Silver Tracks Spring 2025
Message from the Chair, President’s Council of Retired Employees
Greetings to University of Maine Retirees,
I am looking forward to seeing you at Homecoming on Thursday, June 5. We believe we have another great program including a presentation on staying engaged as we age by Professor Lenard Kaye, School of Social Work. Don’t forget the President’s remarks, organization tables, awards ceremonies, complimentary lunch, door prizes and four tours plus seeing friends.
Each year the University of Maine Retirees Harold Brown scholarship is awarded to a student whose relative has been employed at the University of Maine. This scholarship is helping our own while remembering and honoring a former colleague. We all thank current and deceased retired employees who have helped fund the Harold Brown scholarship so that its value as of December 31, 2024 was $26,254 with an award of $541. It is time for me to step up and add to the UM Retirees Harold Brown Scholarship and thus increase the yearly stipend. I hope some of you will join me at our website.
Thomas Sandford
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Emeritus
Retiree Homecoming
Mark your calendar! Please join us from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 5.
- Location: Wells Conference Center on the Orono campus. 131 Munson Rd.
- Parking: A parking lot will be reserved (the “Wells Lot” across from Wells on Munson — look for the signs).
- Check In: Arrival confirmation, parking passes, tour tickets, handouts, etc.
- Organizational Fair: Over 23 organizations available to meet you including Alight, Aetna, UM Benefits, Eastern Area Agency on Aging, Senior College, Fogler Library, Franco American Centre, Hudson Museum, Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, UM Extension, and the Versant Power Astronomy Center.
- Program:
- Welcome and Remarks.
- Keynote by Dr. Lenard Kaye, Professor of Social Work and past Director of the Center on Aging. “Staying Engaged as We Age: It’s Just Plain Old Good Medicine.”
- Introduction of the Hikel Awardee for 2025.
- Announcement of the Brown Scholarship Awardee.
- Free lunch and door prizes.
- Four optional after-lunch tours: Hudson Museum, Athletics Facilities, Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Lab, and Hotel Ursa (formerly Cobern Hall and Holmes Hall). See below for more information about the tours.
- See information on registering for the Retiree Homecoming.
A Note from UMaine President Ferrini-Mundy
This year marks 160 years since the founding of the University of Maine. Established in 1865 through the Morrill Land-Grant Act, UMaine was built on the then revolutionary idea that higher education should be accessible to all, not just the wealthy or elite.
As Maine’s land-grant institution, our mission always has been to serve the public good, expand access to education, and connect academic knowledge with real-world applications. Today, our commitment remains strong, but the ways we fulfill this mission have evolved to meet the needs of today’s students and society.
A modern reflection of UMaine’s founding principles is the Research Learning Experiences (RLEs) program. Launched in 2021, RLEs provide first-year and transfer students with hands-on research opportunities from day one. Today, we offer 152 RLE course sections across the UMaine System, with 68 of those at UMaine and UMaine Machias. These courses engage nearly 2,000 students, helping them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills while making real-world connections in their fields.
RLEs also encourage our students to pursue research in greater depth through other robust hands-on research opportunities offered on our Orono and Machias campuses. UMaine’s strength in research, innovation and outreach continues to gain national and international recognition: in February, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reaffirmed UMaine’s status as a “Research 1” institution, the highest and most prestigious category of American research universities.
Construction is underway for the Green Engineering and Materials Building (GEM), an innovative facility will house the Factory of the Future, a hub for advanced digital manufacturing, materials science, and adaptive learning spaces. The GEM building will exemplify our commitment to being a learner-centered R1 university; it will provide immersive, hands-on learning experiences for students at UMaine and throughout the University of Maine System, supporting the development of tomorrow’s leaders in technology and innovation.
As we celebrate UMaine’s rich history, we are also looking forward. Strategic Re-Envisioning (SRE) is a bold initiative designed to shape UMaine’s future as a leader in education, research, and public service. SRE is about more than refining what exists—it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we deliver education and support students in ways that benefit our students, state and nation.
As UMaine celebrates 160 years, we honor our history while embracing bold ideas for the future. Our commitment to student success, hands-on learning, and innovation ensures that UMaine remains a leader in education and research for generations to come.
