Showing 251 - 260 of 436 Items
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Christopher Lierle
Access: Open access
- Christopher “Chris” Lierle (Class of 1989) discusses adjusting to Bowdoin life from the West Coast and making close friendships despite the culture shock. He speaks about the importance of extracurricular activities during his time at Bowdoin and reminisces on his experiences with the football team and winning the Best Actor award in the One Act play competition. Lierle also reflects on not completing his Bowdoin education and the events in his life that led him to reconnect with the Bowdoin community twenty-five years later. He discusses the cherished relationships he forged during his time on campus and how they defined his time at college.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Cathy Scheiner
Access: Open access
- Cathy Scheiner (Class of 1979) describes the culture-shock she felt when transitioning to Bowdoin from public high school. She speaks about meeting many different types of people in Hyde Hall and joining various extracurricular activities like the Outing Club, the Sailing team, and the Cross-Country Ski team. She talks about being independent from the Greek system while navigating the fraternity-dominated social landscape. Scheiner reminisces on her classes and professors, adventures around Maine with friends, and being a Biochemistry major. Also, she reflects on the discussions of the time surrounding efforts to not be just a Bowdoin student, but a member of the broader Maine community as well.
Date: 2019-08-16
Creator: Richard Burns
Access: Open access
- Richard “Dick” Burns (Class of 1958) describes being “very impressed” by Bowdoin when he first visited and the busyness of his first few weeks at the College. He talks about how the social life of the school revolved around fraternities and his own experience joining Chi Psi, despite ambivalence about the Greek system. Burns reminisces about various mentors and memorable professors, including his long-standing friendship with former athletic trainer Mike Linkovich. He talks about his job washing dishes in his fraternity, Ivies Weekend, and the drinking culture of the time. Finally, he comments on his multi-generational view of Bowdoin, Brunswick, and New England, and remarks on some of the most notable ways that the College has changed.
Date: 2010-02-05
Creator: Deborah 'Debbie' B Ward
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Deborah “Debbie” (Bedard) Ward was born in Saco, Maine, on March 22, 1951. She was graduated from Thornton Academy in 1969 and then attended Westbrook College. Subsequently, she worked as a secretary for the Westbrook College Department of Nursing. In 1972, she became involved in reviving the Saco Young Democrats, and in 1973 George Mitchell hired her as the first staff person for his gubernatorial campaign. After Mitchell lost the election to Jim Longley, Ward returned to Westbrook College to work as a house mother. She took the position of calendar clerk for the Maine state legislature, then was elected assistant clerk and held that position for eighteen years.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: growing up in Saco in the 1950s and 1960s; splitting time between Virginia and Maine; reviving the Saco Young Democrats with Mike Aube and Barry Hobbins when Bill Hathaway ran against Margaret Chase Smith; campaigning as a part of the Young Democrats; being hired by Mitchell; Mitchell’s gubernatorial campaign volunteer base; working with Tony Buxton and Mike Aube; Mitchell’s running against and beating Joe Brennan in the primary; the state party structure; surprise at Longley winning the campaign; working as calendar clerk and assistant clerk for the state legislature; observing Mitchell’s progress to senator; and Joe Angelone.
Date: 2009-06-19
Creator: James L Ladd
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James Loring Ladd was born February 18, 1933, in Milo, Maine, to Marianne Louise McKechnie and Vaughn Loring Ladd. He grew up in Milo and attended Foxcroft Academy. He was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1954 with a major in psychology; he and George Mitchell were classmates. Prior to the beginning of his senior year, he became married to Shirley Ladd; they have four children. He spent a year teaching, then was drafted into the Army and served in Korea for two years. He made a career in the real estate business in Milo, Maine, and is now retired.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: growing up in Milo, Maine; traveling to Boston as a child; attending Foxcroft Academy; watching baseball and playing sports; attending Bowdoin College; George Mitchell at Bowdoin; the fraternities at Bowdoin; train service in Maine; participating in ROTC at Bowdoin and serving in Korea; teaching eighth grade at Mattawamkeag and coaching basketball and baseball at Newport High School; the Milo, Maine area; seeing George Mitchell when he would visit the local high school; Ladd’s children; and the increasing cost of a Bowdoin education.
