Evidence of a life lived in the outdoors is now in the possession of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine in Orono.

The papers of Ralph W. “Bud” Leavitt have been donated to the university, and may be viewed in the library’s Special Collections Department.

Through the various magazine articles, letters, press releases and newspaper clippings that he kept, the life of Leavitt, the longtime outdoors columnist at the Bangor Daily News, is illuminated. Though Leavitt’s early years aren’t well represented in the collection, there is a wealth of information from the 1970s on.

Among gems culled from an afternoon of poring over the collection:

Two columns clipped from The New York Times, which ran in July of 1978, document a fishing trip at Swinging Bridge Pool on the Miramichi River. The fishing wasn’t too good, apparently, but the company was first-rate. On the trip were Leavitt, whom the columnist called “the Bangor Daily News’s stylish-stout authority on matters piscatorial;” baseball great Ted Williams; and the author: the legendary Red Smith.

An Oct. 27, 1986, letter from former Gov. John R. McKernan, which goes on to outline the politician’s views on the State Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife: “While I personally make no claims of being either a hunter or a fisherman, I do confess to a desire, someday, to be a participant.”

A July 31, 1986, letter from former Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr, turning down a Leavitt invitation to a charity function, but informing him, “I’ve just returned from the Casapedia River and the fishing was great.” — John Holyoke