To our retirees: Your years of service and many contributions helped shape this university, and your legacy lives on in its continued growth and, more importantly, our students’ success. Thank you for being part of UMaine’s incredible journey.
Joan Ferrini-Mundy
President, University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias
Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation
University of Maine System
Your 2025 Homecoming Keynote Speaker: Lenard W. Kaye, DSW, PhD
Lenard W. Kaye is Professor of Social Work, Immediate Past Director of the Center on Aging, and Past Interim Director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the University of Maine. A prolific writer in the fields of health and human services and aging, he has published approximately 200 journal articles and book chapters and 17 books on specialized topics in aging including older adult part-time work and the federal SCSEP initiative, social isolation and loneliness, home health care, productive aging, aging in rural America, family caregiving, controversial issues in aging, support groups for older women, and congregate housing. His research and writing on older men’s caregiving experiences and help-seeking behaviors, is widely recognized and frequently cited. His recent books include Social Isolation of Older Adults: Strategies to Bolster Health and Well-Being, Springer Publishing Company (2019) and the Handbook of Rural Aging, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (2021). Forthcoming books include: A Man’s Guide to Healthy Aging, 2nd ed. (Johns Hopkins Press), The Social Isolation and Loneliness Epidemic: Examining the Facts (Bloomsbury Academic Inc.), International Perspectives on Older Adult Social Isolation and Loneliness (Frontiers in Public Health) and Portraits in Tenacity: Aging in the Oldest State (University of Maine Press).
He is the past Co-Principal Investigator of The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation Designation of Excellence in Person-Centered Long-Term Care and currently the Lead Evaluator of AgingME2, Maine’s Geriatrics Workforce Development Program. His research and training projects have been funded through the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA), Administration for Community Living/Administration on Aging (ACL/AoA), U.S.DHHS, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and multiple national and regional foundations. He is a Past President of both the Maine and New York State Gerontological Societies and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work and Journal of Aging Life Care, and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.
Meet Heath Kennedy, this year’s Harold “Brownie” Brown Scholarship Recipient
Heath Kennedy, the great-nephew of the late University of Maine Professor Emeritus of Physics Kenneth Brownstein and Instructor in English Andrea M. Brownstein, is this year’s recipient of the University of Maine Retirees Harold “Brownie” Brown Scholarship Fund, and he has reached out to thank the group for its generosity in assisting in his education.
Heath is a musician at heart, playing the piano since he was five years old, and the tuba since 5th grade. When he came to the University of Maine, Music Performance was an obvious pick for his major. He participates in the University of Maine Symphonic Band and is an Undergraduate Research Fellow at the McGillicuddy Humanities Center.
“This scholarship has done so much to help me afford my education. College isn’t cheap, and this has allowed me to be able to continue following my dreams and study to become a performer. I am so grateful,” said Heath.
Heath is certain to have a bright future with his University of Maine education, and we all look forward to his future performances.
The University of Maine Scholarship Fund was established at the University of Maine Foundation in 2013 by the President’s Council of Retired Employees. The fund provides financial assistance to students in good academic standing attending the University of Maine in Orono who are relatives of University of Maine retirees. As of December 2024, the scholarship fund has grown to $26, 254. We invite retirees to consider supporting this important fund. For additional information, contact Sarah McPartland-Good at 1-800-982-8503 or saram@maine.edu, or gifts can be made online: our.umaine.edu/retirees.
The President’s Council for Retired Employees wishes to thank the University of Maine Foundation for their support of the Silver Tracks Newsletter and other activities of the council.
The 2024 Barbara Hikel Award Recipient: Jim Bird
This Hikel Award was established in 2006 in memory and recognition of Barbara Hikel, an exemplary UMaine employee who stayed involved with the university for many years after her retirement. The award is presented to a University of Maine retiree who provides extraordinary voluntary service to our university. Retirees contribute to our community in many ways, and the Barbara Hikel Award provides meaningful recognition of those efforts.
The recipient of the Barbara Hikel Award must be a University of Maine retiree with at least ten years of university service and age 55 or older. Typically, those eligible for the award have been retired from the university for at least three years before their nomination. The President’s Council for University of Maine Retirees is proud to announce Jim Bird as the 2024 recipient of the Hikel Award.