Date: 2009-10-07
Creator: Scott F Hutchinson
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Scott Frederick Hutchinson was born in Gardiner, Maine, on April 16, 1929, to Helen Frances and Scott Arthur Hutchinson. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was employed by New England Telephone Company, rising in the ranks from line worker to vice president. Scott’s childhood was spent living in various communities throughout New England. He attended Northeastern University, and after college served in the Army during the Korean War. Coming back to Maine, he began a career in banking. During Ken Curtis’ campaign for governor, he served as treasurer. He then served as treasurer for Ed Muskie’s senatorial campaigns, vice presidential campaign, and as treasurer for Muskie's presidential primary race. He served as George Mitchell’s campaign treasurer.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: working on Muskie’s staff with Mitchell in 1976; Maine gubernatorial campaign (1974); why Mitchell lost to Longley; Joe Angelone; Mitchell's running for Senate majority leader; Mitchell’s 1982 reelection campaign; David Emery; Mitchell’s relationship with Bill Cohen; the role of Independents in Mitchell’s campaigns; campaign changes for Mitchell between 1974 and 1982; and Hutchinson’s reaction to Mitchell’s announcement of retirement.
Date: 2008-04-21
Creator: Michael 'Mike' M Hastings
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Michael M. Hastings, a native of Morrill, Maine, graduated from Tilton School (NH) in 1968 and Bowdoin College in 1972. Following a year of graduate study in Public & International Affairs at George Washington University, he worked for seven years as a foreign and defense policy aide to Senator William S. Cohen (1973-1980) and for four years for Senator George J. Mitchell (1980-1984). In October 1984, he joined the international staff of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and moved to Africa. Over a span of eight years, he worked as a CRS development administrator in Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and The Gambia. During the same period, he assisted in the provision of emergency food for people displaced by civil wars in the Southern Sudan and Liberia. In 1992, he returned to Maine to direct a “center for excellence,” focusing on aquaculture and economic development. Since 2004, he has worked for the University of Maine as its director of Research and Sponsored Programs. Between 1992 and 2008, he also served on several civic boards and institutions including the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, the Maine Oil Spill Advisory Committee, the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission, the Down East Institute, and the Maine Sea Grant Policy Advisory Committee. Between 1996 and 2001, he was elected three times to be a member of the Town Council of Hampden, Maine, where he resides with his wife, a middle school teacher.
Summary
The interview includes discussion of: the culture of Belfast, Maine during the ‘50s and ‘60s; family history; University of Maine campus atmosphere during the ‘60s; influential teachers; Bowdoin College atmosphere and cultural changes during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s; Ten-College Exchange; the draft and its effect on Bowdoin College students; influential Bowdoin College professors; Athern Daggett; Chris Potholm and connection to Bill Cohen; War Powers Act; working for the Cohen congressional campaign; political identity of Androscoggin and Oxford counties; the Cohen walk; differences between Maine’s Republican and Democratic parties; job responsibilities under Bill Cohen; description of Bill Cohen; appointment of George Mitchell to fill Edmund Muskie’s Senate seat; and moving from Senator Cohen to Senator Mitchell’s staff.
