Norman P. Seagrave

Norman P. Seagrave, 97
BRUNSWICK -- Norman P. Seagrave, of Brunswick and Cliff Island, a decorated World War II veteran and international aviation lawyer who set national swimming records into his 90s, died peacefully on Aug. 24, 2013, in Santa Fe, N.M., at the age of 97.
He was the loving husband of Mary (Ryan), who died less than six months before him, and the adored and adoring father of four daughters. From 1992 until 2010, he and his wife lived full-time in Maine.
Warm-hearted, civic-minded, witty and exuberant, he lived a full and fascinating life. As a young Army officer commanding American and British troops in North Africa, he received both the Bronze Star and membership in the Order of the British Empire, and eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. As international law counsel for Pan American World Airways, he negotiated the first flights between New York and Moscow at the height of the Cold War. A lifelong Democrat who believed strongly in community service, he served six terms on the Board of Selectmen for the town of Darien, Conn.
Born on Jan. 31, 1916, in Uxbridge, Mass. and raised in Fall River, Mass., he was the second of three sons of Margaret and Arthur E. Seagrave. He graduated in 1937 from Bowdoin College, earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1940, then worked briefly for the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish before joining the Army.
After a distinguished war service, he joined the State Department, where he met and married his wife, and represented the U.S. in early international efforts to organize air transportation. They lived in Washington and Montreal before he was named civil air attache to the U.S. embassy in Rome. In 1954, the family settled in Darien when he accepted a job in New York with Pan Am, where he worked for about 25 years. He negotiated numerous commercial aviation agreements, and was instrumental in helping Afghanistan set up its own domestic airline. He later taught international business law at Franklin Pierce Law Center, now the University of New Hampshire School
Norman P. Seagrave
of Law.
Mr. Seagrave had lifelong interests in swimming and oratory. He excelled at backstroke, but his greatest success came as a member of relay teams, and his name still appears on the relay record boards at Bowdoin College for a race he won with his elder brother, Orville. As a U.S. Masters swimmer, he was a member of three relay teams that set All-American records, most recently when he was 92.
A lively raconteur, his early success on the Bowdoin debate team won him the nickname, 'Soapbox,' which stuck. He loved to recite long narrative poetry, including 'The Cremation of Sam McGee,' was much in demand to give civic speeches and to perform wedding ceremonies as a justice of the peace, and served as the auctioneer for the biennial community auction on Cliff Island, his beloved summer home.
A man of prodigious interests, he was as happy discussing global or local politics as he was fishing, tending his tomato plants or baking bread, as he did twice a week for most of his adult life. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he and his wife traveled widely until their 90s, when they moved from Brunswick to Santa Fe, N.M., to live with their oldest daughter, Anne. Even after his hearing, sight and finally even memory began to fail him, he was invariably gracious and congenial.
Mr. Seagrave is survived by his four daughters and their husbands, Anne and Reese Fullerton of Santa Fe, N.M., Molly and Walter Channing of Bridgehampton, N.Y., Jane Seagrave and John Kennedy of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., Martha Seagrave and Kurt Kaffenberger of Burlington, Vt.; 10 grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service is planned for Friday, Oct. 4 at 2:30 p.m. at the First Parish Church in Brunswick.
Memorial donations
may be made to:
The Norman P. Seagrave
Scholarship Fund
Care of Peter G. Collias
P.O. Box 2519,
Fall River, Massachusetts 02722