Furrow, governor relive old times

Former Bangor High School teammates Tim Furrow and Gov. John McKernan met Tuesday noon at the gazebo on the mall in Brunswick, sharing a few serious and lighthearted moments.

Teammates under former basketball coach “Red” Barry in the mid-60s, McKernan had invited Furrow to meet with him in Augusta as Furrow made his way north during his Boston-to-Bangor Run for Research to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Later, McKernan’s office suggested the Brunswick site to accommodate Furrow as he jogs along Route 1 on his way home from his most recent checkup at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Furrow said the two “had a good time, shooting the breeze,” and that McKernan “is very supportive of people who are doing things like this for They had a few laughs recalling their days as teammates. Furrow, an occasional starter, reminded McKernan, a starter, that Furrow was not too fast, which the governor remembered well.

“He told me I never did lead the fast break,” Furrow said. Bangor lost twice in the Eastern Maine Class LL semifinals when they played.

The two have met several times during the past few years. Furrow has always found McKernan encouraging and supportive, especially when he was being treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Furrow said he greatly appreciated McKernan’s remark Tuesday that he is serving as “a great role model for what people can do in recovery, and a good product of what research is all about.”

Furrow, who was exposed to cancer-causing Agent Orange while in Vietnam, is on schedule during his journey home. He will veer off Route 1 and take Route 24 around Brunswick, avoiding the area where Route 1 joins I-295 and becomes inhospitable for his purposes.

He said he will leave Cooks Corner in Brunswick on Wednesday morning and expects to reach Bath by the end of the day. Thursday will be a day of rest before he continues up the coast.