ELLSWORTH – Robert Wilder Hamblen Sr., 72, died peacefully Oct. 15, 2011, in the loving care of his daughter, Victoria Minutolo; his dear companion, Suellen Speed; and the palliative care staff at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital. Bob’s dry wit and wry humor will be sorely missed by his family and all who knew him. The son of Wilder Stanley and Doris Audrey (Meader) Hamblen, he was born Feb. 17, 1939, in Manset, and grew up in Northeast Harbor, where his father was a butcher and his mother a telephone operator.
He had many fond memories of life on Mount Desert Island in the 1940s and 1950s when doctors still made house calls and uniformed servants came up from New York and Philadelphia with the “summer people.” In those years the rivalry among the towns’ high school basketball teams was an intense and central aspect of life. Driving was Bob’s lifelong love; his vocation and avocation. While still in high school he drove the Northeast Harbor Volunteer Fire Department’s ambulance to Boston and he chauffeured an elderly Northeast Harbor “summer lady” around Mount Desert Island in the summer and back to Rye, N.Y., in the fall. As an adult he loved to spend a Sunday afternoon driving the Golden Road in Northern Maine. When his children were in school he frequently volunteered to drive the bus for school and Scout groups to attend events as far away as Florida. “Let’s take a drive,” was Bob’s favorite phrase. In 1957 he graduated from Mount Desert High School and shortly after went to work for Billings and Hamblen Construction Co. working out of Southwest Harbor, where he met and married Eleanor Fortenberry, from whom he was divorced in 1987. Together they had three children and lived in Stamford, Conn., where he drove for Trailways Bus Co., and Baton Rouge, La., where he worked for BASF Wyndotte Corp., before returning to Northeast Harbor in 1972 to work for the town of Mount Desert for more than 10 years as the superintendent of the highway department. In the following years before his retirement he held a number of jobs driving for companies in Maine and Florida.
Bob leaves behind many cousins, nieces and nephews; and his sister and brother-in-law, Judith and Richard Reynolds of Owls Head. He will be especially missed by his children and their spouses, Dodie Hamblen and Gerry Lax of Pennington, N.J., Victoria (Hamblen) and Joe Minutolo of Bar Harbor and Robert W. Jr. and Satomi Hamblen of Pacifica, Calif.; his three grandsons, Jesse Lax, Joey Minutolo and Will Hamblen; and his very special friend, Suellen Speed of Ellsworth.
A celebration of Bob’s life will be held 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at Seawall Picnic Area, Manset. As Bob would drive quite a distance for a good church supper, a potluck will begin 12:30 p.m. at the Minutolo’s home, 32 Blueberry Hill, Bar Harbor. Contributions in Bob’s memory may be made to Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County, 14 MacKenzie Ave., Ellsworth, ME 04605. A service of Brookings-Smith, Bangor.