H. Stanley Palmer

Of China, ME and South Bristol, Maine died January 30, 2004 at Maine General Medical Center, Thayer Unit, Waterville, Maine. He was born in Wellesley, MA, January 26, 1923, a son of Francis Claude Digby Palmer and Helen Georgiana Smith. A 1941 graduate of Huntington School for Boys, Boston, MA, he went on to the University of Maine. He joined the Army Air Force in 1942 and served in active duty through 1945. He earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA in 1948. As first Lieutenant, Army Air Corps, Pilot, 8th Air Force, 335 Bombardment Squadron, 95th Bombardment Group, he flew 30 missions over enemy territory. He flew in Operation Manna/Chowhound, the allied food droppings, May/April 1945. He received European African Middle Eastern Service Medal, Victory Medal, Air Medal, four Oak Leaf Cluster Awards and two stars. In 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while serving as a pilot of the B-17 aircraft "Doodle-Bug" on a combat mission over Berlin, Germany. He was honorably discharged in 1956 as Captain Horace S. Palmer. He began his professional career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as a design engineer. He left to become a project engineer at Acushnet Process Company, New Bedford, MA. In 1958 he went to work for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 1965 he became Superintendent of Mechanical Services. He left MIT in 1972 to become Plant Engineer at Colby College, Waterville, Maine. He retired from Colby College in 1985 as Associate Vice President of Facilities and Planning. As a member of APPA he was appointed to the President's Energy Task Force and served from 1975 to 1979. During his professional career and continuing after retirement he did private consulting in the field of engineering facilities management for a variety of educational institutions, manufacturing firms and non-profit organizations. An avid outdoorsman and sportsman, he belonged to the Sheepscot Lake Fish and Game Association, the Arnold Trail Sportsman's Association and Ducks Unlimited. He was an active member of the Maine Retriever Trial Club, Inc. for over 25 years, serving as secretary from 1977 to 1980. He is predeceased by his wife of 54 years, Judith H. Palmer. He is survived by two daughters, Cynthia Palmer Sherman and her husband Paul Sherman Jr. of Damariscotta, Maine and Jennifer Palmer Goodyear and husband David Goodyear of Olympia, Washington. He leaves four grandchildren, William Manassah Sherman, Devon Leslie Sherman, Andrew Whitman Goodyear and Michelle Anne Goodyear. He will be greatly missed by his dear friends Alice R. Morgan of Cumberland, ME and Dick Arbour of Port Charlotte, FL. He is also survived by his faithful Labrador Retriever, Scooter. Arrangements are by Redington Funeral Home, 5 Park Street, WATERVILLE, MAINE. A Memorial Service will be held at a later date. Interment will be private at the family plot, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, ME. Donations in his memory may be made to the TarTan Gordon Setter Club Rescue, c/o Phyllis Lundy, 75 Jared Sparks Road, Willington, CT 06279 or Maine Ducks Unlimited, c/o Bill Brown, 61 Holmes Brook Lane, Winthrop, ME 04364.