GUSTAF ANDREW KARLSON

BAR HARBOR – On Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 2007, another of our greatest generation, Gustaf Andrew Karlson, departed this earthly realm. Almost 98, he spent his last years hiking through Acadia National Park’s beauty, while living in Bar Harbor, near his daughter and son-in-law. Also known as Andy or Gus, he was born Jan. 25, 1910, in Worcester, Mass. At home, he spoke the language of his parents, who had emigrated from Sweden, but he quickly learned English in first grade. During his boyhood, he acquired his lifelong love of nature by exploring the woods and hills surrounding Worcester, Mass., where he hunted, trapped and fished. In addition to tending the family vegetable garden, he apprenticed with master English gardeners at several local estates. Andy went on to earn his Bachelor of Science in horticulture at the University of Massachusetts in 1933. While enrolled there, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha, rode cavalry horses in the ROTC program and most importantly, met his wife, Myrtle “Wendy” Stebbins Gary. At the time of their graduation, the Great Depression was at its worst. Because of his reputation in the Worcester, Mass., community as a hard worker, Andy was the first in his graduating class to secure employment. That fall, he began a long career teaching agricultural sciences at Worcester’s North High School. There is not a student or fellow teacher who could possibly forget Mr. Karlson teaching in the classroom or taking the ski club to the slopes of Vermont and New Hampshire. He was a member of the Worcester County Teachers’ Association, for which he served as both a president and a board member. After school hours and in the summer, Andy ran landscape and nursery businesses. He provided years of valuable consultation to the Worcester Horticultural Society and the area’s garden clubs, nurseries, landscapers, farms and orchards. When not working, he delighted in time with his family and many friends. His annual fly-fishing trips with boyhood friends were among his greatest joys. Pearl Harbor Day led Andy to join the U.S. Navy. Following officer’s training at Princeton University, he was stationed in Devon, England, with the British Navy. On D-Day, he commanded a fleet of 14 rocket ships at Utah Beach. He and his men fired countless rockets at the German fortifications to help clear the way for the allied troops to land. He conducted similar operations in the invasions of southern France. World War II did not prepare Andy for the devastation he faced in June 1953, when the Worcester tornado destroyed the family home in Holden, Mass. Two of his five children were critically injured, but miraculously survived. He and Wendy rebuilt their family home from rubble, cared for their children and remained forever grateful to the American Red Cross and medical professionals who helped them. In the ’50s, Andy built the family’s summer cottage and eventual retirement home on Nauset Inlet, Cape Cod, Mass. He and Wendy later wintered in the Florida Keys and Vero Beach, Fla. In October 1990, Andy lost Wendy, his beloved wife of 57 years. Determined to find a new purpose in life, he returned to his love of hiking mountains. In addition to the peaks of New England, he ventured into the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Rockies in Canada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, the Sierra Nevada Range and the Olympics of Washington. In Europe, he climbed in England’s Lake District, Wales’ Mount Snowdon, Norway’s Galdhoppigen and the French, Swiss, Italian, German and Austrian Alps. In Nepal, at age 86, he climbed in the Himalayan foothills, rode upon elephants and saw Bengal tigers in the wild. In his final years, Andy climbed most of the peaks of Mount Desert Island, as well as those of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He leaves these wonderful memories and his great love for his five children and their spouses, Andrew Gary Karlson and Barbara Oroza of Patchogue, N.Y., Peter Gustaf Karlson and Danielle de Benedictis of Milton, Mass.; Michael Stebbins Karlson and Jane King of Nantucket, Mass.; D. Jeffrey Karlson and Trisha Daly-Karlson of East Orleans, Mass.; and Donna Mae Karlson and Arthur Greif of Bar Harbor; his 10 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. A memorial service in East Orleans, Mass., is planned for next spring. Contributions in his memory may be made to American Red Cross of Central Massachusetts Disaster Relief Fund.