The Bath city council inducted the first two members into the Bath Century Club, recognizing Bath residents who are 100 years old or older, on Wednesday.
Segundo Dumas, born July 16, 1921, and Barbara Thompson, born July 11, 1921, received plaques to mark their entrance into the club.
Segundo Dumas was born in Puerto Rico, the youngest of 12 children. He moved to New York City to live with his older sister when he was 14 years old after his parents died.
“My father died when I was four and my mother died when I was seven,” said Segundo Dumas. “I traveled to New York — $10 by boat.”
Segundo Dumas is the second member of Bath’s Century Club, recognizing residents who are 100 years old or old. He was inducted into the club on Wednesday. Kathleen O’Brien / The Times Record
At 20, he enlisted in the Army Air Force to serve in World War II and was sent to Sicily, then France. He said he was meant to be a medic, “but no one got wounded for him to take care of,” said his daughter, Rose Dumas.
After returning from the war in 1945, he moved back to Brooklyn, New York where he worked in a machine shop and construction. He married a woman named Pilar and started a family. Together, they had four children.
Though he served in the war and wears his “World War II Veteran” hat with pride, Segundo Dumas said he is proudest of “raising my kids and taking care of my wife.”
“I had two jobs to support my four kids,” said Segundo Dumas.
His family soon expanded and today, he has 14 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren, and two great great children, scattered across the country. He now lives in Bath with his youngest daughter.
Looking back on a life full of service to his county, hard work, and loving his large family, he said the key to a long life is “the love of a good woman for 65 years.”
In 2012, “she died in my arms,” he said. “I thank God for her every day.”
Barbara Thompson, the Century Club’s second inductee, was born in Durham and lived most of her life in Freeport before moving to Bath to live with her daughter, Linda Thompson, in October 2020.
Barbara Thompson of Bath, who turns 100 on July 11, holds her plaque recognizing her induction to the Bath Century Club. Kathleen O’Brien / The Times Record
She met her future husband in high school and the two, who lived in the same neighborhood, would spend time together after school every day. According to Lisa Thompson, her father wasn’t doing well in one of his classes, and the school principal, who also lived in the same neighborhood, suggested it was because he was spending too much time with his future wife.
“My dad yodeled and he’d yodel all the way home, so the principal knew it was him,” said Lisa Thompson. “The whole neighborhood could hear him walking home.”
After the pair eloped when they were just 18 and 21 years old, they raised their three children in Freeport.
Barbara Thompson’s claim to fame is being L.L. Bean’s third telephone operator “back when they only had three telephone operators,” said Linda Thompson. She worked for the company from the ages of 44 to 76.
She even had dinner at the home of Leon Leonwood Bean, the company’s founder.
“We had fish chowder,” she said.
When she wasn’t manning the phone at L.L. Bean, she was serving as deaconess and superintendent of Sunday school at First Parish Church in Freeport.
Though parts of Barbara Thompson’s memory are failing now, Lisa Thompson said her childhood with her mother is full of “too many good memories to count.” Those memories include annual summer trips to Sebago Lake State Park, hikes up Bald Mountain, and spending time at a family camp at Lake Moxie.
Today, Barbara Thompson has three grandchildren and one great grandchild.
In her free time, she said she enjoys reading and keeping in touch with a childhood friend who now lives in California and is also 100 years old. She goes to church every Sunday, and gets her hair done just as religiously.
She said she doesn’t have any secret to living a long life other than “having good genes,” referencing a cousin that lived to be 101.
Councilor Phyllis Bailey created the Century Club after members of Segundo Dumas’ family reached out to her with the idea. She said she “thought it was a great idea to recognize those Bath adults whose lives have spanned 100 years or more,” and her fellow councilors agreed. Thus, the club was born.
“It’s to honor the achievement of reaching that age and making the contributions they have throughout their life,” said Bailey.
Though they’re thought to be most at risk for developing complications from COVID-19, Bailey said she found the oldest generation seemed to handle the COVID-19 pandemic best because they’ve dealt with hardship before. Because of this, Bailey said she believe those oldest members of the community who have lived through wars, the Great Depression, and an economic collapse, can teach us something about doing what’s necessary to persevere through challenges.
“The oldest generation actually did very well during the pandemic because they have this extended view of history,” said Bailey. “They know you do survive things. They were doing the things they needed to do to keep themselves well and were generally pretty optimistic.”
City officials didn’t know how many Bath residents are 100 years old or older on Friday. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 217 of Bath’s 8,319 residents were 85 or older in 2019.
Those interested in joining the club, or nominating a family member, can fill out the short application available at the city clerk’s office in city hall.
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