Richard C. Hoyt

1938 - 2025

Richard C. Hoyt

Lubec, ME - The loving family of Richard C. (Dick) Hoyt is sad to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle. Dick was born on April 11, 1938, to Richard W. Hoyt and Barbara E. (Betty) Collins Hoyt. He died after a short illness on February 23, 2025 at the age of 86.

Dick graduated from Arms Academy and wrote the following for his 50th class reunion. "I made it through 2 1/2 years at Bates learning how to play poker and flunking out midway through my junior year. After a year of shoveling coal, digging ditches, swinging a hammer on a survey crew on the B&M Railroad and working in a local radio station, I went back to Bates and graduated with a degree in French with our class of 1961. I then enlisted in the Army for three years.

Spent 47 weeks learning Russian at the Army Language School in Monterey and nearly 2 years in Germany with the Army Security Agency. I spent the next 36 years teaching and coordinating programs in French, Russian and Spanish in public and private schools, including some colleges, in Massachusetts and Vermont. Along the way, I picked up an MA from Middlebury and an MA in educational administration from UMass. In the 1970s, I spent about 10 years leading outdoor adventure experiences and incorporating experiential techniques into my classroom teaching.

In 1983 while at the Putney School I answered Jean's personal ad in the Keene New Hampshire alternative newspaper and in 1985 moved down to her 80 acre farm in Winchendon, Massachusetts where we had an organic farm for the next 23 years and where I fulfilled a lifelong dream of hand milking our family cow. After we retired, we opened a B&B on the farm and ran it until we sold the farm and moved to Lubec in 2002."

In Lubec, Dick stayed involved in his local community as a volunteer French and Spanish teacher, and as a volunteer guide at the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, and by helping to start the open-air Lubec Market. He grew much of his own vegetables, tended a small orchard of old variety apple trees, and was proud to row his locally crafted 17 foot Saint Pierre Dory on Cobscook Bay.

Dick joined the Quakers in Lubec, serving as clerk of Cobscook Friends Meeting for a few years, and for many years stood in silent Peace vigil in Lubec on Saturday mornings.

Dick was married to Carol Cummings from 1964 to 1981. He is survived by his wife, Jean Bookman; five children - Jonathan Hoyt (Astrid), William Hoyt (Anna), Jennifer Wood (Christine), Aaron Fincke and Alana Fincke (Jack); six grandchildren - Vivviene, Jasper, Jonah, Eva, Colin and Caitlin; siblings - Cynthia Laffond (Leonard), Nancy Dallas (Donald), and John (Ted) Hoyt (Gina); nieces, nephews and cousins.

Burial in his home town of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts will take place on July 19, 2025, and a Quaker memorial service will be held on August 9, 2025, in Lubec. ME. Celebrations of his life will be held in both places after the services. Time and place to be announced at a later date.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Down East EMS, The Peace and Justice Center in Bangor, and Maine Veterans for Peace.