Lawrence C. Johnston ’56 died on November 17, 2025, in Brunswick, Maine.
(The following was provided by the Ellsworth American on February 3, 2026:)
Lawrence Charles Johnston ’56
Lawrence Charles Johnston, age 95, of Bar Harbor, Maine, passed away peacefully on November 17, 2025, at Horizons Healthcare in Brunswick, Maine.
Weighing in at 12¾ pounds (though he always rounded up to 13), Lawrence Charles Johnston was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, on August 4, 1930. He was delivered at home, as births at Bar Harbor Hospital were reserved for the hospital founders during the summer months. (His mother, Clara, was a strong woman.)
Larry always considered himself a true “Bar Harbor boy,” growing up alongside his sister, Elenor Margaret. His childhood was spent hiking the mountains of Acadia and exploring the woods with family in Amherst. Summers meant swimming and fishing off the pier in Bar Harbor or boating, fishing, and hunting at the family’s camp on Beech Hill Pond near Otis. His childhood boat — a canvas-covered Old Town — was his constant companion.
Larry graduated from Bar Harbor High School in 1948 and pursued his love of the sea at Maine Maritime Academy, earning his Merchant Marine credentials in 1951. He later completed his B.S. degree at Bowdoin College in 1957. Larry proudly served as a Merchant Marine and later as a Navy Lieutenant during the Korean War, sharing tales of Pacific crossings and faraway ports. Notably, he played the sousaphone (see John Philip Sousa) in the Navy marching band, a skill he had honed since high school.
The Johnston children grew up doing their chores to the sound of marching band music — Sousa, of course, being a favorite. Larry’s swimming skills were somewhat legendary: he once swam under the hull of a massive tanker ship in one breath while in the Navy. He also competed on Bowdoin’s diving team and could dive off the dock at Beech Hill Pond leaving barely a ripple.
The love of Larry’s life was Carolyn Ann MacQuinn, a fellow Bar Harbor native who was whip-smart, naturally funny, and a great beauty (voted May Queen as a freshman at Bar Harbor High School!). Larry had known Carolyn since childhood — they were thrown together often while their parents played bridge. They married in 1957 after Carolyn’s graduation from Westbrook College. Together they quickly built a family, having four children in five and a half years, and went on to share fifty-nine years of marriage. Their journey led them from Maine to Vermont, Connecticut, and eventually back home to the coast, living in Trenton and then Ellsworth.
Larry devoted much of his career to New York Life Insurance, managing offices across New England and New York. He later served as Vice President of Financial Services for Fleet Bank, and then worked as a financial advisor for Mass Mutual. In his spare time, he was owner of the Oak Point Lobster Pound and Western Bay Charters in Trenton, Maine.
His community involvement reflected his love of people. He was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, a longtime Rotarian, and a founding member and president of the Ellsworth Chapter. He was a longtime board member at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. He served on the board of Friends in Action and was active in the Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove, where he joined the ministry team and later served as a board member. He cherished his “Thursday Afternoon Men’s Group,” which met faithfully over cookies and soft drinks for more than thirty years.
Larry’s love for the family camp on Beech Hill Pond was unmistakable. Visitors would invariably notice the 1932 colorized photo of a blond, curly-headed baby in a wool bathing suit splashing in the shallows — blown up and framed, a symbol of its significance. Pinned inside a cupboard door were other treasures: a Bar Harbor Times article showing young Larry proudly holding a record-setting togue caught in the pond around age eight, and a photo of his mother, Clara, lounging gracefully on a granite rock along the lake’s edge.
Larry loved sailing, and for years his yard was filled with two sailboats resting in cradles, they were his babies, after all! Living at Oak Point in Trenton, the boats could be seen moored out front while the restaurant he and Carolyn operated all summer long. The waterfront featured a floating lobster pound full of lobsters he’d picked up at the docks in Corea, Maine, and Carolyn’s gift shop in the “wet smack” building next door. A business suit — worn daily for decades — was quickly shed each evening when he returned to his beloved waterfront.
Storytelling was among Larry’s great joys. His tales — sometimes embellished — were part of his charm. Above all, he loved his family, his camp, his church, and the Maine woods.
Whether through genetics, grit, or both, Larry defied all expectations in his final years, maintaining his cheerful spirit despite the challenges of age. He received wonderful care from the team at Horizons Health Care in Brunswick, with tremendous support from his daughter, Lynn Jacobs, and her partner, Ben Andrews, who brought comfort and kept the bird feeders full.
Larry is survived by his children, Ann Elizabeth Johnston, Alexander Charles Johnston, Lynn Johnston Jacobs, and Eric Arthur Johnston, and their spouses; grandchildren, Noah Singh, Simran Johnston, Chad Jacobs, Luke Jacobs, and Molly Jacobs; and three great-granddaughters, Louisa, Yasmin, and Jane, and his MacQuinn nieces and Goduti nephews. He was predeceased by his beloved wife, Carolyn, his parents, Lawrence and Clara, and his sister, Elenor.