UMaine Awards a Graduate Degree Started in 1950

Six years ago, Howard Reiche Jr. started “putting things away” that he felt he could “do without” in order to devote as much time as possible to other more pressing family commitments, including caring for his beloved wife, Stevie. About six months ago, shortly after his 85th birthday, he renewed his focus on some longstanding personal goals, priorities and “unfinished business.”

“I realized I needed a change in my life,” says the Portland, Maine, native who is a long-time resident of Falmouth.

That’s when Reiche got to work on his bucket list. He dusted off his cello that, six years ago, he’d put in the corner of his office, and he started taking lessons. He took up watercolor painting again and started swimming three half-miles every week. He also renewed his 20-year passion of collecting 18th-century autographs of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence (he has 37 of the 55).

In August, he also contacted the University of Maine Graduate School to see if he could finish the master’s degree he started in 1950.

“I have a bucket list of things that I want to accomplish and this was on my list to talk to somebody about,” says Reiche. “I just needed somebody to say it might be worthwhile looking at this.”

After graduating from Bowdoin College, Reiche enrolled at UMaine in 1950 to pursue a master’s degree in zoology and study microbial genetics. He completed the two semesters of coursework, passed his final exams and was set to finish his thesis when he was told that he was supposed to have taken organic chemistry at Bowdoin prior to enrolling in the master’s program at UMaine.

“At the time, I was 21, married, with no money and the draft hanging over my head,” says Reiche. “Spending another year at UMaine to take one undergraduate course was out of the question. But it’s been on my bucket list all this time.”

Reiche left the university to take a temporary teaching position, and then spent three years as a medical services corps officer in the U.S. Air Force. Following discharge from the military, he launched what would become a 32-year career in Maine’s paper industry.

“S.D. Warren Paper Company was looking for nonengineers who had college degrees with an abundance of science and math,” Reiche says. “Four of us were hired, along with engineers from UMaine and Syracuse.”

Through the years at S.D. Warren and then Scott Paper, Reiche worked in product quality control, sales and customer service, and production. Before retiring in 1988, he was mill manager at the Westbrook, Maine, mill and a vice president in the global corporation.

He also researched and wrote books, including Closeness: Memories of Mrs. Munjoy’s Hill (2002) and The Smile of Providence: A History of Gilead, Maine 1804–2004 (coauthored in 2004).

It was that body of lifetime workplace experience that UMaine evaluated as prior learning equivalent to the few remaining credits needed to fulfill a nonthesis master’s degree. Oct. 7 in a ceremony in Falmouth, UMaine will award Reiche a Master of Professional Studies degree in Biochemistry.

“Mr. Reiche’s career in the fields of medicine, science, engineering and business, coupled with his broad body of unique experiences over a lifetime, stand as a tribute to the man and highlight the importance of maintaining interest, pursuing knowledge and giving 100 percent,” said Carol Kim, UMaine vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. “We’re happy that, by conferring the long-overdue master’s degree on Mr. Reiche, we could help him with this important accomplishment.”

With his UMaine degree, Reiche will join a dozen other family members who are University of Maine alumni. Both of his children, Stacey and Ford, graduated with UMaine degrees in 1979 and 1976 respectively. His father and namesake graduated from UMaine with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in biology in 1924 and 1936, respectively, and went on to a legendary career in education. The Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland’s West End is named for his father.

“The University of Maine has always been a part of the family,” says Reiche, whose UMaine memories include attending football games as a boy and hearing his father reminisce about putting himself through college as a member of the Harmony Hounds. “It made me very, very happy that UMaine followed up on my weird request.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745