Alan Crosby Pease, a former judge, hot dog stand owner, and active alumni of the University of Maine, died on Sept. 2 at the age of 95.
Pease was born to Harvey Roscoe Pease and Grace Crosby Pease on Oct. 11, 1930, on Water Street in Wiscasset. He attended elementary and middle school in Wiscasset and then Lincoln Academy.
To make money for college, Alan Pease had a “little trailer” he sold hot dogs in, according to his son, Daniel Pease. Alan Pease would take it to fairs and community baseball games.
At 19 years old, Alan Pease purchased a hot dog stand called The Little Trailer in Wiscasset from Stan and Velma Dodge. After switching hands a couple more times, it would go on to be known as Red’s Eats food stand.
Pease named the stand Al’s Eats and ran it singlehandedly seven nights a week, according to a history of Red’s Eats written by Virginia Wright and Deborah Gagnon. Daniel Pease said the operation was seasonal.
“They often talked about being open into the wee hours Saturday nights because the dance halls would get out and there was nothing else open,” Daniel Pease said. “So they had quite a business there on the Main Street in Wiscasset after midnight.”
In 1956, when Pease entered his last year of law school at the Boston University School of Law, he sold the stand to Frank Hammond.
Gagnon, who operates Red’s Eats, said she came to know Pease through exchanging letters about the stand. While operating the business, Pease created the “Sturdley,” a grilled hot dog with melted cheese, which remains on the Red’s Eats menu to this day.
“Alan wrote a letter to me congratulating us on Red’s Eats success and how happy it made him to see that the Sturdley was still on the menu,” Gagnon said in an email interview. “Alan named the grilled hot dog with melted cheese after a 1950s radio character, Sturdley. It’s still a customer favorite.”
Pease attended UMaine in Orono, graduating in 1952, the same year he married fellow graduate Margaret “Marnie” Murray. The couple later received the 2013 Block “M” Award for their leadership in their alumni class group.
University of Maine Alumni Association Director of Alumni Engagement Ashley Twombly said the Peases both felt it was important for the classmates to stay connected and stay engaged.
“I think they just felt like the university made them who they were and they wanted to make sure that they gave back,” Twombly said.
During his time at school, Pease served as class president, co-class president and class correspondent. He also created a website for the class. Twombly worked with him to host an annual reunion when she started her job in 2015.
“He was very kind, very patient,” Twombly said. “He just wanted to help and he understood that anytime that I was busy or that I just needed to take my time, he was just very gentle.”
After graduating, Pease enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia as a first lieutenant. Because of his experience at Al’s Eats, he oversaw the base commissary, an equipment and food supply store, and instructed other soldiers in military law.
“He had trouble telling right from left,” Daniel Pease said. “And that got him into some trouble, apparently, when he was leading some practice maneuvers at Fort Benning, and he would take his troop to the wrong place, and that didn’t work out too well. He claims that was why he didn’t get sent overseas.”
Alan Pease attended the Boston University School of Law, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1957. While he was living in Boston, his daughter Kathryn Pease was born.
With his degree, he moved back to Wiscasset, where he started a legal practice and began serving on the newly established Wiscasset School District. His son, Daniel Pease, was born while they were living in Wiscasset.
The school district was established to take out loans to construct new buildings, according to a report written by Alan Pease at the time. Once the buildings were constructed, Pease resigned from the position.
“The people of Wiscasset have never ceased to do their part and this will be reflected in generations to come,” Pease said in the town report from 1973, his final year in the position.
In 1977, Pease began serving as a member of the Wiscasset Select Board. He stepped down in 1978 after being appointed to the Maine District Court as deputy chief judge and later chief judge.
Pease said at a December 1978 meeting of law enforcement officials he intended to be “tough but fair.”
John Atwood, who was the assistant attorney general at the time Pease sat as judge, said this was a fair assessment.
“Alan Pease was highly knowledgeable in the law,” Atwood said. “He kept up with all the research and trends and publications. He was always fair to all concerned, he didn’t have any favorites.”
Atwood said that Pease was widely admired at the time and was known to treat a case with the “dignity and gravity it deserved.” During the Vietnam War, many judges would offer defendants the choice of joining the military or going to jail, which Pease refused to do, instead treating them as “normal cases,” according to Atwood.
“He was everybody’s ideal of a judge,” Atwood said. “I never saw him lose his temper, although he certainly had cause from time to time.”
Former Maine District Court Judge Geoffrey Rushlau first saw Pease serve as a judge when he was a third-year law student at the prosecutor’s office. On first impression he said he thought Alan Pease was “composed” and “comfortable” on the bench. After finishing law school and witnessing more judges, Rushlau said his vision of Pease as an “excellent district court judge” was confirmed.
“He was extremely well organized,” Rushlau said. “He came to work early and stayed until all the work was done. He did not waste any time whatsoever as far as I can tell. His decisions were always very clear.”
During Pease’s time as judge, there was an unlimited possibility for “trial de novo,” according to Pierce Hasler wrote for the Maine Law Review. If a person was convicted at the district level, that person could appeal the decision to a superior court and have a new trial.
“It meant decisions by district court judges in some respect were like a practice round in golf or something like that,” Rushlau said. “I think it was probably difficult for a judge to do their job when they recognized that it might have very little significance, but I only ever saw him be perfectly respectful of the law in the process.”
The process was eliminated in the 1980s.
Rushlau said that Pease also did not tolerate alcohol consumption as an excuse for behavior during cases and his demeanor during those cases ensured it was treated in a serious manner.
Since the first Apple technology was released, Pease was interested in technology, Daniel Pease said.
“He was a source for us for years,” Daniel Pease said. “If we ever had a question about how to do something with the computer, he was the go-to guy.”
Alan Pease was the first chair of the Maine Court Technology Task Force, where he helped computerize the district court system. He taught adult education classes on computer science and maintained websites for several area nonprofits, Daniel Pease said.
Alan Pease also enjoyed woodworking and electronic building kits. Daniel Pease worked on several with him, he said. “I can’t think of any time he wasn’t helpful and encouraging,” Daniel Pease said.
Alan Pease retired in 1990 and moved with his wife to St. George and later to Camden, where Daniel Pease said they were able to be close to their four grandchildren. Margaret Pease died in 2021.
This story appears through a media partnership with The Lincoln County News.