Franklin F. Gould Jr. ’37 died on March 3, 2016, in Middletown, New York.
(The following was published by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram on March 13, 2016)
Franklin Farrar Gould Jr.’s adventure began in Medford, Mass., on March 2, 1916. He was raised in Freeport by Franklin Farrar Gould Sr., originally of Lisbon, and Hilda Dobson Jenkins, originally of Prince Edward Island, Canada. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1937, he secured a job in Hartford, Conn., where he met his wife Marion Coe Wilcox, originally of Macon, Ga.
They raised their family in Maine and New Hampshire. During this time, Franklin founded and closed the “Six Town Times,” his one foray into editing his own weekly newspaper. For the next 30 years his many jobs included editing a union newspaper in Portland, ship-fitting atomic submarines in Portsmouth, N.H., teaching high school English, and selling advertising in the New England area. At age 50, he and his wife moved to Oneonta, N.Y., where he became a psychology instructor at SUCO. While teaching, they enjoyed visits to domestic and foreign destinations.
Shortly before his retirement at age 70, his wife of 41 years died unexpectedly. His second wife Marian Steele, originally of Castleton, N.Y., then accompanied him on excursions to every continent except Africa.
They lived in San Diego, Calif., for 20 years where Frank taught creative writing. Their health declining in their early nineties, they moved to Farmington, Conn., where Marian willed herself into the next world.
His final goal, to reach the age of 100, was met on March 2, 2016, in Middletown, N.Y., at the home of his daughter.
His American dream had been to experience and enjoy all the world offered, regardless of how little of it he actually controlled. Our family wishes peace to him and to those who came before us.
His remaining family includes Franklin III and Polly of Lebanon, N.H.; George and Peggy of West Hartford, Conn.; Stiles and Clark Najac of Middletown, N.Y.; 12 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; myriad nieces, nephews and cousins; and his sister, Kathryn McLeod (Gould) Ball of Hagerstown, Md.
We wish to thank the wonderful aides who helped keep Franklin and his family functioning for the past three years, and those who helped while he and Marian were in Connecticut. Had it not been for pensions and Social Security this story would have ended differently. Thank you all for this ending.