EAST MACHIAS, Maine — Ruth Leubecker just can’t seem to retire.
The 73-year-old East Machias native returned to the area 23 years ago, at age 51, intending to write a novel.
But so far that hasn’t happened. In addition to writing for the local weekly newspaper, the Machias Valley News Observer, she serves on the board of the Eastern Area Agency on Aging.
“Retirement doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me,” said Leubecker, who enjoyed a 28-year career in journalism in Maryland and five years in Singapore.
Leubecker, who was born in Machias and raised in East Machias, left the area at age 16 when she got married. The couple settled in Maryland, where her now ex-husband eventually became the head of the Maryland State Park System.
When her two sons, Jeff and Scott, now grown, started grade school, she enrolled in the journalism program at the University of Maryland, getting an internship with the Wall Street Journal before she graduated.
“I’d written for a paper since I was 9 years old. That’s all I ever wanted to do,” she said, adding her first newspaper article, titled “Easter Parade,” was published in the Portland Press Herald.
“I received $1 and, bitten by the bug, wrote several after that but didn’t always win the dollar,” she quipped.
Her first story in the Machias Valley News Observer was published when she was 13, she said.
After graduating college, she went on to work for other newspapers in Maryland, eventually becoming executive editor of the Daily Record in Baltimore, where she was the only woman, she said. It was there she tried coffee for the first time. She said a 68-year-old male secretary just assumed she would want coffee and brought her some. She was surprised to find she liked it, she said.
Leubecker went on to become public information officer for Maryland’s Gov. William Donald Schaefer before health problems brought her back to Maine, she said.
Then Joyce Holland, who sold advertising for the local weekly, asked Leubecker if she would come back to journalism. Leubecker at first declined, but Holland persisted for two years until she relented.
Among the highlights of her reporting for the local paper, she remembered covering the Machias School Department in the mid-1990s, when mold was found in the walls of the high school.
“I kept writing/publishing stories of worsening health issues,” she said. “Several students and teachers suffered permanent breathing problems. … This … eventually made all the networks. But we broke it first right here.”
From 2006 to 2008, Leubecker served as president of the Downeast Community Hospital Auxiliary. Under her tenure, the hospital gift shop opened, she said.
In 2006, she was the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Employee of the Year, which called her “everybody’s employee” for all she does publicizing people, events and issues in the Machias area.
About 10 years ago, she said, former state Sen. Harry Vose recruited her for the board of the Eastern Area Agency on Aging.
“We’re very activist,” she said. “We brought more attention to deficits here in Washington County, and we made people more aware of the needs here.”
EAAA Executive Director Noelle Merrill said Leubecker has been an asset to the board of the organization, which serves Hancock, Washington, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.
Leubecker found a meal site — where those in need can go for a free meal — for the EAAA to establish in Machias and, when that site didn’t work out, she found another one at the Centre Street Congregational Church, Merrill said.
“She’s really done quite a lot to make us more of a household name,” Merrill said. “She doesn’t let us forget about Washington County.”
“This four-county agency now has a more viable Washington County presence,” Leubecker said, “and I’m proud of that.”
Despite her accomplishments, issues remain in Leubecker’s mind. For example, she pointed out that transportation problems prevent the meal site from being used by everyone in need.
“It would be more well-attended if we could figure out a way to get more people there,” she said. “We are convinced there’s more people hungry, but we don’t know how to get them there.”
Leubecker said being a single, older woman has given her insight into the issues faced by those the EAAA serves. She lives next door to her sister, Margaret. Her two brothers, John and George, have summer places nearby. But not all single, older women have family to help with things such as minor repairs and hauling wood or wood pellets for heating. Many don’t have the money to pay for everything they need.
Leubecker said she would like to find someone to take her place on the EAAA board, but she wants to find a good representative from Washington County. So far, she has had no luck.
She’s also not ready to leave the newspaper.
“I believe so strongly in community journalism, its role as a community player and a unique vehicle for two-way conversation,” she said.
The novel will just have to wait.