Webber Energy co-owner Witham dies at 63

BANGOR – A local woman, who was a principal owner of a prominent oil business founded by her grandfather and who served on the boards of many eastern Maine organizations, has passed away at a Rockport hospital.

Louise “Jackie” Witham died March 4 at Penobscot Bay Medical Center at the age of 68.

Born March 19, 1937 in Bangor, Louise Jacqueline Frost graduated from Bangor High School in 1955 before attending Connecticut College and studying art at Sotheby’s in London. She served on the boards of Webber Energy Fuels, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, the Junior League of Bangor, Good Samaritan Home, Community Health and Counseling Services, and the YWCA.

Witham was the granddaughter of Alburney Webber, who in 1935 founded Webber Oil Company, a firm that evolved through a series of acquisitions into Webber Energy Fuels.

Paul Graffam, a longtime executive at Webber Energy Fuels, said Tuesday that Witham will be missed.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful person,” he said. “She was a proud owner and proud of her employees.”

Witham’s ex-husband, philanthropist and former Webber Energy Fuels CEO Larry Mahaney, died last month at the age of 76 after suffering a stroke in West Palm Beach, Fla. The couple divorced in 1982 but had remained “great friends,” Mahaney said in a 2001 interview.

Witham is survived by two sons and their wives, Kevin P. and Diana Mahaney of Greenwich, Conn., and Lance D. and Patricia Mahaney of Palm Beach, Fla., and by a sister- and brother-in-law, Linda F. and Richard Harnum of Holden. She is survived also by three grandchildren, a niece and a nephew.