangerous” off the west end of the Bucksport Bridge. As a boy, he was known for diving off the cross-trees of the big sailing vessels that brought coal to his fathers wharf on Clark Point. But, as a teenager, did he really go off the old Bucksport Bridge? Perhaps? His passion for high school basketballs was legendary. He was a fixture at Mount Desert Island girls and boys basketball games, always sitting on “his” seat in the gym, next to his friend and classmate, Les Thurston. Crosby loved and appreciated his children and their partners. His five grandchildren, Chris and Jesse Field, Lincoln Mills and Danielle Piquette Kelly and four-year-old, Paul Greening Solomon, brought him great joy. “Grampa Cros” looked for-ward to their visits. The sadness of his passing is eased by the knowledge that the family origin on Greening’s Island is remembered in yet another generation and that another boy will carry the unique name of Crosby; several weeks ago, he held his first great-grand-son, Christian Crosby Field. A funeral service will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, at Tremont Congregational Church. Friends are invited to gather with the family after the service in the parish house. Those who wish may honor Crosby with a donation to the Youth Ministry of Tremont Congregational Church, in care of Carole Farley, P.O. Box 6, Bernard, ME 04612. Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mount Desert. Condolences may be expressed online at www.jordanfernald.com
CROSBY GREENING MILLS
