Fendler still a hero to many 68 years later

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Sixty-eight years ago, Donn Fendler’s saga captivated the state and the nation as searchers scoured Mount Katahdin looking for the 12-year-old from Rye, N.Y.

After nine days in the woods during July of 1939, Fendler was found near the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

A state rejoiced. Mothers across the nation hugged their sons. And in the aftermath, a parade was held in Fendler’s honor, a book was written, and a promise was made.

“At the parade Gov. [Lewis] Barrows was in the car and made me an honorary governor for a day,” Fendler said on Tuesday. “We came back to his office and met with the head of the fish and game department of that time. We got talking about fishing and he said, ‘Well, I’ll get you a lifetime fishing license and have it sent out to you, and I’ll make you an honorary Maine guide.”

The license never came.

On Tuesday, at a State House ceremony, Gov. John Baldacci fulfilled that promise, giving the 80-year-old Fendler a fishing license and praising him for his continued work with Maine school children and literacy efforts.

Fendler grinned at the kind words and offered his trademark apology.

“I want to thank the governor and everybody here,” he said. “I really don’t deserve this. I was kind of a dumb kid who got lost and wandered around in the woods. They made a big deal about it.”

That “dumb kid” has never forgotten his ordeal, and thanks to Joseph Egan’s book, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” Fendler’s saga has been shared with generations of Maine school children.

Fendler, who lives in Clarksville, Tenn., during the winter and on Sebasticook Lake in Newport during the summer, also speaks at Maine schools several times each year.

“The very first book that my second-grade schoolteacher read to us was ‘Lost on a Mountain in Maine, the Donn Fendler story,'” said Roland “Dan” Martin, the 57-year-old commissioner Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. “The guy was my hero.”

On Tuesday, Fendler’s status among Mainers was obvious. A steady stream of politicians and state officials stopped to introduce themselves, ask for an autograph, and tell Fendler how much they enjoyed his story of perseverance.

“I think there are hundreds of thousands of kids who have read his story,” said Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan. “All of my children have read his story and have copies of his book for inspiration. He’s a friend of Maine. He’s a friend of all of us.”

It’s easy, 68 years later, to gloss over the situation Fendler found himself in when he strayed from a hiking party back in 1939 and found himself lost.

Now, Fendler can joke about it.

“It really tells you what not to do when you get lost,” he says of the book.

But a glance at newspaper accounts published during that hot final week of July show how dire the situation got.

Back then, those pages tell you, political unrest raged in Europe. You could buy a head of iceberg lettuce at the Bangor A&P for five cents. A pound of sirloin steak would set you back a whopping 29 cents.

And in the woods of Maine, a New York boy was missing. The daily front page coverage turned more somber by the day.

Searchers announced that they thought Fendler had died, because they found a crevice on Katahdin that was emanating a “heavy odor.”

At another point, searchers were told to look for flocks of seagulls, which they thought would lead them to the boy’s body.

By the time Fendler was found some 35 miles from his starting point, in Stacyville, much of the searching had ended: At its peak, more than 350 people were looking. By the end – after many had given up on the youth – just 50 people were still on the mountain.

Today, Fendler says he never considered the fact that he might not emerge from the woods alive.

“I tell [the school children] the same thing: They all have a will to live,” Fendler said. “You don’t even think about that. You really don’t. At that age, anyway. And [if] you give up, that’s it. I stress that a lot.”

Fendler, who retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel, is understandably proud that he has had the chance to pass along his philosophy to thousands of Maine pupils.

“I think I give out a pretty good message on faith and determination,” Fendler said. “I love it. Maybe it’s good for the ego or whatever, but I love it and I enjoy it and will continue to do it as long as Maine schools want to have me.”

The license Fendler received on Tuesday was not, officially, a free lifetime license. Martin pointed out that he doesn’t have the statutory authority to issue those. Instead, it was a free one-year license that will be renewed each year.

But Fendler wasn’t worried about any of that. He was looking forward to the summer and spending time near the water in a state he has come to love.

“My heart’s in Maine. It’s always been in Maine, [whether] I’m a flatlander or not,” he said.

And he has plans to put that license to good use, on the same river where his harrowing journey ended back in 1939.

“I’ll be on the East Branch of the Penobscot next week,” he said with a grin.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.