Harold Alfond

Family-Placed Obituary

HAROLD ALFOND 1914-2007 Harold Alfond, loving and beloved patriarch, business entrepreneur, founder of Dexter Shoe Company, and Maine philanthropist died on November 16, 2007 after a two-decade long battle with cancer. He was 93 and a resident of Palm Beach, Florida. While intending to return to Florida, Alfond was in Maine at the time of his death for treatment by the physicians, nurses, and staff of MaineGeneral Hospital, whom he called “the best in the nation”. An unassuming man whose eyes twinkled with affection and purpose, Alfond was considered a giant of the shoe industry as well as a man with a giant heart. With only a high school education, but with lessons of team work and fortitude learned on the playing fields of Swampscott High School, he entered the New England shoe manufacturing after graduation in the position of “odd shoe boy”, at Kesslen Shoe Company; in 1940, bought an abandoned factory with the proceeds of the sale of his car to found Norrwock Shoe Company, which was sold in 1944 to Shoe Corporation of America; founded Dexter Shoe Company in 1958; and sold the company to Warren Buffet taking back Berkshire Hathaway stock in 1993. Equal to his passion for the shoe business was his devotion to philanthropy. Beginning with the foundation he and his late wife Dorothy established in 1950, the first private foundation in Maine, he directed millions of dollars to health care, educational institutions, scholarships and social services agencies, primarily in Maine. In keeping with that tradition, Alfond committed almost all his wealth to the Harold Alfond Foundation, which will continue to fund charitable institutions and programs in the State of Maine for generations to come. Alfond was just as passionate about sports and, since 1978, he and his family have been owners, initially through the invitation of the late Jean Yawkey, of the Boston Red Sox. He was also the driving force behind the development of the award-winning Belgrade Lakes Golf Course. Harold Alfond was predeceased by his parents, Simon and Rose; his beloved wife of 62 years, Dorothy Bibby Alfond; and his sisters Grace Wolper, Bertha Miller and Anne Leland. He leaves his brother, David Alfond and wife Delores; sister Gladys Nathanson; son Ted and wife Barbara; his daughter Susan; his son Bill and wife Joan; and his son Peter, and his business associate and nephew Peter Lunder and wife Paula. He also leaves 13 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; many nieces nephews, and his and Bibby's dear, longtime companion, Alice Emery. A public service celebrating the life of Harold Alfond will be held in the spring on a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Harold Alfond to the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care at MaineGeneral, 157 Capitol Street, Augusta, ME 04330; Good Will-Hinckley School and Home for Boys and Girls, PO Box 159, Hinckley, ME 04944; or the Alfond Youth Center, 126 North Street, Waterville, ME 04901. Arrangements are under the direction of the Redington Funeral Home in Waterville, Maine. To express condolences and/or make donations Visit PalmBeachPost.com/obituaries