OLD ORCHARD BEACH – Charles E. Burden M.D. passed away at home on the evening of Dec. 26, 2020. He was 87.

Dr. Burden was born in Bath Aug. 25, 1933, the son of Alexander and Evelyn (Redlon) Burden. He attended Bath schools, graduating as valedictorian in the Morse High School class of 1951. He went on to graduate Cum Laude from Yale, got his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, then did pediatric residencies at Boston Childrens’ Hospital and Massachusetts General, before returning to Bath to practice.

During his high school years he worked after school and Saturdays at the Bath Daily Times office and spent summers during high school and college years lobster fishing, for several years in partnership with Eddie True. He also built and operated a wharf at Birch Point where gas, lobsters, and sundries were sold.

He served the Bath area as pediatrician and school physician for 44 years. In 1964 he co-founded with Bill Mussenden the Bath Marine Museum, now Maine Maritime Museum, and served as its director and exhibits curator for its first eight years. Dr. Burden has been a trustee, now trustee emeritus, on the board of Maine Maritime Museum for 53 of the past 56 years and has been the major collector and donor of artifacts and archival material since its inception.

Since that time he has also been on the board of Pejepscot Historical Society where he was instrumental in developing the Skolfield Whittier House into a house museum. He also served on the Maine State Museum Commission and donated collections of Maine stoneware, Maine coin silver, and Maine patent medicines to that institution. He was for several years editor of Keeping Abreast, newsletter of a national baby bottle collectors group.

He has also been on the Collections Committee at Maine Historical Society where he donated a collection of Maine temperance and prohibition documents. He served as chair of the Board of Overseers at Strawbery Banke [sic], where he was instrumental in collecting food and related containers for their World War II period neighborhood grocery store. He has been an active member of the Woolwich Historical Society and the American Folk Art Society.

He served as an officer in the American Academy of Pediatrics at the state and national level, as president of the staff at Bath Memorial Hospital and the Lincoln-Sagadahoc County Medical Society, on committees of the Maine Medical Association, and on the boards of the Bath Custom House and Bath Water District.

He resided over the years in Bath, Woolwich, Dresden and Richmond. At the time of his death he was living in Old Orchard Beach.

He was predeceased by his brothers, Bruce and David. He is survived by his wife, Wendy Blake-Burden; daughter, Heidi (Jesse) of Rockland, and sons, Benjamin (Jill) of Bath, Dan (Heather) of Melbourne, Fla., Chris (Christina) of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Adam (Allison) of Tampa, Fla., and Singapore. He very much enjoyed his 10 grandchildren, Ruby, Alex, Lauren, Isabel, Abigail, Adam, Anne-Marie, Jack, Luke and Grace; and three great-grandchildren, Matilda, Ena, and Ray; as well as his niece, Niobe and nephew, Jeremy and their families.

In accordance to his wishes there will be no funeral, however the family wish is to have a celebration of life to be announced at a later date.

Donations to Maine Maritime Museum in his memory would be much appreciated.

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