Lyman Page

KENNEBUNKPORT - Dr. Lyman Page, 84, of Kennebunkport, a retired pediatric endocrinologist, died Sunday, July 3, 2016, at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough following a period of failing health.

Dr. Page was born in Hartford, Connecticut, a son of Isabelle Murtland and Charles Whitney Page. He attended Loomis School in Windsor, Connecticut, winning prizes for his academic achievement; attended Yale University on a ROTC scholarship and graduated with a major in English in the Class of 1953; earned a doctor of medicine degree from the Columbia School of Physicians and Surgeons in 1957; and did his internship at Stanford University.

Before practicing in Maine, he held positions with the Public Health Service in Washington, D.C., and later at Dartmouth College and Stanford University, where he continued medical research. In California, outside of his medical research, he was active in the Peace and Freedom party and in opposing the Vietnam War. He took his family to protest gatherings.

From 1970 to 1985, he practiced pediatrics, first in Saco with doctors Connor and Ross, and later in Portland and at his own practice in Kennebunk. He was the first board-certified pediatric endocrinologist in the state, and served at Maine Medical Center.

He remained politically active in Maine. He and friends founded Friends of Intelligent Land-Use (FOIL) and successfully kept an oil refinery from being established in southern Maine. He was also an early champion of protecting the night sky, and successfully advocated for shaded street lighting in downtown Kennebunkport.

Seeking new challenges in medicine, he moved to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he was chief of pediatrics in two hospitals. As a professor of pediatrics at Yale University, he helped train future pediatricians from around the world and led a Yale program in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at King Faisal Hospital. He returned to practicing pediatrics in Providence, Rhode Island, with Dr. Jay Orson, and joined the faculty at Brown University's medical school.

While in Providence, he also joined Rev. Daehler Hayes to serve as pediatrician for the Mission Evangelique Babtiste, Bethesda in Haiti.

He retired to Kennebunkport in 2002 and became a volunteer. He was a leader in developing Kennebunkport's Comprehensive Plan, was a docent for the Wells Estuarine Reserve, a trustee of the York County Audubon Society and a choir member of South Congregational Church, UCC, of Kennebunkport.

He was also active in the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), a non-denominational group that gathers annually to discuss the relation between science and religion.

He loved birding, skiing, sailing, tennis and singing, and enjoyed them all with great enthusiasm and skill, creating many laughs with friends and family. He was an avid sailor of "Indians" – a class of Alden--designed 21-foot sailboat – and organized the Great Cape Island Indian Race.

He is survived by: his wife, Gillet Thomas Page of Kennebunkport; a daughter, Gwen Meredith Page of Kennebunk; and two sons, Lyman Page Jr. and wife Elizabeth Olson and their three sons, William, James and Brent Page of Princeton, New Jersey and New York, and Andrew Murtland Page and Maya Charlton of Berkeley, California, and their children Kai and Lila Page.

Visiting hours will be 4-6 p.m. Friday, July 15, at Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 16, at South Congregational Church on Temple Street in Kennebunkport.

Should friends choose, memorial donations to the following causes would be appreciated: Loomis Chaffee School, 4 Batchelder Road, Windsor, CT 06095; Sweetser Children Home, 50 Moody St., Saco, ME 04072; Hospice of Southern Maine, U.S. Route One, #1, Scarborough, ME 04074; and Mission Evangelique Babtiste Bethesda/UCC, 600 Fall River Ave., Seekonk, RI 02771.

Arrangements are in care of Bibber Memorial Chapel. To share a memory or leave a message of condolence, please visit Lyman's Book of Memories Page at bibberfuneral.com.