Jim Bird worked at Fogler Library for 21 years as a science librarian and head of the library’s Science and Engineering Center. During this time, he also became involved with the Orono Bog Boardwalk, first as a volunteer, and then as Director in 2008. Jim retired in 2014 but has continued to serve the University as Bog Boardwalk Director.
The Orono Bog Boardwalk is one of the most popular outdoor destinations not only for the City of Bangor but regionally and statewide with 25,000-35,000 visitors annually from more than 20 countries. The Boardwalk is managed by volunteers from the University of Maine, the Orono Land Trust and the City of Bangor.
Its one mile loop begins in the Bangor City Forest before crossing into a portion of the Orono Bog owned by the University of Maine. While traveling along the boardwalk, visitors experience an ecological transition from upland mixed forest through forested wetlands and eventually into the open landscape of the Orono Bog. Interpretive signs describing the unique flora and fauna of the bog greet visitors along the way. The Bog Boardwalk is wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant, and the Orono Bog is designated by the US Park Service as a National Natural Landmark.
As Director of the Boardwalk, the first task Jim tackled was boardwalk reconstruction. The original construction needed to be replaced in order to keep it safe for visitors and functional over the long-term. To raise the funds needed, Jim organized a successful fundraising campaign which included writing and submitting several grants, and leading other fund-raising activities for the Boardwalk. Jim coordinated numerous other fundraising efforts beyond grant writing, but the one most emblematic of his character, selflessness, and dedication has to be the boardwalk yard sale.
Each year, Jim would take donations from community members of items they no longer needed and would amass them for an annual yard sale to benefit the boardwalk reconstruction. Jim personally directed a volunteer and his pickup truck to hundreds of people’s homes to pick up their donations, stored them, often in his own garage, and then hosted the yard sale at his own home with his wife Mary on Main Street in Orono. Over 14 years Jim quietly raised more than $40,000 from his front lawn.
In total, the nine-year process culminated with the replacement of the entire Boardwalk with an overall cost of approximately $1 million dollars. That effort would not have happened without Jim’s leadership and drive to see the project complete.
In addition to fund raising, Jim worked alongside other volunteers investing thousands of hours to remove the old wooden boardwalk and install the new sections. For the last 15 years, Jim Bird has been the heart and soul of the Orono Bog Boardwalk. He is a true inspiration, and in his retirement his contributions to the University of Maine via the boardwalk exemplify the definition of extraordinary service.
Share Your Climate Story
After another winter, and with early spring upon us, perhaps this is a good time to reflect on our ever-changing world and environment. Do you have an experience to share that contrasts the climate of decades ago when winters seemed to be colder and a little longer than in recent years?
Perhaps it was ice skating in early November; snow lasting into April; or being able to start the garden a week earlier than when you were younger; or maybe there is simply a remarkable weather event that you experienced and will never forget. Whether you spent your life in Maine or have lived in places far and wide: If you have a story to tell, please share it with us! Send your story to Sarah McPartland-Good (sarahm@maine.edu) of the University of Maine Foundation.
(FYI: Our newsletter staff may edit your submission for clarity and length.)
2025 Retiree Homecoming Tours
We are offering four different tours after lunch. You must indicate your preference when registering. Assignments are first-come, first-served. We can offer limited shuttle service for those needing special accommodations.
- Hudson Museum: Gretchen Faulkner, Director of the Hudson Museum, will lead the tour of the Hudson Museum. The Hudson Museum maintains a collection of over 9,000 objects, many of which are Native American and dating back to 2000BC. Convenient parking is near the museum in the Collins Center for the Arts lot.
- Hotel Ursa: The new on-campus hotel located a few blocks down the road from the Wells Conference Center. The hotel includes two extensively refurbished historic buildings, Holmes and Coburn, and the new Polaris Hall.
- Athletic Facilities: A walking tour, led by Deputy Athletic Director Jason Grunkemeyer, will include the Pierre & Catherine Labat Softball Complex, the new field hockey complex, the new Mahaney Dome and Memorial Gym facilities. UMaine Athletics has recently upgraded many facilities with multiple updates underway.
- Tick Lab: Griffin Dill, the manager, will lead the tour of the Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory. This new lab provides diagnosis, testing and research for pest management, agriculture and wildlife for the State of Maine. This tour will be a presentation at Wells Conference Center if registration exceeds 25 retirees. If registration is 25 retirees or less, the tour will go to the laboratory where there is sufficient parking.
