Ex-UMM president Buswell dies at 83 School’s popular chief from 1971-81 retired to Alaska after leaving Machias

Arthur Buswell, 83, who served as president for the University of Maine at Machias between 1971 and 1981, died Wednesday in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he moved in 1984 after leaving Machias.

Buswell arrived in Machias after working 20 years at the University of Alaska. He had lived in Fairbanks since 1951, after having received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Maine in Orono.

“He loved Machias,” Marjorie Poggas, his daughter, said Friday from Fairbanks. “He had a wonderful time there. He said he left because of his health. It was good, and he wanted to keep it that way. Plus he thought that 10 years was a good, round number.”

Buswell died unexpectedly of undetermined causes. His wife, Frances, had died in 1999 after the couple had been married 52 years.

Buswell’s name surfaced on the UMM campus just last week during the spring honors convocation. The Arthur and Frances Buswell Scholarship of $1,000 is given annually to a UMM student in the sciences.

He had kept in touch with a number of friends in Machias through the years and considered Alayne and Keith Willard, the selectman and her husband, among his best friends.

He also maintained a fondness for Sue Palmer, the longtime UMM employee whom he hired 32 years ago as his executive assistant. She left her UMM position in development and alumni relations in February for a similar position at the University of Southern Maine.

“That was my father,” Poggas said. “Relationships were everything to him.”

Buswell used his years to open up the president’s home on campus to student guests. He came to be “like a second father to students away from home,” Poggas said.

“Two or three young women asked him to escort them at their weddings,” she said. “He made so many personal connections.”

Buswell continued to come east two or three times a year, the last time in October. His family has owned a farmhouse in New Hampshire’s White Mountains for more than 100 years.

The UMM presidency was Buswell’s last professional position. Once retired and back in Fairbanks, the Buswells became involved in several civic groups.

Donations may be made in Buswell’s name to the Arthur and Frances Buswell Scholarship at the University of Maine at Machias, or to the Buswells’ similar scholarship for the University of Alaska Foundation.