26
Apr-2016

Meet Maine’s retirees

While sunny skies and balmy temperatures lure many retirees to southern climates, others look north.

Maine retirees are drawn to the state’s rocky coastline, close-knit communities and bustling arts scene.

These Maine retirees share their stories:

bob sargent 1

Bob Sargent

Hometown: Sargentville

Originally from: Born in China, his career in the U.S. Foreign Service (State Department) took him and his wife Jane to Amsterdam, Turkey and Tunisia.

Why Maine: With family roots in Sargentville, I feel I belong here. People who are neighbors today were childhood friends in summers when I came as a kid.

What engages you? The Camden Conference, the Blue Hill Public Library, Colloquy Downeast, the Blue Hill Concert Association, to name a few. As an experienced internationalist, you can survive here intellectually and physically. The health care system is great, too.

Staying fit: Both Bob and Jane love tennis, and he helped found the 40/15 Tennis (indoor courts) in Blue Hill. Since suffering a stroke in 2005, he has pursued another love — downhill skiing — through Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation.

Jane and Dan Keegan

Jane and Dan Keegan

Dan and Jane Keegan

Hometown: Winter Harbor

Originally from: Both are New Yorkers. She’s from Long Island; he’s from Queens.

Former jobs: Dan: Information technology consultant. Jane: Artist, pet-sitter, museum volunteer.

Why live in Maine? Jane: At age 12, I fell in love with the state while vacationing in Acadia National Park. The Keegans went to Cape Cod for years, but it became too commercial.

What don’t you miss? Traffic, malls. The fast pace of Manhattan and the number of people.

What do you do for fun? Dan: I bake, cooks and enjoy teaching both. Jane: I do art in my studio. We volunteer for various civic and cultural groups.

New skills? Jane: I learned how to needle felt. Dan: I learned how to drive Island Explorer buses on and off Mount Desert Island.

Jan and Bob Marville

Jan and Bob Marville

Bob and Jan Marville

Hometown: East Blue Hill

Originally from: Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

Former job: Bob was president of The Rockefeller Group.

What Don’t You Miss? Bob: Nothing. Jan: Our friends. We had a lot of friends there.

Why Live in Maine? Jan: The way life was going for him, he was not going to survive. We had a camp in East Corinth, Maine, for years. We loved it. No running water, no electricity.

What do you do for fun: Bob: We have a marriage of 66 years and it’s going strong. Gardening, flowers. We love the outdoors in every way. Jan: We adore music.”

New skills? Bob: Wood carving. My carvings are very detailed. He has won awards for his birds and sells them to raise scholarship funds for area students.

Jan: I worked at the Bagaduce Music Library and learned to repair sheet music. I helped start the Tree of Life Pantry. I sang in the Bagaduce Chorale and worked with MedicAlert.

David and Marian Wells

David and Marian Wells

David and Marian Wells

Hometown: Ellsworth

Moved here from:Easton, Md.

Last job: David was a pilot for FedEx. Marian was a physical therapist.

Why live in Maine? Marian: The beauty of it, and we’re sailors. It’s wonderful sailing here. Lots of deep water.

What Don’t You Miss? Marian: The heat.

How do you stay busy? David: We do much more volunteering than we did down in Maryland. Marian: We helped start a free meal program (Everybody Eats!). The reason we were able to assume so much responsibility for it at the time was we were the retired people. Many of the other concerned citizens were employed in the area and didn’t have that kind of time.

What do you do to relax? David: Sailing, time together, and we do travel. Marian: And we do some movie marathons, on television. I like to read. We like to listen to music. Dining out is something we do enjoy, and we might do that two or three or sometimes four times a week.

New skills? David: I went from flying big airplanes to getting back to flying small ones. So, the past five years, I’ve been flying for Maine Coastal Flight, which also has Scenic Flights of Acadia. I’m also a flight instructor there.