- Paul Ernest Nowell
YORK BEACH, Maine - Paul Ernest Nowell, 85, also of Winter Haven, Fla., died Friday, June 13, 2003, in Winter Haven, Fla.
He was born on Aug. 10, 1917, on the Nowell family farm at Knight's Pond in South Berwick, a son of Ernest Bradford Nowell and Lillian Boston Nowell. The eldest of five children, he was predeceased by Edith Elizabeth in September 1919, Alden Keith in July 1981, Forrest Delmore in 1991 and Herbert Bradford in June 2001.
He attended schools in South Berwick, graduating from Berwick Academy in June 1935. While a student at Berwick Academy he was continually on the honor roll, played on both the baseball and football teams and became an accomplished trumpet player. During 1937 and 1938 he attended the Chicago School of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, from whence he graduated in 1938. In January 1940 he was employed by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as an apprentice machinist; he graduated from the apprentice program as a first class machinist in 1943. Later, in 1944, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine and graduated from NCO school at Hoffman Island, N.Y., in 1945 as a chief boilerman. Subsequently he was assigned to the SS John Howland as chief boilerman in charge of the engineering department during North Atlantic convoys to the United Kingdom.
At the end of World War II he went into the construction business, initially constructing some dozen or more homes in a six-year period. In 1955, he started Paul E. Nowell General Contractor, entering the commercial construction field. Over a 15-year period, from 1955 to his "retirement" in 1970, he constructed seven schools including three in York, the York Hospital, a hydro-electric dam for CMP on the Little Ossipee River in Waterboro, the York Water District building and tower on York Heights, the Portsmouth Herald building and Worth Plaza in Portsmouth, a reception center and dispensary at the men's reformatory in South Windham and four additions at Kidder Press in Dover, among other projects.
After his "retirement," he purchased a home in Winter Haven, Fla., where he went to work for Boyce Construction on a "part-time" basis. Over the next 10 years he built a gymnasium and manual arts buildings at the Lake Wales (Fla.) High School, a physical education complex and computer sciences building at Valencia Community College in Orlando, a hobby shop and mess facilities buildings at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, three banks and finally a county jail in Bartow, Fla.
He was an avid outdoorsman, noted for his well-trained coon and bobcat hound dogs. He estimated he traveled well over 200 miles in snowshoes hunting bobcats with his favorite English Walker hound dog, Spot. Besides his hunting prowess, he was an avid golfer for 30 years, winning numerous trophies and honors. He often lamented he wished he had taken up golf sooner, as he learned the game in his late 30s as therapy to recover from a broken neck that occurred in a construction accident. He was also a 50-year-plus member of St. Aspinquid Masonic Lodge #198 of York, a former member of the York Beach Fire Department and an outfielder for its softball team and a member of the town of York Budget Committee.
His fondness for the town of York led him to volunteer to do a study of the overboard sewage discharges in York, from the Kittery-York town line in Brave Boat Harbor to the York-Ogunquit town line, including both the York and Cape Neddick rivers, the only study to date in the state of Maine.
During the course of his retirement he devoted a lot of time and research tracing the Nowell and Boston families' lineages back to 1066 and the invasion of England by William the Conqueror.
Perhaps, though, he was best known as a family man and for his devotion to same. He never missed an athletic or school event of his children from elementary school through high school, and his love and adoration of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren was legendary.
Survivors include his wife of almost 63 years, Elinor Trafton Nowell; a daughter and her husband, Polly Nowell Dean and David Dean, of Frostburg, Md.; a son and his wife, Ronald N. Nowell and Lori Damboise-Nowell, of Cape Neddick; four grandchildren, Kristin Nowell of Cape Neddick, Joshua Nowell of Atlanta, Ga., Ludia Nowell of Arundel and Daniel Nowell of Cape Neddick; two great-grandchildren, Raiden Nowell of Atlanta and Zoe Johnson of Arundel; and numerous nieces and nephews.
NOWELL - Paul E. Nowell of York Beach, Maine, died June 13, 2003, in Winter Haven, Fla. A public memorial service will be announced at a later date. Donations may be made in Mr. Nowell's name to the South Berwick/Wells Christian Church, South Berwick, Maine; or to the York Beach Volunteer Fire Department, York Beach, Maine.
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1917 - Yes, date unknown
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