AUBURN- Jeffrey Glenn Durgin, age 48, passed away on Oct. 18, 2023 in Auburn.
Jeff loved the outdoors. He spent most of his youth and teen years enjoying Casco Bay on Can Do, the family’s lobster boat. He loved lobstering, camping, and exploring the islands throughout the year. He knew he wanted to lobster from an early age, and he was always happiest when he was on the ocean fishing with one of his German Shepards, Major or Solack, helping out.
He found a close connection with his grandparents Hugh and Mariann Durgin, with whom he spent a lot of time, learning about life on their farm in the backwoods, and fishing the small lakes and streams hidden in the deep woods of Maine.
Jeff had a very tough and rugged appearance due to his work on the ocean and propensity to bench press three-hundred pounds; with his strong appearance and German Shepard by his side, people often mistook him for an off duty police officer. While he evoked an image of cast-iron resilience, Jeff had a tender heart. He loved animals, and would take care of sick animals when others would give up. He once saved a baby squirrel which had fallen from its nest, caring for it and rehabilitating it until it returned to the wild of its own free will.
He also saved a seagull, which most people think of as pests; he nursed it back to health on fish he would catch, until it could be released back into the wild. He took care of a young, sick cat which others thought would die, brought it back to health, and cared for it over twenty years before it died of a very ripe old age for a cat.
Once, while lobstering on his boat It’ll Do in Casco Bay, he saw pedestrians and police on shore frantically signaling him, and pointing towards a man in the ocean clinging to a lobster buoy. Jeffrey rescued the stranded swimmer who had been caught in the bay’s currents, and received a commendation from the Portland Police Department for his efforts.
Years later Jeff would tell the story in his usual fun, sarcastic manner, that he wasn’t sure at the time if he was supposed to save the man, or punish him in accordance with Maine law for molesting lobster equipment. Jeff’s sense of humor will be missed.
Jeff’s life and time on the ocean was cut short in the last years of his life when he began falling down and having seizures from a degenerative brain disease in the broad category of Parkinson’s. He died on October 18th, 2023, at 48 years old.
Jeff is survived by his mother, Debra, and brother, Joshua, of Cornish, and by his father, Paul, and brother, Drew, of Portland. He is also survived by his nieces Melinda and Mia, by his aunts and uncles Donna and David, Sandra, Teresa, Anita and Danny, Hughie and Ann, and Dennis, by his cousins Dani, Jimmy, Christian and Jen, and Abby and Dan, and the children of his cousins Paradise, Geneva, Sam, Hope, and Vincent.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Poitras, Neal & York Funeral Home, Cornish, www.mainefuneral.com