Henry S. Maxfield Sr.

1923 - 2013

Wolfeboro - Henry Southwick Maxfield Sr., 90, passed away suddenly at Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, following a brief illness.

Born in Boston on June 4, 1923, he was the son of William Reginald and Ruth Southwick Maxfield. He attended the Brown & Nichols School in Cambridge, Mass., and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1947, Class of '4S.

During World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. During his flight training, he met Elizabeth (Betty) Dura Burchenal on a blind date and they married in 1944. During the war, he served as a navigator on a B-24 Liberator, a bomber, operating out of England. His plane was shot down over Germany, and he was one of only four survivors out of a crew of 10. After six months in a POW camp, he was liberated by Gen. George Patton. Upon returning home, Henry went back to Bowdoin on the G.I. Bill with his wife and soon-to-be born daughter, Dura.

In 1949, Henry and family purchased a home on Allen Road in Wolfeboro, which he had come to know from summers at Camp Kabeyun in East Alton. It was here he commenced his writing career. Not meeting with much initial success, Henry tried many occupations to include selling shrubbery door to door.

In 1951, his son, Chip, was born. Soon thereafter, Henry, Betty, Dura and Chip went to Switzerland where Henry did graduate work and signed on with the Central Intelligence Agency. While overseas, he worked the Berlin desk in Germany and later moved back to the states and Virginia. By 1954, with the war and the CIA behind him, the family moved back Wolfeboro. Henry opened a real estate office in his home and commenced writing again.

In 1957, he wrote a play titled "Money in the Bank," which aired on television's Matinee playhouse. In 1958, his first book, "Legacy of a Spy," was published. It was made into a movie, "The Double Man" (1967) starring Yul Brynner and Britt Ekland, and it premiered at the Hatch Theater in Wolfeboro. His second book, "Another Spring," which uses Wolfeboro as a backdrop and includes a few local characters, was published in 1974. He wrote and published five other novels as well as "Detours 1," his autobiography covering the early years of his life through 1942. As a younger man, he had an Actors' Equity card and performed summer stock with the Barnstormers in Tamworth.

Henry took part in many town affairs. He served as Chamber of Commerce president, (1957-58), worked the Huggins Hospital Street Fair, helped with the purchase of Carry Beach, led the fight to defeat the Route 28 bypass, and helped to get zoning established in Wolfeboro.

On the business side, he and Betty opened the Basket Barn at The Mill Wheel and moved the real estate office there from their home. For a few years, they had a second office in Ossipee adjacent to the Indian Mound Golf Course. In real estate, he developed Sleeper Island in West Alton with Sam Rogers, developed a large parcel in Gilmanton, created the Westwood Bay cooperative, developed Point 11 in Wolfeboro, and bought and sold several other parcels. He and Betty sold the real estate company to their son and daughter-in-law in 1982.

He was passionate about politics, and for the past several years, he was a regular contributor to the letters section of the Granite State News. Henry will be most fondly remembered for the stories he loved to tell and share with others.

He leaves behind his wife of 69 years, Betty Maxfield; daughter Dura Winder; son Henry (Chip) Maxfield Jr. and daughter-in-law, Tina Maxfield. In addition, he leaves grandson Caleb Winder and spouse, Phoebe Sears Winder; grandson Jesse Winder and partner, Doina Contescu; granddaughter Laura Maxfield Smith and spouse, Jordan Smith; grandson Henry (Max) Maxfield, III; and two great grandchildren, Avery and Charlie Winder..

SERVICES: There will be a celebration of Henry's life on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 11 a.m. at All Saints Church in Wolfeboro, with a reception following in the church.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be sent to Friends of Wolfeboro Town Hall, P.O. Box 901, Wolfeboro, NH 03894, designated as a gift in memory of Henry Maxfield.