John W. Blackie, who worked for the college in the Facilities Management Department from 1954 until his retirement in 1985, died on April 9, 2005, in Brunswick, Maine.

Born in Topsham on June 23, 1918, he graduated from Clinton High School and served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. After the war, he worked at the Hyde Windlass Company in Bath before joining the staff at Bowdoin in 1954. During the next 31 years, he worked successively as a grounds man, a custodian, and electrical/ plumber’s helper, a plumber/ electrician, a plumber foreman, and a plumbing supervisor. Upon his retirement, he was elected an honorary member of the Bowdoin Alumni Association. He was a member of the American Legion Post in Waterville and for many years was a member of the Odd Fellows, the Bath Country Club, and the United Methodist Church in Topsham. He was married in 1941 to Marion Cheney, who died in 1958, and was married again in 1965 to Harriet Berquist Edgecomb, who died in 1993. Surviving are two daughters, Carol Fowler of Spartansburg, SC, and Penny Brown of Durham; a stepson, Stanley Edgecomb of Topsham; two stepdaughters, Joyce DeVito of Georgetown, MA, and Joan Haley of Massachusetts; a sister, Inez Rogers of Waterville; eight grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.