Woman leaves $442,000 for scholarships

MILLINOCKET – Sarah Jane Thompson wasn’t well-known in Millinocket, but her name and generosity will be remembered for many generations to come.

Thompson, who graduated from Stearns High School 77 years ago, valued education and has left the Millinocket high school more than $442,000 in a scholarship fund to help future students further their educations. She died last year.

“We were thrilled,” said Stearns High School Principal Paul MacDonald.

“Having a gift of that magnitude allows you to help kids, who are in need, in a very substantial way,” said Superintendent Brent Colbry.

The superintendent said 75 percent of all jobs in Maine today require some type of post-secondary training. He said part of the reason Maine’s postsecondary attendance rate is low is lack of money. “Given the economy of our area and the fact that it is harder for folks to come up with the resources to send kids to school, this is a wonderful thing,” he said.

School officials have established a committee to oversee the gift. They will meet with several financial investors, their goal to invest the money so it grows along with the interest earned. MacDonald estimates the money could earn $10,000 to $20,000 a year for scholarships.

“We would like to be able to provide a substantial number of scholarships to our young deserving people,” he said.

School officials learned about Thompson’s generous gift recently.

Thompson died in Millinocket in February at age 93. In her will, she stipulated the money be left to Stearns upon the death of a cousin, who was receiving an income from her estate. Her cousin died earlier this year, Patricia E. Wilson, a retired Millinocket teacher and close friend of Thompson’s, explained.

Wilson said Thompson, a high school teacher for 37 years, had received a substantial inheritance from her sister Effie V.T. Mitchell, formerly of Millinocket.

Thompson was her neighbor in the early 1960s, when she spent summers in Millinocket. In 1965, Thompson retired from teaching at New York schools and moved back to Millinocket.

Thompson was born in Kingman and moved to Millinocket with her family when she was a youngster. She graduated from Stearns in 1924 and went to the University of Maine at Orono.

“She was active in everything there,” said Wilson. Thompson belonged to a sorority and was president of the student government at UMaine, quite an accomplishment for a woman in the early 1920s. “When she first went to [the University of] Maine, she was in pre-med and she wanted to be a doctor, but then she found out it wasn’t a very welcome field for women,” Wilson recalled.

A few years ago, during the NCAA controversy at UMaine, Wilson learned Thompson had played field hockey and received a letter for it.

“I went over to Sarah’s one morning and she was reading about it in the newspaper,” Wilson said. “She said ‘My goodness, I’ve got to put away my letter.’ I said, ‘What letter, Sarah?’ ‘My field hockey letter from UMO – the NCAA will be coming after me,'” she said, laughing.

Thompson graduated from the university in 1928. She taught at Old Town High School for a few years. Wilson said Thompson had applied to several colleges for a work-study program to earn a master’s degree. All of the colleges said they wanted her, but only one had money – the University of Maryland, where she earned a master’s degree in education. Thompson worked as a high school science teacher in New York schools until her retirement in 1965.

“She was a very popular teacher,” said Wilson. She said many of her friend’s former students came to visit her in Millinocket. She always received Christmas cards from former students.

“During the war she wrote to every student she ever had who was in the service,” said Wilson. “She wrote regularly to those boys and they sent back some of the nicest letters.”

Thompson is remembered as a tall, handsome woman. She never married and was a private person who was frugal about spending money. She was close to her sister, the late Effie Mitchell, formerly of Millinocket and Stockton Springs. She wrote poetry. She was active in the First Congregational Church of Millinocket. She always exercised her right to vote and kept up on current events.

Wilson said Thompson was a close friend, but also was like a second mother to her. She recalled their many chats out in Thompson’s flower garden and their daily visits.

Although Thompson loved gardening, she had to give it up in her later years because of health problems. Wilson said Thompson had two cornea-eye transplants and two knee operations. “I use to call her the bionic woman. She would laugh,” said Wilson.

“She loved my little dog Jack, a miniature dachshund,” said Wilson. “She helped me name him. If I went to visit without him, the first thing she would say is ‘Where is Jack?'”

Wilson, who is a personal representative for Thompson’s estate, said education was always important to her friend. In her will, she asked that a scholarship be established and that it be given to needy students.

“I think it is just wonderful that she had the foresight to know we had lots of students who need help,” said Wilson of her friend’s generous donation to Stearns.

Thompson also left $2,000 to the First Congregation Church of Millinocket, $3,000 to UMaine for the Senior Scholarship Fund, $1,000 to the Pine Tree Society and $1,000 to the American Lung Association.

Thompson left $25,000 to be added to the Effie V.T. Mitchell Scholarship at Stearns. Earlier, she established the scholarship in her late sister’s honor. She also left $25,000 to be added to the Harvey E. Mitchell Scholarship at Bates College. Her sister had established the scholarship in honor of her late husband, who was a Bates graduate.