Herbert Hodgkins, Lobster Institute Volunteer, to Receive “Barn Raiser” Award
Contact: Cathy Billings, Lobster Institute, 581-1443 or 581-2751
ORONO, Maine — “Well, I think we just cured a lobster.” With those words, he was hooked, and Herb Hodgkins has been a volunteer with the University of Maine and the Lobster Institute ever since for nearly thirty years.
This year Herb, a resident of Hancock, is being recognized by Yankee Magazine for his years of dedicated volunteerism as a recipient of their 2004 Barn Raiser Award. According to Yankee Magazine, “This prestigious award honors the spirit of old-time barn raisings, when people joined hands to create New England’s communities. It is presented to those who personify the best of the volunteer spirit.”
A representative from Yankee will be on hand as the Lobster Institute celebrates Herb’s Barn Raiser Award with a reception on Tuesday, August 24 from 4 — 6 p.m. at the Gallery & Restaurant at Oceanwood Campground in Bunkers Harbor. The community is invited and RSVPs are requested by calling the Lobster Institute at 207-581-1443.
Herb’s first volunteer work with Professor Bob Bayer of the University of Maine was in the mid 1970s. It involved helping to find a cure for gaffkemia or “red tail” disease — a bacterial menace that was infecting lobsters being held in tidal pounds. Bayer had a trial vaccine that needed to be tested, and Herb offered the use of his lobster pound and his lobsters for the trials. Herb, Bayer, and several UMaine students hand-injected hundreds of lobsters with the vaccine. Herb diligently checked the lobsters and recorded observations until that day when Bayer finally announced, “Well I think we just cured a lobster.”
With that, Herb became one of UMaine’s and the Lobster Institute’s most dedicated and longstanding volunteers. In fact, in the mid-1980s Herb played an integral part in the formation of the Lobster Institute. As then president of the Maine Lobster Pound Association, he joined with the heads of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Import/Export Lobster Dealers, and others in approaching UMaine about creating an organization that would connect all sectors of the lobster industry with each other as well as with scientist.
In 1987, the Lobster Institute was formed. An all-volunteer Board of Advisors was recruited, and Herb served as the first vice chairman of that group — a post he holds to this day. Based at UMaine, the Lobster Institute’s core functions include communication, technical assistance, research, and educational programs to help secure the lobster resource and the vitality of lobstering as an industry and as a way of life.
Herb has been involved in many research projects over the years, contributing his lobsters, his equipment, his time, or all of these. He has worked on several lobster health studies; he stores and maintains the Lobster Institute’s research vessel, the RV Blackfly; he has been a speaker at Lobster Institute community presentations and at Lobster College. His most recent volunteer activity involves studies on alternative soy-based lobster bait.
Herb’s commitment and reliability as a volunteer continue to set the standard for both the Lobster Institute and for the lobster industry. His many other volunteer efforts include service to his home community of Hancock, Maine; the Maine Lobster Pound Association; and the Frenchman Bay Conservancy.
For more information about the reception to honor Herb, contact Cathy Billings at the Lobster Institute at 581-1443 or 581-2751.