CUTLER – Mollie G. Beam of Cutler, a longtime French teacher at Bar Harbor High School and Washington Academy, who took teaching so seriously, and with such enthusiasm, that she was instructing all those within earshot in the words of “La Marseillaise” until the final days of her life, died Feb. 22, 2005. She was 93. She was enthusiastic about teaching French words and phrases to the staff at the nursing care facility in Westbrook where she passed away from complications of pneumonia and influenza. And, despite being blind from macular degeneration and almost totally deaf, she still was plenty alert to make known her insistence on correct English grammar and syntax. Born in Lowell, Mass., she spent summers in Cutler, graduated from Smith College, studied for a year at the Sorbonne University of Paris, and later earned a master degree from the University of Maine. While in Paris, she developed a love for the French culture and language that she satisfied in her years as a teacher by leading the high school French clubs she formed on very popular annual trips to Quebec City. Mollie loved teaching and was known to say of her many students over the years, “…and I liked them all, except one.” When asked who the one was, or why, she would just shrug. “Don’t remember.” That wasn’t the point. As her husband, Buzz, used to marvel, they couldn’t go anywhere without running into former students, who were just as excited to update their lives to her as she was to see them. Her first teaching position was in Island Falls, but she moved closer to Cutler when an opening occurred at Washington Academy in East Machias in the late 1940s, teaching there when her four children were young. In 1955, Mollie joined the faculty in Bar Harbor, remaining there until all of her children had completed high school, returning in 1964 to Washington Academy, where she taught until retirement. Over the years, she taught Latin and English in addition to French, and coached junior speaking and cheerleading. In 1998, the trustees of Washington Academy presented Mollie with their Distinguished Educator Award. She was born May 23, 1911, to Dr. James and Alice Goodwin. Her parents divorced shortly and she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Charles and Mary McEvoy. Predeceased in 2000 by her husband, Albert E. Beam, she is survived by four children, Charles Beam of Naples, Fla., Linda Clapp of Newfields, N.H., Trixie Kelleter of Gouldsboro and Susan Close of Portland; 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A graveside service will be held in Cutler in the spring. Contributions can be made in Mollie’s memory to the charity of the donor’s choice.
MOLLIE G. BEAM
