Sept. 28, 1983

The AJ called Edward Pennell Brooks (1895-1991) the most famous Westbrook man ever forgotten. Brooks was born in Westbrook. He spent the summers of his youth at his uncle’s cottage, the first ever built on Prouts Neck. As a grocery boy at the Newcomb Store there, he was sent to deliver some groceries to the beach house of Winslow Homer, the artist. When he handed Homer the groceries, Homer flipped him a

quarter and told him not to spend it on anything stronger than

peanuts. In the next 70 years he didn’t spend much time in Westbrook. He lived his adult life in Boston, Washington, China, Burma and India. He was the first Westbrook High School graduate (’13) after Joe Warren to graduate from Massachuestts Institute of Technology (’17). He won the Distinguished Service Cross while serving as a U.S. Army lieutenant with the 1st Engineer Regiment in France. He joined industry and rocketed to the position of director of Sears, Roebuck & Co. during the company’s great expansion;

won the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the United States gives to civilians for his service in 1945 as vice deputy in charge of the American Mission to the Chinese War Production Board under the Chiang Kai Shek government; became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts

and Sciences; and founded MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In May 1983, a building at MIT – the Edward Pennell Brooks Center – was dedicated in his honor, and a garden at MIT was named the Carol Wright Brooks Garden in memory of his wife, who died in 1971.

Gorham police notes: Vandals smashed the front and back sides of Leslie Libby’s mailbox. Constance Fogg’s car got stuck near North Street Church and the Rev. Robert Dorr called police to get help. Kids on the roof of Village School were looking for a tennis ball. Howard Hoffman’s 17-foot canoe with life jackets and paddles was stolen from his back yard on the North Gorham Road. Value, $929. Several of the neighbor’s cows broke through a fence and damaged Jim and Shirley Turgeon’s garden on the McLellan Road. A man called a

Longfellow Road resident and asked for “Chico.” She told him there was nobody there by that name. He called again and insisted on speaking with Chico, and when she repeated that there was no Chico there, he burst into a flood of obscenities.

Sept. 29, 1993

Aldermen voted to ask Westbrook voters whether

to tear down the old high school. Voters will choose between these: the Westbrook City Council should continue to maintain the old (Junior) High School, 765 Main St., in its present condition for potential future restoration and or renovation: or, the Westbrook City Council should authorize the demolition of the part of the old (Junior) High School, at 765 Main St., that is vacant. The Council calls it an advisory referendum, and City Solicitor Michael Cooper said that if a majority votes for demolition they won’t be saying when it should actually happen. The vote for the referendum was 4-1, with

Don Richards opposed and Peter Adams and Lionel Dumond absent. Council sentiment seems to favor keeping the building.

According to the Heritage Foundation, in 1940, teachers named the top problems in the public schools as talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise and running in the halls. In 1990, teachers named the top problems as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide and rape.

Elmer Dodge has resigned from the Gorham School Committee at age 87, for health reasons. When elected at age 85, he was said to be the second oldest person ever elected to any office in Maine. He is a Gorham School Committee veteran in another sense. He served on the committee in 1958-1966 and 1970-1972, including three years as chairman.

George Oenslager, a man nobody in Westbrook seems to remember, made out his will in 1953 and named the Walker Memorial Library to receive part of his estate. This month the library got word of his will and his bequest of $25,472.02. The welcome word came from the Old Phoenix National Bank, Medina, Ohio. Oenslager’s money stayed in trust until

his wife, Ruth, died last year. She was 99. Oenslager was thought to be born in Westbrook in 1892 or 1893.

The City Council decided on first reading Monday to pay the next Westbrook city clerk $25,000 a year. The vote was 5-0, with Peter Adams and Lionel Dumond absent. William O’Gara, front-runner for the job, bristled at criticism that $25,000 is full time pay, but he would be a part-time clerk since he is in the Legislature. O’Gara said he won’t run for state representative again if he wins the clerk’s job and won’t serve in the second session next year if the City Council doesn’t

want him to. William Clarke, 38-year clerk, who is retiring, is being paid at the rate of $30,829 a year.