John Ware ’56 died on October 8, 2023, in Owls Head, Maine.
(The following was provided by Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home in October 11, 2023:)
John Ware ’56
Owls Head – John Ware, 89, died peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family.
John was born January 3, 1934, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland. He was the son of Roland and Iva Ware.
He graduated from Rockland High School in 1952 and Bowdoin College in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. While at Bowdoin, he played the drums in the college band, ran track and was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
Following college, he worked for DuPont in New Jersey as a research chemist and then served in the United States Army, stationed in France. He returned to Maine in the late 1950s to work for his father in the family business, Maritime Oil.
Learning the ropes, his earliest job was delivering home heating oil, then driving transport and then served as the company’s only oil burner technician after the company entered the burner service business. He later moved into the office and became operations manager. Upon, his father’s passing in 1978, he became Maritime Oil’s president.
John served in endless and bountiful capacities in his industry and community, including: Junior Chamber of Commerce treasurer; Rockland Chamber of Commerce director; Northeast Health trustee; member of the Blue Ribbon Committee to save the Knox Nursing Home; Maine Oil Dealer’s Association director; Maine Motor Transport Association; commodore of Pen Bay Yachting Rotarians; Owls Head Transportation Museum trustee, and as a director for forty years of the Rockland Savings & Loan Bank.
John was responsible for overseeing the efforts in raising more than $300,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
He held thirty-seven years of perfect attendance as a Rockland Rotarian and was the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow for exemplary service. Named Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce Community Person of the Year in 2006, he also received the Maine Oil Dealer’s Hall of Fame award in 2010.
John enjoyed fishing and hunting. He contributed in helping to preserve the natural beauty of the Maine outdoors through his membership to organizations like the Crawford Lake Association, in which he was president for two years, the Knox County Fish and Game Association, and the Maine Wilderness Watershed Trust.
John was a Model T fanatic, owning three, a State of Maine history buff and member of the Rockland Historical Society, and a charter member of the Down East Chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America.
John was predeceased by his wife of more than forty years, Karen; his parents; sister Mary J. Waterman; brother Roland G. Ware, Jr., MD, and his wife, Norma. He is survived by his daughter Rebecca M. Ware of Owls Head; son John Ware, Jr., and his wife, Rebecca, of Camden; daughter Susan Ware Page and her husband, Charlie, of Owls Head; grandchildren, Jasmine Colson, and Jack and Blake Page. He is also survived by his sister Anna M. Ware and her husband, Willie Templeton, of Owls Head; special companion Rita Stump of Warren; and beloved nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, a great-great niece and dear cousins.