ARNOLD CLAYTON POMROY

HANCOCK – Arnold Clayton Pomroy, 93, died peacefully June 11, 2009. He was born Sept. 5, 1915, in his grandfather’s farmhouse at the end of what is now known as Pomroy Road, Hancock, the son of Calvin L. and Eliza (Wheelden) Pomroy. He was so ill with asthma as a child that he missed a great deal of school, but he became the first member of his family to graduate high school. He attended Hancock High School for two years and then continued at Ellsworth High School, graduating in 1934. After graduation Clayton enrolled at Eastern Maine Normal School, EMNS, later known as Castine Normal School and now the site of Maine Maritime Academy. He worked his way through EMNS by joining President Roosevelt’s NYA, National Youth Association, earning 25 cents an hour shoveling snow, painting street signs for the town of Castine and learning to cane chairs, yet he found time to play baseball and attend all the dances. He had to leave EMNS after two years to teach in order to earn enough money to continue. He then returned for the third year of the program, graduating in 1938. He later attended Washington State Teachers College, Machias, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1958, after just one semester. The Maine Department of Education had waived the student teaching requirement because Clayton had already been teaching so many years. He taught in Orneville, Weld, Waltham, Steuben, Sorrento and Hancock, teaching all subjects to as many as all eight grades in one and two-room schools, while simultaneously serving as school principal. He ended his 35-year teaching career by returning to his favorite subject, mathematics, as a junior high teacher in Ellsworth. Clayton’s teaching career was interrupted by World War II. He first worked as a civilian in a machine gun manufacturing plant in Connecticut and then entered the U.S. Navy. His assignment was to teach college level math to naval personnel studying electronics in order to operate and maintain radar and sonar equipment. He was humble because he never saw combat but also proud of his contribution to the war effort. After the war, Clayton returned to Hancock and married the former Phyllis A. Clarke. They had one daughter. To support his family he operated an ice business until it was doomed by electric refrigerators. He returned to teaching, but also worked one, if not two jobs, during the summer months. His jobs included being a passenger service representative for Northeast Airlines, the only seasonal employee of the airlines. He was the relief man for one-person operations at Trenton and Rockland airports, as well as an extra duty worker in Bangor and Boston. He would change out of his Northeast Airlines uniform at the end of the day into that of a U.S. Customs Service officer and drive into Bar Harbor to inspect vehicles arriving on the Bluenose international ferry. Clayton also worked one summer for the state of Maine Highway Bridge Department as one of the crew in the early-1950s that placed the metal grids in the Hancock-Sullivan Bridge, making it what became known as the “Singing Bridge.” He played baseball on Hancock’s championship Seacoast League team during the 1940s. Following the end of his teaching career in the 1970s, Clayton studied for his real estate license and subsequently owned and operated Hancock County Real Estate for a decade. During that period, he and his wife began to travel in an RV, with a miscellaneous dog or two, to Florida, Arizona and California. Clayton’s earliest contribution to his home town was dressing up in an Uncle Sam costume his mother had made for him and riding his pony in the 1928 parade marking the town of Hancock’s centennial celebration. Fifty years later during the celebration of Hancock’s sesquicentennial, Clayton acted in a re-enactment of the community’s first town meeting and, with the help of his wife, decorated his old pick-up truck as a float in that celebration’s parade. He also appeared in the Hancock Historical Society film, “A Century of Summers,” recalling the heyday of the Maine Central Railroad passenger train and ferry boat operations along Hancock’s shoreline. His more traditional community service included serving on Hancock’s Planning Board and Finance Committee and volunteering with the American Red Cross. He has long been a Mason and a Shriner. Many knew the bounty of his vegetable gardens and rhubarb patch. Clayton had a great love for fishing, hunting and camping. He and his wife were among the very first to build a camp on Donnell’s Pond, Franklin, the place he called “the next best thing to heaven.” He was the first president of Donnell’s Pond Camp Owners’ Association, often pulling an old grader behind his truck to smooth and maintain the dirt roads. There were many hours of poker, cribbage and storytelling. He was active in Frenchman’s Bay Conservation Club, getting great satisfaction out of raising money to send youngsters to conservation camp. Clayton went about his years of work and community service with quiet pride, integrity, modesty and good humor. He cherished his family, loved the warmth and laughter of friends, old and new, and was devoted to his students. He faced the transition into nursing home care with great courage and character, delighting in being recognized by former students, seeing old friends and knowing that he resided in his beloved Hancock County. Clayton was predeceased by his much-loved wife of 52 years, Phyllis C. Pomroy; his stepdaughter, Carol (Johnston) Junkins; and his sister, Ruth M. Moon. He is survived by his daughter, Anne C. Pomroy of Old Orchard Beach; his stepson and daughter-in-law, Norris W. and Taiko M. Johnston of Ellsworth; three stepgrandchildren, many nieces and nephews. Calling hours will be held 4-6 p.m. Monday, June 15, at Jordan-Fernald, 113 Franklin St., Ellsworth, with a Masonic service 6 p.m. A funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 16, at Union Congregational Church, Hancock. Interment will be at Riverside Cemetery, Hancock. Contributions in Clayton’s memory may be made to Hancock Grammar School, care of Children’s Library, P.O. Box 37, Hancock, ME 04640. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.