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The one constant in this world is change. Even when some things seem unchanging.
It hit me over the past two weeks with the announced retirements of two well-known Mainers.
One was Bill Nemitz, the four-decade columnist for the Maine Today newspapers. It hit home when my oldest son walked out the door to his first tee-ball practice.
Nemitz was my little league coach many years ago. Now, I was an awful baseball player, but I remember then-Coach Nemitz working with me on fundamentals to try to make me better.
Fast forward to 2011. It was surreal to talk with my then-boss — the newly-inaugurated Gov. Paul LePage — about sending a glossy picture and darts to my old baseball coach. Maine’s a small town, but even that seemed a bit of a reach.
Then I went off to Afghanistan. Nemitz came in country while I was there to continue his tradition of phenomenal stories about the Maine National Guard’s overseas deployments. My base was a bit far from the places he was visiting, so we never got a chance to connect. But we did exchange a few emails and I was glad when he made it home safely.
All that said, we’ve supposedly seen the last-ever Bill Nemitz column. It doesn’t make sense. After all, he’s a young guy. It was just a few years ago that he was teaching me how to bunt. Wasn’t he?
The other headline maker heading out to his next chapter is Dana Connors. He took over as leader of the Maine State Chamber in 1994. That’s like 10 years ago, right?
One thing everyone knows about Connors? He is probably one of the most impeccably dressed men in the entire state.
Prior to the Chamber, he spent 11 years leading the Maine Department of Transportation in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Pretty much everyone with any ancillary connection to Maine business or Maine politics crossed paths with Connors. And while policy debates could often get heated, Connors would not let them become personal.
If you ever wanted to pick up a great piece of writing about the issues of the day in Maine, for the past four decades, a Nemitz column would have been a good place to start. You might not agree with it. You might even groan a couple times. But entertaining thoughts with which you do not agree is the sign of a healthy intellect.
Similarly, if you wanted to hear what were likely to be the next two or three major policy debates in the near future, Connors would have been a great place to start at any point in the past three decades. If he told you that we were going to have massive fights about energy policy because prices were going to spike, you might not like it. But he wouldn’t be wrong.
These two individuals have earned their rest and respite in their respective next chapters. Our time on this Earth is finite. And, in keeping with springtime, their departures will give way to new growth and new voices in their stead.
But if you are reading this and you are in your 40s or 50s, the vast majority of your adult life has known a Bill Nemitz byline in the Portland papers and Dana Connors speaking for the Maine State Chamber. That is changing.
Change can be frightening. That is true whether it is people or policy. But change isn’t inherently bad; we can welcome whatever comes next.
Yet we can – and should – take a moment to recognize moments of change in Maine institutions. So here’s to Dana Connors and Bill Nemitz on their well-deserved retirements. Thank you for the roles you have played, and good luck from here on out.
