Peter W. Rand Sr.

CAPE ELIZABETH – Peter W. Rand Sr., of Cape Elizabeth, died on Nov. 18, 2024. He was born in Boston on Oct. 26, 1929, the last of five children of William McNear Rand and Lucy Kimball Robbins Rand. He grew up in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and spent summers on Hopkins Island in Cundy’s Harbor. He was a graduate of Philips Exeter Academy (1947), Harvard College (1951), and Harvard Medical School (1955). In the summers of 1948-50 he sailed to the arctic as crew and mate on the Schooner Bowdoin under Adm. Donald B. MacMillan, and later was active in a group to save and reconstruct the vessel. In 1953, Peter married Alice Bartlett Hildreth, three years after being introduced to her by her brother Charles, the ship’s engineer. 

His internship and subsequent residency at the Maine Medical Center were interrupted by two years in the U.S. Navy in which he served as Medical Officer on the USS Prairie (AD 15) and at the Naval Air Station in Coronado, California. After returning to the Maine Medical Center, he was involved in the groundbreaking open heart surgery program and in the establishment of the hospital’s Research Department. There followed 57 years of medical research, initially on the flow properties of blood, later on environmental issues including the health effects of radon gas, and, for the last 30 years, on the ecology of Lyme disease and other tick- and mosquito-transmitted diseases. In all of this he was supported by a loyal team of co-workers, including longtime associate Eleanor Lacombe. Their work is represented in over 100 publications in referenced journals since 1960.

From the early 1970s, Dr. Rand has been active in land conservation, serving on Cape Elizabeth’s Conservation Commission for well over a decade. In 1985, with others, he was a founder of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. And, pursuing a love of Maine’s coastline derived from a lifetime of summer cruising, Pete served for 50 years on the Board and Council of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, remaining active until his death.

He was predeceased by his brothers, William M. Rand Jr., and John R. Rand, and by his sisters, Emily Herman and Lucy Everts. He will be missed by his cherished wife of 71 years, Alice Hildreth Rand; their daughter Elizabeth Rand (Scott Waldron) of Cape Elizabeth and son Peter Rand Jr. (Dr. Melanie Crabtree Rand) of Brunswick, their son-in-law, Leo Algeo Jr. of Raymond, and their grandchildren, Ben Algeo (Maggie Ross Algeo), Dr. Lucy Algeo (Grant Kern), Emmy Algeo, Caleb Rand, and Lia Rand. His spirit was also nourished through life by Barney, Gus, Bert, Sadie, (all bassets), and Flo, and particularly by the pull of his sloop Pintado’s tiller.

A Celebration of Pete’s life will be held next year.

Please visit http://www.jonesrichandbarnes.com to sign Dr. Rand’s online guest book.

For those who wish, contributions in his memory might be made to:

Maine Coast Heritage Trust: http://www.MCHT.org

Cape Elizabeth

Land Trust: http://www.capelandtrust.org

Maine Health Institute for Research

(annotated “Vector-borne Disease Lab”): http://www.fundraising.mmc.org/research-fund

Maine Maritime Academy (annotated “Schooner Bowdoin”): http://www.mainemaritime.edu/giving