Comstock Small

Comstock Small
     PORT CLYDE -- Comstock Small of Port Clyde, died at Pen Bay Medical Center on Oct. 9, 2007. Son of Deane Benson Small and Jeanette Comstock Small, he was born May 1, 1922, in Cape Elizabeth. He graduated from Kimball Union Academy and Middlebury College as well as Syracuse University, Harvard School of Education and Simmons College. He served in the Pacific Theater as a photoreconnaissance and fighter pilot with the 82nd tactical reconnaissance squadron of the 5th Air Force from 1944 to 1946. He held a Fulbright grant to Italy in 1950-51to study land use patterns.
     Mr. Small taught at the university level and was a librarian at SUNY- Oneonta and Simon's Rock of Bard College before he became a librarian at the Pittsfield, Mass. Public Schools. He married Linda Horne in 1964 and they had three children. Elissa Small and Antonia Small, his daughters, were with him during his last weeks. His son, Derek Thomas Benson Small died in infancy.
     Mr. Small enjoyed travel, sailing, photography, skiing, and camping throughout New England. While he sailed small boats most of his life, he took his daughters for a week of sail training aboard the HMS Rose in 1995. He then joined his daughter, Antonia, for a week aboard the Rose in Ireland the following year. He was a tireless volunteer for the River Walk project in Great Barrington, Mass., as well as volunteering at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Mass., and at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Mass. He served on the Great Barrington Historical Society and the Stockbridge Conservation Commission. He often rowed his Alden Shell on the Housatonic River between Stockbridge and Glendale, Mass., and collected thousands of golf balls from the river, donating them to charity golf tournaments. He raised a small flock of sheep for many years and later loaned his open pastures to neighbors and friends for their horses.
     While he lived 35 years in Western Mass., he wanted to return to Maine. He and his family moved to Port Clyde in May 2006. Comstock will be sorely missed by family and friends living far and wide. His family is grateful to the St. George and Thomaston ambulance teams and to the staff at Pen Bay Medical Center for their extraordinary care of him during his last days. Comstock was very fond of taking his summer meals, or sunset view at Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde.
    Donations in his name can
    be made to:
    The Marshall Point
    Lighthouse Museum
    P.O. Box 247
    Port Clyde, Maine 04855