LAMOINE – Aubrey M. Strout, 88, died April 23, 2012, at home. He was born Nov. 29, 1923, in Charleston, the oldest son of Ralston and Nellie (Robbins) Strout.
Aubrey served in the Navy in World War II on an aircraft carrier, the USS ROI from 1943 to 1946. His most memorable time being the last year he served, sailing back and forth across the Pacific Ocean to bring our Japanese prisoners of war home. He was a Veterans of Foreign Wars member for more than 60 years. He spent the next six years quietly working for Foss Bakery until landing a job supervising a crew building highways for the state of Maine. From 1965 to 1968 he proudly served in local town government as selectman/ town manager for the town of Bradford. The next 14 years he spent working for the U.S. Postal Service. He was a rural carrier for the towns of Bradford and Hudson. Aubrey also served as president of National Rural Carriers Association. Later, he was promoted to postmaster of the town of Hudson, where he retired in 1985, but Aubrey was not ready to retire from the working world altogether. He went on to establish Strout Cedar Homes, Inc., where he built a great number of beautiful homes in the area. In his spare time he tried his hand as a restaurateur, opening a small restaurant called Charlie’s Place, but his community work would not stop there. At 75, not knowing the meaning of retirement, he continued remodeling homes, putting in septic systems and the like. He would then marry a wonderful woman named Joan and settled down in a little log cabin on the coast in Lamoine. In his 80s, he would work in his vegetable garden and tend to numerous animals on their small “farm.” Aubrey’s sense of humor shined through to the very end. When recently asked what his favorite hobbies were, he replied, “Fishing, hunting and watching the ladies.”
In addition to his parents, Aubrey was predeceased by two brothers, Leon “Buddy” Strout and Edgar Strout; and sister, Roberta Acore. Surviving him is his wife, Joan Strout of Lamoine; two sisters, Florence Turner and Thelma Ross; sister-in-law, Dorothy Strout; and daughter, Michele Caitlyn-Strout of Hampden. He also had a very special friend and neighbor through the years, Trudy Sluka of Bangor. Aubrey was a great animal lover, having three special dogs and one independent cat at the time of his death.
Aubrey did not want a funeral, but a celebration of life will take place later this year at a time and place to be announced. He had asked that if you see fit, to send a donation in his name to The Ark Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 276, Cherryfield, ME 04622.