Kenneth Black, 82, ‘Mr. Lighthouse,’ dies

ROCKLAND – Retired Coast Guard warrant officer Kenneth Black, known far and wide as “Mr. Lighthouse” and who was almost single-handedly responsible for the creation of the Maine Lighthouse Museum, has died.

Black, 82, of Union passed away Sunday surrounded by family members and close friends at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport.

Black was one of the founders of the lighthouse preservation movement in the U.S. and was the first person to publish a national newsletter about lighthouses.

He always closed his newsletter with the farewell “Be neighborly,” an attitude he carried with him daily and one that anyone who ever met him experienced immediately.

“Ken Black never did any of this for personal recognition or gain, he did it because it was the right thing to do,” said Tim Harrison, president of the American Lighthouse Foundation. “He felt it was vital to save lighthouse artifacts to help future generations learn why lighthouses and the people who kept them played such and important role in the development of our nation.”

Black was born on June 29, 1923, and was a Coast Guard veteran of World War II. He concluded his 32-year career with the service as commanding officer of the Rockland Coast Guard Station.

In between, Black served throughout New England and the Great Lakes in various capacities, including officer In charge at the Point Allerton, Mass., Life Boat Station; commanding officer of a lightship; group commander of the Quoddy Head Station at Lubec; and commander of the Coast Guard Cutter Ojibwa.

Black became interested in lighthouse artifacts when he observed that many historical items from earlier centuries were being discarded by the Coast Guard with the onslaught of modernization and automation.

Black created his first exhibit of artifacts at the Boston Lighthouse in the 1960s. He started the First Marine Exhibit at the Rockland Station, which soon evolved into the largest collection of lighthouse lenses and equipment in the country.

By the time he retired from the Coast Guard in 1973, he was the official curator of the First Coast Guard District.

Retirement only fueled his desire to preserve the artifacts of an era being erased by time. When the collection outgrew its space at the Rockland Station in the late 1970s, Black persuaded the city’s Shore Village Museum, which at the time largely contained Civil War artifacts and records, to exhibit the collection at its Limerock Street building.

Black spent the next 30-odd years traveling throughout New England searching for pieces for the collection, such as rare Fresnel lenses or fog bells and foghorns.

His efforts were rewarded two years ago when the entire collection was moved to the newly formed Maine Lighthouse Museum overlooking the city’s waterfront.

Although he had slowed down a bit in recent months, he was still active in the museum and took part in the recent ceremony announcing the merger and consolidation of the collection of the American Lighthouse Foundation’s Museum of Lighthouse History with the Maine Lighthouse Museum.

Along with his museum work, Black also spent his retirement years volunteering for such diverse groups as the Salvation Army, Rotary, Shriners and the American Lighthouse Foundation.

When the Coast Guard wanted to honor him at last year’s dedication of the museum’s Kenneth Black Exhibition Hall, it had to create a special award by the Foundation for Coast Guard History because he had already received every award the service had to offer.

At that time he was also honored with commendations from President Bush, Congress, the Maine Legislature, Gov. John Baldacci, the city of Rockland, various Coast Guard units and Lighthouse Digest magazine.

Lighthouse foundation head Harrison said Black knew more about the mechanics of vintage lighthouse equipment than anyone. He noted that for the sake of future generations, Black had already recorded on film detailed explanations of what each artifact in the collection was used for and why it was used.

Black and his wife, Dot, often introduced as “Mrs. Lighthouse,” retired to Union when he left the Coast Guard. Black used to say that after all his years at sea, he relished living among the rolling green hills beyond Rockland where he loved to keep the wild birds well-supplied with food.

Besides his wife, Black is survived by two stepsons and three grandchildren.

Calling hours will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31, at Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home on Limerock Street in Rockland. There also will be a memorial service at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at the Maine Lighthouse Museum on Park Drive in Rockland.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the One Hundred Million Dollar Club of the Shriners or the Maine Lighthouse Museum, P.O. Box F, Rockland 04841. Sympathy cards can be sent to Dot Black, 174 Sennebec Road, Union, 04862.

The Associated Press and the Maine Lighthouse Museum contributed to this report.