AUGUSTA – It was a cold winter morning in 1956 when 19-year-old Mary Turner caught a glimpse from her bedroom window of the tall, blonde Coast Guardsman staying with friends next-door to her home in Pine Point. Little did Mary know at that moment what was to come: The two would soon meet, they would fall in love, and they would spend their lives together until Mary’s death in 2015.

The young Coast Guardsman Mary saw from her window was Ron Bugenske, USCG retired, who passed away Dec. 13, 2021, at the VA Hospital in Togus. He was 85.

Ron was born Ronald Paul Bugenske on May 15, 1936, in Saginaw, Mich., to the late Joseph Edward Bugenske and the late Genevieve Elizabeth Bugenske. One of six children, his siblings included a sister and four brothers, three of his brothers predeceasing him, John Gerard Bugenske of Satellite Beach, Fla., Robin Joseph Bugenske of Sagamore Hills, Ohio, and Thomas David Bugenske of St. Charles, Mich.

Ron joined the United States Coast Guard in 1953 and served his 20-year USCG career stationed on a variety of Coast Guard vessels at several East coast locations. He married the love of his life, Mary Dorothea Turner, in April 1957.

One Coast Guard deployment in 1959 took Ron and Mary to Jamestown, R.I., where Ron was the USCG custodian of Beavertail Lighthouse. At the keeper’s residence next to the lighthouse, he and Mary began raising their family, and Beavertail would be their home for the next several years. Following his Beavertail deployment, Ron was stationed on the USCG cutter Point Cypress in Newport, R.I., after which the family returned to Maine and settled in Mary’s hometown of Scarborough.

Maine would be Ron’s adopted home for the rest of his life – he loved the Maine way of life and he adored Mary’s parents, the late Hishe Turner and the late Flo Turner of Pine Point, who loved him as their own son. He had fond memories also of Dora Turner, Mary’s grandmother, who visited Ron and Mary during their Beavertail Lighthouse years, lending the young couple a hand as they became new parents of a growing family.

Ron retired from the Coast Guard in 1973 and spent his first five, post-retirement years with the Scarborough Police Department, enjoying his roles there as Youth Aid Officer and Hunter Safety Instructor. After his departure from the police department, he worked as a private investigator.

Genealogy became one of his favorite pastimes during retirement, in particular tracing the Turner family name back several generations, as well as the genealogy of the d’Anjou family, Flo Turner’s French Canadian ancestors. Ron devoted many hours to these projects and to collecting and archiving photographs from both families.

During their 58 years of marriage, Ron and Mary raised twin daughters and a son; they were devoted parents and later on, devoted grandparents. They both loved animals and always had pets in their home, starting with “Snookie,” a white cat they acquired on their honeymoon in 1957. Through the years that followed, cats and dogs would always be part of their family.

In Ron’s later retirement years, he and Mary moved from Scarborough to the small town of Dexter in central Maine, a rural setting where Mary kept vast gardens of perennials and stocked bird feeders everywhere on their property. The two of them shared interests in camping, fishing, hunting and sailing, and in Dexter they enjoyed caring for yet more animals – chickens, ducks, rabbits and a horse. Their home was a welcoming place where family and friends gathered, and it often served as base camp for fellow hunters during deer and moose hunting seasons.

Ron and Mary made their last home together in Bowdoinham where Ron spent his final years. After Mary’s passing, his constant companion was the black cat “Boo,” the last pet he and Mary owned and loved together.

Despite declining health, Ron remained fiercely independent to the end and was always generous with his love and support of his family. He supported his local community as well, most notably a baseball team at a Bowdoinham elementary school located behind his house. Besides making regular donations to the team, Ron also mowed the grass around the ballfield on his riding mower. Sitting on his mower, he loved watching the local school teams compete.

Ron and Mary were predeceased by a newborn son, Mark Paul Bugenske, born prematurely in 1958.

Ron is survived by his sister, Polly Ann Pabst and her husband Thomas Alan Pabst of Wayzata, Minn., by a brother, Timothy James Bugenske and his wife Lynette Fouch Bugenske of Saginaw, Mich.; by twin daughters, Tamara Mary Bugenske of Saco, and Theresa Marie Bugenske of Old Orchard Beach, by a son, Lloyd Paul Bugenske and his wife Crystal Bugenske of Gray; by six grandchildren, Sarah Bugenske-Pooler of Sabattus, Casey Arrowsmith Pooler of Scarborough, Mary Theresa Martin of Scarborough, Marc Paul Martin and his wife Katelyn of Lyman, Cynthia Jane Bugenske of Gray, and Joseph William Bugenske of Gray; and by two great-grandchildren, Campbell Alexander Faunce and Violet Dorothea Martin.

Ron’s family would like to express its deepest gratitude to the ICU staff and Palliative Care Team at the VA Hospital in Togus for their attentive and respectful care during Ron’s last days.

At Ron’s request no funeral services were held. In the spring, the family will gather to join Ron’s and Mary’s ashes together and scatter them over the marshes of the Scarborough River, which was their wish.

Friends and relatives wishing to honor his memory may make a donation in his name to the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston, or to the Town of Bowdoinham Recreation Department for its North Field Complex.

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