Old Town Class of 1987, Kevin Blanchard, Commander Air Force
Kevin Blanchard was the valedictorian of the 1987 graduating class from Old Town High School. He attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degrees in Biochemistry and Biology. He then attended UNC at Chapel Hill and received his Masters of Science Degree in Chemistry. He continued his academics with Squadron Officer School, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Air War College.
Kevin’s love for flying directed him into his life-long career for the Air Force. One of his major assignments while in the Air Force includes combat and combat support missions in the A-10 in support of Operation Southern Watch and Enduring Freedom. He was a vital member of the US Forces Korea staff in the J-35 Directorate and served as the Special Technical Operations Section Chief. Some of his other positions with the Air Force have been Aircraft Commander, Chief of Training, Flight Commander, Chief of Tactics, Financial Services Officer, Pilot Instructor, Chief of Scheduling and Special Technical Operations Chief. He is a command pilot with over 3,000 total hours in several aircraft including over 500 combat hours over Iraq and Afghanistan.
Colonel Blanchard was the Vice Commander of the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, where he led over 2,500 airmen across five forward operating locations employing, maintaining, and supporting a mixed fleet of over 130 aircraft. His cool and calm demeanor proved effective in the leadership he provided through his career. In Afghanistan, his leadership provided tactical airlift, close air support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, airborne datalink, combat search and rescue and casualty evacuation across Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Kevin was decorated with many awards over his career. Some of these awards included the Bronze Star Medal, Service Medals, Air Medals, Achievement Medals and at 42 years old was promoted to Colonel! Kevin’s most recent assignment was the Commander of the 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. He was responsible for one of the largest installations and flying operations in the U.S. Air Force, with more than 7,000 airmen, 3,200 civilians and more than 100 aircraft.
Kevin currently resides in Alaska with his wife, Lori, son Jacob and husky, Denali. He spends his spare time flying his own personal airplane, hunting, fishing and traveling. He is officially retired, however, continues to work in some capacity for the U.S. Air Force in Fairbanks.
Old Town Class of 1984, Kelly Tallman Clements,
Kelly Tallman Clements (’84) joined the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as Deputy High Commissioner on 6 July 2015. Faced with historic forced displacement of over 67 million people now uprooted from their homes, including some 22.5 million refugees, the work of the UNHCR is more important than ever. Kelly’s day-to-day job provides strategic leadership for UNHCR external relations and management functions, including Financial and Administrative Management, Human Resources, Resource Mobilization, Communications, and Information and Technology Services, as well as the Legal Affairs Service, the Office of the Ombudsman, Organizational Change Management, Enterprise Risk Management and the Innovation Unit. She oversees an annual needs-based budget of $8 billion with operating expenditures totaling some $4.5 billion in 2017.
Before joining UNHCR, Kelly had a 25-year career with the U.S. Department of State, ascending to the ranks of the Senior Executive Service (SES) in 2010. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of State from 2010 to 2015, with responsibility for humanitarian issues in Asia and the Near East, the Office of Policy and Resource Planning, and the Comptroller’s Office in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Clements served in 2014 as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Beirut, Lebanon. As Deputy and then Director, she led the Office of Policy and Resource Planning from 2002 to 2010, where she was responsible for the Bureau’s strategic planning, policy development, budget, and performance activities, managing some $3 billion in U.S. government humanitarian resources annually through multilateral partners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Kelly’s career with the State Department began as a Presidential Management Intern (now Presidential Management Fellow program) in 1990 after completing her Masters degree. Early in her tenure, she was detailed to UNHCR in Bangladesh to aid and protect over 200,000 refugees fleeing Burma in 1992. She was also a member of the State Department’s Iraq Task Force on Kurdish Refugees and Displaced Persons in 1991; the task force coordinated the U.S. Government’s emergency response to the flight of 1.8 million Kurdish refugees from northern Iraq to Turkey and Iran.
From 1993-1996 Clements served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on a foreign service appointment. Shortly thereafter, she became Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs where she was responsible for communicating humanitarian policy issues to Department leadership. She was then the Bureau’s Congressional and NGO Liaison. Kelly was deployed to Albania in 1999 to respond to the outflow of one million refugees from Kosovo and in early 2000, she was appointed Senior Emergency Officer for Europe, the Newly Independent States, and the Americas and later served as Balkans Assistance Coordinator. She has traveled extensively in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Kelly earned a B.A. in International Studies and an M.A. in Urban Affairs/Public Administration from Virginia Tech. Transplanted from Maine to Virginia and now Geneva, Switzerland. Kelly is married to fellow Hokie Andrew Clements. The couple have two children.
Old Town Class of 1980, Karen Cook, Architect
Karen Cook (’80) credits much of her success in life to her childhood experiences growing up in Stillwater. She lived in a house designed by Cooper Milliken Architects and says, “Living in a house designed to bring the experience of the forest into the hearth, cossetted by simple, well-crafted timber and stimulated by my father’s passion for the built environment” created an ideal environment. Karen speaks fondly of her elementary education when she says she attended school in an environment that was spiritually similar to her home. Home and school. Karen says home and school had a positive impact on her psyche “that cannot be underestimated.”
Karen did her undergraduate work at Rice University, where she earned a Bachelor of Art (in Studio Art and Architecture) and a Bachelor of Architecture in 1984. Following her graduation from Rice, Karen was employed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, New York. As a junior architect, she worked on many different projects. Her principle assignments included The US Embassy, Nicosia, Cyprus and Goldman Sachs Headquarters, London.
She later was awarded a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Many of her design professors were young European practitioners who were working with materials and detailing in original responses to contemporary architectural and urban challenges. They influenced her desire to move to Europe to practice her craft.
Karen was one of a group of ten sent in 1990 to London from the New York office of Kohn Pedersen Fox to set up a branch office, which eventually grew to some 300 people. Karen worked on projects, primarily offices and public realm buildings, in Berlin, Duesseldorf, Utrecht, Prague, Paris and London.
The global financial crisis came to a head in 2008, and in 2009, together with four other KPF London partners, Karen founded a new company, PLP Architecture. Many clients transferred their business to PLP, and sixty-five of the team members working on those projects chose to join the new practice.
Karen’s experience extends throughout Europe and has been driven by her interest in cultures and languages. Key elements of her work focus on environmentally sustainable design that is aligned to her philosophy of integrating design and technology in making better places to work and live.
While at KPF Karen was the designer of several important office structures. These include Twenty-two, the City of London’s tallest building and, in Paris, Tour Montparnasse.
Karen’s team was one of only seven teams selected from over seven hundred proposals to rehabilitate the original office tower at the centre of Paris. Her award-winning Danube House in Prague was the first sustainable office building in the Czech Republic. Its dramatic interiors form part of the setting of the James Bond action film “Casino Royale.” Karen’s designs have been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Pompidou Center, Paris.
PLP Architecture has recently completed a number of important buildings, such as the Francis Crick Institute, the UK’s largest medical research facility; and the Edge, which Bloomberg called “the smartest building in the world” for its advances in technology. The British Research Establishment called the Edge “the world’s greenest building”.
Other clients for whom Karen has designed innovative workplaces and public spaces include Hines, Europolis, Union Investment Real Estate, Arab Investments, AXA Reims, Cogedim, ICADE, Ferinel, Beacon Capital, Land Securities, NS Vastgoed, James Andrews, Canary Wharf, and The New West End Company.
Old Town Class of 1959, Joe Cyr, Business and Community Man
The wheels on the bus have gone round and round for Joe Cyr and his entire family at Cyr Bus for over 100 years. During that time, Joe has done everything from secretary to payroll clerk to mechanic to driver since joining the company in 1962. Since then, Cyr Bus has emerged as one of the leaders in the state of Maine in the bussing industry. They are responsible daily for transporting thousands of students on school buses and moving many others on their fleet of coach buses. They have come a long way from the horse drawn carriages which moved mail and people in the early 1900’s.
Joe Cyr graduated from Old Town High School in 1959. He went on to post-secondary school at Farmington Teacher’s College and then Husson College, before leaving school to join the family business at John T. Cyr & Sons in 1962. After a couple of deaths in the family, Joe assumed control of the company in 1967, and then officially bought the business from his mother in 1970 making weekly payments to his mother for five years. The coach bus division started rolling in 1975, when Joe made his first coach bus purchase.
Through the 80’s and 90’s, Cyr Bus went through many changes, from expanding their coach bus service to acquiring larger school bus contracts to moving their facility from French Island to the place that they still call home today on Gilman Falls Avenue. Throughout this time, the family business became even more of a family business as Joe’s wife Susanne started doing payroll in the 1970’s, and along the way Joe & Sue’s children, Becky, Mike and Chris have worked for Cyr Bus, as did Joe’s brother Jerry for a short time. This family-owned business feel has left customers feeling right at home and cared for as they have reached destinations all over the state of Maine and Canada.
In 1991, the Maine Society of Entrepreneurs named Joe & Sue Cyr “Entrepreneurs of the Year,” and they were presented the award by former Senator Margaret Chase Smith. At that time, the company operated 120 buses and 25 vans with a staff of 150. John T. Cyr & Sons was considered the largest bus company in Maine. The company also owned 14 full-size coaches that could operate throughout the United States and Canada. A total of 50 different tours were offered, including one to Alaska.
Joe Cyr’s generosity and philanthropy are well-known. He is involved in the Orono/Old Town Rotary, and serves on the YMCA Board of Directors, Husson Board of Directors and St. Joe’s Board of Directors. He has been a generous supporter of many organizations, including Sarah’s House, EMMC and the YMCA, where his family name resides on the new field house. He has been a staunch supporter of the Old Town schools, where needed money has simply found its way to the cause with a wink, a smile, and a “don’t tell anyone.” John T. Cyr & Sons has been transporting students for almost 100 years. During that time, Joe Cyr has become the face of the operation and has successfully led his business through expansion and change. All the while, the wheels on the bus have kept rolling along. Old Town High School and RSU 34 are immensely proud of Joe’s contributions and accomplishments, and we welcome him to the Old Town High School Achievement Hall-of-Fame.
Old Town Class of 1966, Beth Hillson, Author
When Beth Hillson (’66) was diagnosed with celiac disease nearly forty years ago, there were no support groups, little information, and few foods. Unwilling to face a life of plain, uninteresting food, she attended culinary school in France and Germany to understand the principles of baking and cooking and to learn which dishes contained gluten.
Hers has been a lifelong quest to make delicious, safe food for herself and others. In 1993 she combined her culinary training and passion to create the Gluten-Free Pantry, one of the first gluten-free companies in the US. Known for its line of award-winning baking mixes and flourishing mail order business, Gluten-Free Pantry was the leader in the gluten free marketplace. Along with creating Gluten-Free Pantry’s great food and recipes, Beth began writing newsletters to help consumers manage their baking and lifestyle issues. She sold Gluten-Free Pantry to Glutino (Boulder Brands) in 2005. Gluten-Free Pantry baking mixes are still sold throughout the U.S.
Beth continues using pen and whisk to help gluten free people. She is a food writer and the food editor for Gluten Free & More magazine and the author of The Complete Guide to Living Well Gluten Free: Everything you Need to Know to go from Surviving to Thriving and Gluten-Free Makeovers: 175 Favorite Recipes Made Deliciously Gluten Free. Beth’s writing has appeared in many publications including the Huffington Post, The Daily Meal, Yoga International, Yankee Magazine, FamilyFun, Connecticut Magazine, Houston Chronicle, and the Hartford Courant. Her regular posts about the gluten-free diet, lifestyle and recipes appear on her blog www.glutenfreemakeovers.com.
Among her many gluten-free makeovers, Beth points to two as her biggest successes: the world-renowned G-Fronut, a gluten-free version of the Cronut and the Winkee, a gluten free version of the Twinkie. Beth says her greatest accomplishment professionally was being instrumental in getting the FDA to create gluten-free labels for food products, improving life for millions
A 1970 graduate of Syracuse University with a BA in journalism, Beth also earned an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University in 2011. She continues to speak to groups on the gluten-free diet, baking and lifestyle issues and advocates for patients and consumers. She also consults in recipe and gluten-free product development and writes content for guest blogs and online and print publications.
Old Town Class of 1948, Ralph Leonard, Business Man
Ralph Leonard graduated from Old Town High School in 1948. He was president of his class and the winner of the highest scholastic honors prize. During high school, Mr. Leonard participated in many athletic activities. His most distinguished extracurricular honor was having earned the title of Eagle Scout. Moreover, in 1994 he became only the second person from Maine to earn the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award since its inception in 1969. He earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point where he graduated with a B.S. degree in Engineering in 1952. Following his graduation from West Point he attended flight school at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma, where he was trained as a B-25 bomber pilot. In 1953, he married Anita Sargent and was assigned for duty in French Morocco. He returned to the United States in 1955 being assigned to Reno, Nevada. In 1957 he transferred to the Maine Air National Guard where he served until his retirement in 1984 having risen to the rank of Brigadier General and the Commander of the Maine Air National Guard. During his service in the Maine Air National Guard, he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General for the State of Maine from 1979-1984. A significant honor related to his military service was Mr. Leonard’s appointment as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army. As the Civilian Aide, it was through Mr. Leonard’s tireless efforts that led to the development of Old Town High School’s highly successful JROTC program that began in 2003. A highlight of Mr. Leonard’s career as a pilot came in 1964 when he piloted then first lady Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator and Mrs. Edmund Muskie to the dedication ceremonies of the new international park on Campobello Island, Canada.
Mr. Leonard’s business career began in 1956 when he joined Herb and Jim Sargent at Sargent Construction Company in Stillwater where he worked until 1990 serving as Chairman of the Board. In 1959 he became the owner and President of both the Central Equipment Company and White Signs Company, two positions that he still holds today. His business background earned him several noteworthy positions including the National Director of the National Association of General Contractors; President of the Maine Association of Contractors; President of the Maine Good Roads Association; Board of Directors of Fleet Bank; the Business Advisory Board of Husson University; and the University of Maine President’s Council. He has been honored by the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce as the winner of the prestigious Norman X. Dowd Achievement Award; and he has received an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration from Husson University.
Mr. Leonard’s civic and philanthropic activities are many. He is an active member of the Old Town Rotary; he served on the advisory council on family business at Husson; he has been a lay representative to the New England Council of the United Methodist Church; he has been a trustee for Eastern Maine Healthcare; the founding Chairman of the Board for Acadia Hospital; President of the Katahdin Council of the Boy Scouts of America; President of the Old Town/Orono YMCA; Board of Directors for the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross; and the Old Town City Council member serving as Mayor in 1961.
Old Town Class of 1989, Ryan McCannell, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Advisor to the U.S. Army War College
Since his student exchange trip to Sweden in the eighth grade with CISV, Ryan McCannell (’89) has known that the wider world would be his home. Ryan applied part of his national Coca-Cola scholarship to study abroad in West Africa and fell in love with the continent.
Ryan received a bachelor’s degree and certificate in African Studies from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, a masters in Geographic and Cartographic Sciences at George Mason University, and a masters in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College.
Ryan’s work over the years has featured a direct involvement with the people and governments of many African nations. In the late ’90’s Ryan worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and was responsible for designing and managing democracy support programs in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Malawi, South Africa, and the Central African Republic. For two years he held the position of NDI’s chief of party in Benin and Togo, where he organized training for political parties prior to elections in those two countries. Before NDI, Ryan worked as a democracy researcher for USAID. He has also worked as a social scientist at the Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington, DC.
Today Ryan is with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a senior advisor to the U.S. Army War College, serving as a member of the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) team at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Ryan previously served as the division chief for Conflict, Peacebuilding and Governance in the USAID Bureau for Africa. In that role he oversaw a team of 12 subject-matter experts who manage regional programs and advise USAID Missions in sub-Saharan Africa on democracy, human rights, governance, conflict mitigation, and civil-military relations. USAID also works to counter violent extremism, terrorism, and human and narcotics trafficking.
The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation scholarship provided Ryan the means to study in West Africa. He continues to pay it forward serving on the Foundation’s selection committees and offering career advice to scholars interested in his field. His role as a guide and mentor has kept him connected to today’s students. “Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see someone I’ve worked with and mentored get ahead and do remarkable things,” he says.
Ryan and his husband Jonathan Breeding, a risk manager for Freddie Mac, make their home in Arlington, Virginia. Ryan is the proud uncle of five nephews, Tyler, Connor, Alex and Jake McConnell, and Tegbaru Coiley, all of whom currently attend RUS 34 schools. Ryan would like to dedicate his award to his nephews and their parents who, Ryan believes, are the real achievers in his family.
Old Town Class of 1985, John Orcutt, Lawyer and Activist
John Orcutt (’85) attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts after graduating from OTHS. While at Tufts, he was one of the leaders of the LGBT community. John formed the first LGBT alumni group “Pride On The Hill” and secured funding for the first paid coordinator to increase programming and support services for LGBT students. He received a Community Service Award in 1988 for outstanding contributions to community life. In 1989 John was the initial recipient of the Multicultural Service Award. The award recognizes the student who has done the most to ensure no student receives a lesser educational experience due to race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Tufts, John moved to San Francisco where he worked at Pacific Primary, a pre-school that was named one of the “10 Best Daycares in America” by Parent Magazine during his tenure. From 1989 to 1998, John was a bookseller and manager at both the San Francisco and New York City branches of A Different Light Bookstore. From 1990 to 2003, he authored multiple editions of a series of guide books for gay travelers. San Francisco, Washington DC, and New York City were among the cities in the series. In 1995 the Bay Area Reporter named him one of San Francisco’s 50 “Queer Movers and Shakers”.
In 2003, 14 years after graduating from Tufts, John matriculated at City University of New York School of Law. Upon graduation in 2006, he became an Assistant Corporation Counsel at the New York City Law Department assigned to the Bronx Tort Unit. The Corporation Counsel heads the Law Department and acts as legal counsel for the Mayor, elected officials, the City and all its agencies. In 2008 John was promoted to Assistant Borough Chief of the Manhattan Tort Unit where, among other duties, he was in charge of the deposition desk and trained both incoming attorneys and pro-bono volunteer attorneys from white-shoe law firms. In 2017 he was promoted to Assistant Unit Chief of the Special Litigation Unit. SLU has defended New York City in civil lawsuits including Nixmary Brown, the ConEd Steampipe Explosion at Grand Central, Abner Louima, the Staten Island Ferry Crash of 2003, Eric Garner, the World Trade Center, Amadou Diallo, and other high exposure, wrongful death, and catastrophic injury cases.
John and his partner of 17 years Patrick Boucher, Managing Director HSBC, Global Banking and Markets, live in Manhattan and Fire Island Pines with their 4-year-old daughter Mila.
Old Town Class of 1975, Carol Ann Pelletier, Costume Designer
When Carol Ann Pelletier graduated in 1975 from OTHS, she had dreams of making an impact on the world both locally and globally. The first portion of her journey began when she enrolled at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Not long after earning her degree from Brandeis in 1979, Carol, who was fluent in Japanese, spent four years doing human rights work in Japan. When she returned to the States, Carol worked with Shirley Kaplan, director of the Japan Inn in Bronxville. Because of Carol’s fluency in Japanese, the staff there “treated her like an empress.”
Carol spent many years as a costume designer for Off-Broadway and experimental theatre productions. Among the many theatre companies with which she worked were LaMaMa, UBU Rep, and Theatre for the New City. Bruce Allardice, managing director of Ping Chong & Company, said “Carol was a magician—she made beautiful costumes appear out of thin air.”
A founding member of the Yara Arts Group, Carol travelled to Ukraine in 1991 where Yara performed “In the Light” with artists from Ukraine. The trip was documented by Amy Grapple in her film “Light from the East.” Yara performed in Kiev the week the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine declared its independence.
In 1993 Carol joined the theatre department at Sarah Lawrence University, where she spent 22 years preparing the next generation of theatre students for their professional careers. Carol designed costumes for hundreds of Sarah Lawrence productions, taught multiple courses, and supervised independent studies and projects. “Students loved her pluck and passion and treasured the professional guidance and support she generously lent them long after they graduated. She was the spirit and center of our design program,” according to her department chair. Carol established a support group for Sarah Lawrence theatre students who stayed in the NYC area after graduation. The group grew into an extensive professional network that met once a month.
To the Sarah Lawrence faculty and staff, Carol was nothing short of a marvel. Carol “always thought anything was possible.” Such consummate educators are hard to find. Losing one like Carol Pelletier, who died in August 2015, is even harder. (with thanks to Sarah Lawrence)
Old Town Class of 1943, Charles Norman Shay, An American Hero
Charles Norman Shay graduated from Old Town High School in 1942. In 1943 he was drafted into military service at the age of 19. He was selected for training as a medical technician and learned basic surgery skills. Mr. Shay joined the Medical Detachment of the First Division’s (“Big Red One”) 16th Infantry Regiment and was attached as a platoon medic to Fox Company. Mr. Shay was part of the first wave of allied landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Mr. Shay pulled several struggling soldiers from the rising tide, saving many immobilized wounded from drowning. He was also present helping the fallen at the Battles of Aachen, Huertgen Forest, and the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge).
Mr. Shay was later attached to a reconnaissance squadron moving into the small farming village of Auel near the Sieg River in Germany. The squadron encountered about 20 German soldiers accompanied by a Panzer tank with an 88mm weapon and were forced to surrender. The squadron was then marched 50-60 miles, moving only by night, to the POW camp Stalag VI-G. Mr. Shay was interrogated and held there until April 12, 1945 when American troops liberated the camp. He was sent home soon after.
Following WWII, Mr. Shay re-enlisted and was stationed in Vienna, Austria. It was there that he met his wife, Lilli, and they were married in 1950. When the Korean war broke out later that year, he joined the 3rd Division’s 7th Infantry Regiment as a medic . He served again as a combat medic in Korea.
Senior Master Sergeant (ret) Shay has been recognized for his bravery by earning significant military awards. He has been presented with a Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters; he has earned a Silver Star; and he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, making him the first Native American in Maine with the distinction of French Chevalier. Most notably, in June of 2017, Mr. Shay returned to Normandy for the dedication of the Charles Shay Indian Memorial Park which overlooks Omaha Beach. This park was the brainchild of Normandy resident Marie Legrand. Inspired by Shay’s heroism and aware that the President of France had inducted him into the Legion d”Honneur in 2007, she took the initiative to publicly memorialize this Native American war hero. Located in the park is a sculpture of a turtle; a symbol of the ancestral home of Shay and his fellow Native Americans who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Charles Norman Shay, an American hero, is an elder member of the Penobscot Nation. He and Lilli lived in Vienna until their relocation to Maine in 2003. Shay lives in the community of the Indian reservation where he spent his childhood. He has renovated the two-story wooden “Teepee” on Indian Island that his aunt Lucy and her Kiowa Indian husband Chief Bruce Poolaw built as a novelty shop to sell Lucy’s handmade baskets. He has restored the site as a small family museum. He has published his autobiography, Project Omaha Beach: The Life and Military Service of a Penobscot Indian Elder.
Old Town Class of 1919, Doris Twitchell Allen, Professor and Activist
Doris Twitchell Allen is a 1919 graduate of Old Town High School. Her father was a doctor and her mother an elementary school teacher. Following her graduation from OTHS, she enrolled at the University of Maine with the intention of becoming a physician. She graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1923. When her father became terminally ill, she opted to remain close to home. She continued her studies at the University of Maine and earned a master’s degree in biology in 1926.
During her time at Maine, she developed an interest in the mind and behavior. She then enrolled at the University of Michigan where she completed her doctoral degree in 1930. She did post-doctoral work at the University of Berlin in Germany from 1932-1933 studying with noted psychologists of the day.
Following her return to the United States, she served as the director of Child Education Foundation in New York City. It was during this time that she met her husband, patent attorney Eratus Smith Allen, with whom she had a son. Following her marriage, she moved with her husband to Cincinnati where she worked as a psychologist at eh Children’s Hospital for eleven years.
Following her work at the Children’s Hospital, she began a teaching career at the University of Cincinnati rising to the rank of Professor. She was named Professor Emeritus at UC in 1972. She published several scholarly works including the widely used Twitchell-Allen Three Dimensional Personality Test.
Doris Twitchell Allen is best known for her work for world peace through her efforts to overcome prejudices in adults. This ideal evolved into the Children’s International Summer Village (CISV) which continues to operate today. CISV has chapters in over 60 countries. Allen’s driving belief was that: “the power of love is greater than the love of power.”
For her work to bring about world peace, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Additionally, her work brought nominations for the Freedom Medal in 1989, as well as the Hague Appeal for Peace Prize and the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, both in 1991. She is the recipient of four honorary doctorates. The University of Maine has honored her by the naming of the Doris Twitchell Allen Village, a residential area of the University. Allen died in 2002 at the age of 100.
Old Town Class of 1991, Bridget Ziegelaar, Space Station Thermal Systems Controller, NASA
Bridget Renee Ziegelaar graduated from Old Town High School in 1991. During her time at OTHS she was actively involved with Representative Assembly, Key Club, Student Council, NHS, Band, Choir, Dirigo Girls’ State, Track, Cheering, and Soccer.
After high school, Ms. Ziegelaar remained close to home, attending The University of Maine at Orono where she went on to earn her Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. In 1999 she earned a Master’s Degree in science, technology, and public policy with a concentration in economics from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. As part of a fellowship with George Washington’s Space Policy Institute, she interned at NASA headquarters, working 3 days a week as a research associate. Bridget also spent one summer during her graduate school working in the Space Station International Partners Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston where she was part of a team assigned to make sure American-built components and Russian-built components of the International Space Station were compatible.
Her first full-time position with NASA was as a space station thermal systems controller. Part of her job involved sitting at a console in Mission Control where she monitored the complex systems that control temperatures inside the space station.
In April 2001, Bridget was appointed project manager for Extravehicular Activities, commonly known as space walks. Her job was coordinator of space walks for NASA’s space shuttle mission in November 2002. She was in charge of all the preparations for the mission’s space walks, including training the crew and making sure they had all of the right tools and equipment.
In 2002 Bridget was the recipient of the Spirit of Maine Achievement Award given by The University of Maine Alumni Association.
From February 2011 until June of 2012 Bridget worked at the International Space Station as the External Communications Manager. Currently, she is the Space Station Expedition Manager at NASA where she spends much of her time in Mission Control managing activity in orbit. Bridget lives in Houston with her husband, David, her two children Laurelie & Willem, and their two dogs.
RSU34 - Achievement Hall of Fame 
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