Date: 2008-12-11
Creator: W. 'Steve' Stephen Hart
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Walter Stephen Hart was born January 17, 1955, in Washington, DC, to Peter William Hart and Mary Jane Strauss Hart; his parents were librarians. He attended Arizona State University, where he earned a degree in mass communications. He worked at a radio station in New Hampshire and covered the 1980 presidential primaries. He returned to school at Ball State, graduating with a degree in journalism and a minor in public relations, after which he moved to Maine, where his wife was working. He worked for Maine congressional candidate Phil Merrill in the 1982 primary, and after Merrill lost to John Kerry, Hart worked as Kerry’s press secretary. Hart was hired as a legislative assistant to Senator Mitchell in March of 1983. He was primarily responsible for Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, Governmental Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources issues. He remained on Mitchell’s staff until the senator’s retirement in January, 1995. At the time of this interview Hart was deputy director of legislative affairs for the USDA Forest Service.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: 1982 congressional election in Maine; his role in Mitchell’s office; how Senate members and staff cooperate to get the best information; how Mitchell’s role changed when he became majority leader and how that impacted the staff; parochial interests; earmarks and the purpose they serve; Maine Blueberry Commission earmark; the Bicentennial Lighthouse Fund; the Coast Guard facility at Cape Elizabeth; maple syrup regulation on the Nurses Training Bill; the appropriations process; Mitchell staff salaries and his idea of “psychic remuneration”; the importance Mitchell placed on meeting with and responding to constituents; lobbyists’ role in providing information; the appropriations bill after hurricane Hugo; the senator’s division of time between the work of the Senate and being the public face of the Democratic Party; comparing Robert Byrd and Senator Mitchell as majority leaders; the reasoning behind retiring from the Senate when he did; anecdote about Hart and the chief of staff of Agriculture; Togus hearing on PTSD; the White Mountain National Forest nuclear waste disposal hearing; and the Northern Forest Study proposal hearings in Bangor.
Date: 2009-05-07
Creator: Patrick J Griffin
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Patrick J. Griffin was born June 22, 1949, in New York to Daniel and Edith Griffin. He attended St. Peter’s College in New Jersey, then the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for graduate studies in urban policy. He worked as a Health, Education and Welfare fellow for a year, then spent a year on the Senate Budget Committee staff before becoming a member of Senator Byrd’s leadership staff, the Democratic Policy Committee staff, and later a Senate Floor staffer, where he met Senator Mitchell. He held the position of secretary of the Democratic Caucus, an elected position. He later started a lobbying firm with David Johnson, returning to politics to join the Clinton administration.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family, educational, and career background; responsibilities of Senate floor staff; majority leader race an Inouye; Iran-Contra; Acid Rain and Senator Byrd; Crime Bill; Byrd’s decision to move to the Appropriations Committee; Griffin’s relationship with Senator Byrd; experiences in the Clinton White House; health care debate; Mitchell-Clinton relationship; background on the Northern Ireland appointment and Clinton conversation; comparison of several majority leaders; and Tip O’Neill.
Date: 2008-09-08
Creator: Mary Mitchell Friedman, Harold J Friedman
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Mary (Mitchell) Friedman was born on September 30, 1957, in Waterville, Maine, one of seven siblings and niece to George Mitchell. Her father, Robert “Robbie” Mitchell, worked for the FDIC, and her mother, Janet (Fraser) Mitchell, was an elementary school teacher. Mary grew up in Waterville, attending St. Joseph’s school, Waterville Junior High School, Waterville High School, and then she continued on to Colby College. She earned her law degree from the University of Maine School of Law and practiced law for approximately fifteen years. She spent three years in Washington, D.C. as a trial lawyer for the Constitution Torts Division at the Department of Justice and later returned to Maine. She has served on the board of the Mitchell Institute since its founding in 1995, and has been chair for eight years. Harold Friedman was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on December 4, 1942. He grew up in Detroit and attended Wayne State University, then earned his law degree from Boston University. In 1975, while he was a federal prosecutor in New York, he went to Maine and met George Mitchell, who recommended him to the law firm Preti Flaherty, where he was subsequently hired. He met Mary Mitchell there, and they later were married. At the time of this interview, he was a trial lawyer with the firm Friedman, Gaythwaite, Wolf & Leavitt in Portland, Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: family history at Colby College; founding the Mitchell Institute; the Mitchell Institute’s intent and expansion; higher education in Maine; Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement; life with the Mitchell family in Waterville; cribbage; the 1968 presidential election and the younger generation of the Mitchell family being politically active; Hubert Humphrey’s visit to Mrs. Mitchell; volunteering for the Muskie presidential campaign in 1972; the 1974 Maine gubernatorial campaign; George Mitchell’s campaign strategy for his senate campaign; growing up in Detroit; summer work on Martha’s Vineyard and the Kennedy presence there; George Mitchell’s accessibility; and the Mitchell family’s roots shaping their commitment to public service.