Stephen C. Chandler G‘68 died on September 12, 2026, in Brunswick, Maine.
Stephen C. Chandler G’68
(The following was provided by the Brackett Funeral Home on September 12, 2026: )
Topsham – Stephen Cromwell Chandler, beloved husband, father, friend, teacher, coach, outdoorsman, athlete, artist, and traveler, passed away peacefully on September 12th, 2026. He was 97.
Born February 5, 1929, the third son of Fremont A. and Eleanor Cromwell Chandler, Steve grew up in his family homes in New York City and Chicago and often spent glorious summers on ranches and camps in Montana and Colorado and at his grandfather’s summer home in Northeast Harbor, Maine.
As a schoolboy, Steve would board a train in Chicago and make the long journey to St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. At St. Paul’s, Steve was a good student and played squash, tennis, and rowing—all of which became lifelong interests. Steve went on to spend four productive years at Yale University, where he continued with squash and received a B.A. in history in 1950.
Soon after his college graduation, Steve enlisted in the Navy, where he proudly served for five years. After a year as an enlisted man, Steve graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1952. In the Navy, he steadily rose to the position of lieutenant, and participated in important Cold-War missions around Greenland, the Atlantic coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. His Navy enlistment, as he recounted many times, was inspired by the extraordinary journey he took as a seventeen-year-old aboard the schooner Bowdoin as part of Admiral McMillan’s crew exploring Newfoundland. This journey was somewhat of a homecoming for Steve because his parents met while volunteering for the Grenfell Mission in Newfoundland in the early 1920’s.
Steve, while in the Navy, met Lynda Hitzrot and, after a long courtship, the two were married in November of 1954. Steve and Lynda’s lives were shaken less than a month later when Steve’s father, a prominent orthopedic surgeon in Chicago, died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
After the Navy and two years at Bell and Howell in Chicago, Steve accepted a teaching position at Mercersburg Academy, in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where his father-in-law was the school physician and where Lynda grew up. He was eager to raise his young family on a boarding school campus and free up summers for family travel.
At Mercersburg, Steve made math fun and accessible for his students and also coached the tennis team and the school’s first squash team with his good friend Bo Burbank. A court in Mercersburg’s new squash facility was recently dedicated to him. In 1970, his former colleague at Mercersburg, Dick Dolven, headmaster at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, invited Steve to move the family to Maine and serve as his assistant headmaster.
Steve wore many hats at Gould—teacher, coach, advisor, college counselor, and registrar, and was an important contributor to Gould’s transition from local public school to private boarding school. Steve was the initiator of foreign student exchange programs which greatly added to school culture. Steve also played a main role in developing outdoor programs for Gould students and led countless adventures into the Maine woods and waters, building on his extensive personal experiences with Outward Bound.
He accepted all of these roles with humor and effectiveness. As a teacher, Steve became well known for bringing a lightness to the study of math, and for many years after his retirement in 1991 and he enjoyed listening to Gould alumni recount their experiences in his classrooms.
He and Lynda traveled extensively with his boys throughout his teaching career, and he continued to indulge his love of travel after his retirement. The British Isles were a favorite destination, but also mainland Europe, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, and Tahiti. Steve created many detailed illustrated journals that documented his adventures and learning. Steve had a lifelong interest in history, especially the Civil War era, was widely read, and constantly passed on good book recommendations to family and friends.
After retirement, Steve and Lynda settled in the Brunswick/Topsham, Maine, area and maintained a house and cabin in Bethel. He was often seen on the ski slopes at Sunday River, on area hiking trails, shoveling the driveway, or raking the yard in all weather conditions. He embraced life to its fullest.
Steve was predeceased by his beloved lifelong companion, Lynda, his wife of sixty-nine years; his parents, Dr. Fremont A. Chandler and Eleanor Cromwell Chandler; and brothers Stuart, Richard, and Peter.
Steve is survived by his three sons and their spouses: Richard (Cyndy) of Falmouth, Massachusetts; Christopher (Rhonda) of Austin, Texas; Peter (Sarah) of Colorado Springs, Colorado; six grandson – Jeffrey (Asya), Jonathan (Ashley), Jay, Levi, Aiden, and T – and two great grandsons, Alexander and Luka.