Philip James Abbott ’80 died on February 7, 2008, in Auburn, Maine.
Born in Lewiston, Maine, on May 6, 1958, he prepared for college at Edward Little High School and became a member of Delta Sigma Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1980 to 1984, for much of that time on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He received a master’s degree in teaching from the University of Southern Maine and was a high school teacher and track coach in Eastport, Maine. He then operated a hunting equipment store in Eastport for three years. He worked briefly at Bates College as an acquisitions librarian and received a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University in 1989. He was a library cataloguer and automation consultant at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire from 1989 to 1993. He was a computer librarian for the New Hampshire Historical and Genealogical Society in Concord, N.H., for 10 years, and oversaw the complete modernization of the computer archiving system. He is survived by his mother, Maude Abbott of Auburn; two sisters, Dallas Abbott and Pam Abbott; and a brother, Ed Abbott.