(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Feb. 8, 1997

ORONO – Stephen and Tabitha King pledged $4 million to the University of Maine and took the opportunity to criticize the governor and lawmakers for not adequately supporting the institution.

The gift, a commitment to give $1 million to the university for four years, is the largest the campus has ever received from living alumni. Half of the money will be devoted to scholarships for academically and financially qualified students and the other half will be used to hire faculty.

The string of donations began when Stephen King, clad in a UM women’s basketball sweat shirt, handed a $1 million check to Burton Hatlen, one of his college English professors who is now interim dean of the UM College of Arts and Humanities.

At a ceremony in a second-floor alcove at the Maine Center for the Arts, the Kings said they were committed to making similar annual donations for the next three years, but want to be assured that the university is addressing effectively scholarship and hiring needs. The authors also called on state lawmakers and Gov. Angus King to increase financial support for education.

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LEVANT – Townspeople here will be asked to search their memories so officials can determine whether a vote to close permanently a portion of the Ross Road passed or failed almost 20 years ago. Since official town records from that meeting have been lost, selectmen are in a quandary about whether the area should be maintained by the town.

Based on a recommendation from Town Attorney Tom Russell, selectmen voted unanimously to request that those who attended the Sept. 30, 1977, meeting submit written affidavits as to the final vote on the question of whether to permanently close the Ross Road from the Randall-Orr property line to the H.W. Brann farm.

25 years ago – Feb. 8, 1982

ORONO – “No surprises” was the general consensus among veteran high school indoor track observers as the Brewer High boys and girls track squads waltzed to team titles in the Eastern Maine League Regional Championships at the UM field house.

Paul Elkin led the way for the Brewer boys by turning in the only double win performance of the meet as the Witches rolled up 133 points.

Other first place finishers for the undefeated Witches included John Holyoke in the high jump (6 feet); Jim Triplette in the pole vault (12 feet); and the Brewer 800 relay team which set a new league record of 1:37.5.

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BANGOR – Phil Emery’s Bangor High School swimmers won their third Penobscot Valley Conference swim title at Husson College by amassing 345 points in the five-team field. Finishing second was the Brewer team of Tim Babcock with 303 points.

In the opening event, Brewer’s medley relay team of Dave Anderson, Mike Blanchard, Steve Hamilton and Gerard Loiselle flew to a meet record of 1:49.7, nearly two seconds ahead of the field.

In the meter diving, Bangor divers Kevin Martin and George Shea were competing in their final competition at Husson College. Apparently, they decided to make it something special. Martin and Shea grabbed the top two spots, with Bangor junior Ben Isaacs collecting fourth place.

50 years ago – Feb. 8, 1957

BANGOR – A 74-year-old veteran employee narrowly escaped injury and the entire neighborhood was shaken to its foundations in an explosion at the gas-making plant of the Citizens Utilities company, Main Street.

Escaping gas that had built up in a closed-off valve room in the mixing plant, and which exploded as a result of flames from an open burner used as part of the process, was believed to have been the cause, Fire Chief John J. Nelligan and John H. Crocker, company manager, said.

Charles Plummer, night boiler man and operator who has been with the company the past 33 years, was about to enter the building when it blew up in his face. Plummer said that he was only about three feet from the door to the enclosed valve room when he was knocked backward by a blast of hot air. He managed to remain on his feet, however, and was uninjured.

The explosion blew the roof off the nearly 30-feet-by-30-feet structure and knocked down the walls on two sides. The two walls that were blown out crumbled into piles of separated bricks and the roof came down in halves.

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BANGOR – The city of Bangor is observing Dental Health Week. Mrs. Sigrid E. Hansen, city dental hygienist, reminds parents that they should see that their children’s teeth are properly cared for.

Mrs. Hansen, who examines the teeth of some 2,000 children each school year, says that the condition of children’s teeth in Bangor is “poor.”

Mrs. Hansen gives several reasons for the prevailing conditions: type of food eaten, city water, heredity and lack of personal hygiene.

As an example, Mrs, Hansen stated that 20 out of 423 eighth-graders has decay in almost all their teeth, indicating that these pupils are ready for complete dentures.

Of students examined during the past year for decayed teeth, missing teeth and teeth that needed fillings, Mrs. Hansen found that 10.6 percent of eighth-graders were in this category, as were 5.2 percent of fifth-graders and 11 percent of first-graders.

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ORONO – Pulitzer prize winner Hodding Carter will speak at a University of Maine assembly. A Bowdoin College graduate, Carter has been editor and publisher of newspapers at Greenville, Miss., since 1936.

Carter was awarded the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. [Ed. note: Carter wrote a series of articles dealing with racial, economic and religious problems in Mississippi for which he received the Pulitzer Prize.]

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EAST CORINTH – Pupils at Morison Memorial School chosen for the spelling match at East Corinth Academy are sixth-graders Sheila Tilton, Priscilla Williams, Patricia Commeau, Rita Philbrick and Joy Elliott; seventh-graders Janet Chesley, Diane Felt, Kathleen Whalen, Richard Sanford and Gail Pratt; and eighth-graders Donna Buswell, Doreen Sandstrom, Shannon Lounsbury, Tanya Dow and Charles Corson.

A new piano will be presented to the fifth grade through the efforts of the Corinthian School Organization.

The eighth-grade is using its $32 profit from a food sale to purchase a clock for the school cafeteria.

100 years ago – Feb. 8, 1907

BUCKSPORT – The schooner John J. Perry, Capt. T.W. Lane, finished discharging fertilizer and sailed light in the afternoon for Rockport, where she will load lime for New York.

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ORONO – George P. Gould has returned from a several weeks-long trip to Cuba where he was the guest of his cousin, Major Treat, who is one of the prominent U.S. Army officers in Cuba at the present time.

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CASTINE – H.D. Crie, one of the head pushers of Criehaven, whose family is in Castine for the winter, started for his home today, where he will remain for a week or 10 days.

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ORONO – The engagement is announced of Miss Marion Barry Wentworth of Kennebunk to Mr. Charles Oliver Perkins of 215 7th St., Jersey City, N.J. Miss Wentworth has many friends in Orono who extend congratulations, she being a graduate of the University of Maine, class of 1906.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin