SHAPLEIGH- William R. Hutchins, Jr., age 92, passed away on Friday, March 31, 2017 at his home in Shapleigh, Maine from age-related complications leading to pneumonia. Bill was born in Farmington, NH on April 27, 1924 near Dick Dame Brook and the home of his maternal grandfather, Sam Vinton Arnold II. He was the son of Floretta (Arnold) Hutchins and Reed Hutchins of Springvale, ME. He is predeceased by his younger brother, Charlie, who died at age 7 and his sister, Rosemary (Hutchins) Grue.
Growing up in Springvale, Bill was an avid outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman. From an early age he went exploring with his dog, Tarzan, in the woods, streams and lakes around the Mousam River and Stump Pond behind his family’s house on Ellsworth St. He played basketball at Sanford High School and graduated in 1942.
Bill entered the Army Air Force in 1943 and in August that year he was shipped out to North Africa on a large convoy of troopships and destroyers that landed at Oran, Algeria. He recently shared many memories of the War with his family, such as playing basketball against the rough and tumble French troops in North Africa. He then went to Corsica as part of the Signal Corps and Air-Sea Rescue. Just before VE Day in May 1945 he was moved to Florence, Italy where he was stationed through the end of the War.
When Bill returned home he went to work in the Portsmouth Navy Yard for several years and then into the Sanford textile mills, where he met his wife-to-be of 68 years, Patricia Farrin, originally of South Portland and a recent graduate of Nasson College in Springvale. Soon after Bill got a job in the Springvale Post Office where he worked for more than 30 years. Pat and Bill were married in June 1948.
Bill and Pat worked and saved to buy a piece of rural property, eventually securing an FHA loan in 1952 to purchase 140 acres of woodlands and fields in Shapleigh. This would be their home together for 54 years where they raised two sons, Dana Wade and John Winslow Hutchins. In 1959 Bill began building a house on the site of the old Sayward Farm homestead. Bill and his father, Reed Hutchins, did most of the construction themselves over the next three years. In the spring of 1963 the family moved from Roles St. in Springvale into their new home.
By the time the family moved in, Bill had already hand-planted over 10,000 white pine and Norway Spruce seedlings in the fields he had bush hogged. Over the years he and his family would improve and maintain the land as wildlife habitat for deer, wild turkeys, pheasant, partridge and other native species. This was one of Bill’s major passions in life and he pursued it to the fullest up until his final days.
In the late 1960s a half acre wildlife pond was planned and dug behind the house and stocked with trout from the state hatchery. Then in 1970 he started maple sugar production, eventually building a rustic evaporator house from timber he cut on the property. Bill operated the sugar house for almost 30 years, one of the first such operations in Shapleigh in many years. He often hosted visiting students from Shapleigh Memorial School during maple sugar season.
Bill is survived by his much loved wife, Pat, his sons, Dana and Dana’s wife, Bessie of Falmouth, Maine, and by John and his companion, Diane of Shapleigh, along with John’s two daughters (Bill’s granddaughters) Leanne and Emily with John’s former wife, Gina Hutchins. Bill is also survived by Dana’s step-son, Ren Moulton, his wife, Maura Woodward and their two children, Bill’s step-great grandchildren, Renny and Ella of Brooklyn, NY.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the conservation trust Bill and Pat helped create, the Three Rivers Land Trust, at www.3rlt.org or to Three Rivers Land Trust, P.O. Box 295, Alfred, Maine 04002.
There will be a memorial service on Saturday, April 22, 2PM at the Springvale First Baptist Church, 429 Main St. Springvale.
Online condolence messages can be submitted at www.mainefuneral.com
Arrangements have been entrusted to Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service, Buxton. Proudly Serving Veterans