New Balance Recreation Center News
Retirees With Silver Sneakers
Retirees with a medical insurance plan that includes Silver Sneakers get free access to the Recreation Center and are eligible to participate in programs included in a regular Recreation Center membership. Spouses eligible via Medicare and on the retiree’s insurance are also included in the household membership. Spouses who do not qualify pay a secondary fee of $125/year.
Visiting SilverSneakers.com should be the first course of action for all retirees. This website shows potential eligibility provided by their individual insurance providers and access to local gyms wherever they live.
Retirees with a Silver Sneakers plan should visit the New Balance Recreation Center to complete the membership paperwork required by Silver Sneakers. The Center processes that information and checks eligibility via Silver Sneakers. This needs to be done annually per Silver Sneakers policy.
Retirees Without Silver Sneakers
The Recreation Center has been providing a retiree membership that functions like Silver Sneakers for retirees who are on other forms of insurance but fully retired from the university. The retiree receives a membership and can add their spouse if eligible or add the spouse to the membership for $125 if they are not. Neither plan includes additional family members like grandchildren or adult children.
For the non-Silver Sneakers membership, retirees should contact Kristie Deschesne,
Associate Director for Programming kristie.deschesne@maine.edu, to set up the membership. The requirements echo Silver Sneakers, and the individual must be retired from the University of Maine. Information required include name, retirement date, and insurance plan (to check if they are eligible for Silver Sneakers). Also, a liability waiver needs to be signed. Each retiree and their spouse’s case can be unique, so it can take a little time to figure out and ensure fairness.The Retirees Without Silver Sneakers program is for this calendar year 2025 and may change in the following years as the programs and eligibility of individuals change.
UMaine Machias retirees should check with the Murdock Reynolds Acquitic and Fitness Center for policies. The same holds true for all campuses of the University of Maine System.
Programs Appropriate for Retirees
Specific programs appropriate for retirees offered by the Recreation Center include Fit over 50, Senior Yoga, Aqua Burn, and Personal Training. While some of these programs have fees, it is important to recognize their value to one’s lifestyle, independence, and finances in saving healthcare costs and medicines.
For additional information contact:
Jeff Hunt, Director of Campus Recreation at 207-581-3054, fax 207-581-4898, or email at jhunt@maine.edu.
Stay in Touch and Homecoming Registration
Please register for Homecoming and/or update your contact information online:
If you are unable to complete your registration online, please call the University of Maine Foundation at 207-581-7787. The staff will gather your information and complete your registration.
Remember to let us know whether you are bringing a guest and if either of you require any special accommodations.
Also, if you plan on joining a tour after lunch, be prepared to choose from our four tours ( a first and second choice if desired).
- Tour of the new on-campus Hotel Ursa (including historic campus buildings Coburn and Holmes Halls). Maximum 20 retirees.
- Tour of the Hudson Museum including behind the displays. Maximum 25 retirees.
- Walking tour (hard hats not required) of upgraded athletic facilities including softball, field hockey, Mahaney dome and memorial Gym. Maximum 50 retirees. Learn more at goblackbears.com by viewing their “Facilities Plan.”
- Tour of Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory. Presentation tour in Wells Conference Center for a maximum of ≥26 retirees, or tour the Laboratory if ≤25 retirees. The Laboratory is a 7-minute car ride from Wells Conference Center. Please provide your own transportation.
Register by May 23, 2025.
The President’s Council of Retired Employees
Thomas Sandford, Chair
Rick Borgman, Vice Chair
Richard Judd, Secretary
Louis Bassano
Gail Dyer-Martin
Cindy Eves-Thomas
Rich Kent
Claire Strickland
Althea Tibbetts
Gail Werrbach
Isabella LoRusso
Sarah McPartland-Good
Jeffery Mills
Tom Peaco
Mission Statement
The Council will enhance communication between the University of Maine and the community of retired employees. The Council will encourage active involvement of retirees in the life of the University. The Council will provide advice to the University’s President on matters of importance to retirees and the University community in general.
The University of Maine System is an equal opportunity institution committed to nondiscrimination.