John Race Chesebro

John Race Chesebro was born on New Year’s Eve 1939 in Newton Highlands, MA. He grew up and went to local schools there where he participated in track and field. Summers were spent in East Boothbay, ME swimming, sailing and fishing at the family cottage. John, his siblings and friends would walk 3 or 4 miles through the woods to the movies at the Opera House every Saturday by walking along the pipeline all the way to the harbor. Any kid that fell off had to go to the back of the line. The winner was whoever made it to the harbor at the front of the pipeline.

After high school, he went to the University of Maine Orono College of Engineering. It was on this campus where he met Pat, the love of his life. After graduation he worked in Albany, NY at the State of NY Engineering Department Bridge Division where he designed railroad bridges, among other structures. The following year he and Pat were married and honeymooned in Florida in June. They road-tripped down in his Triumph TR3 sports car with no AC. They stayed in a motel also with no AC. The only source of cooling was an old metal fan that John managed to stick his toe in while sleeping. They survived the trip and honeymoon despite the lack of AC.

A few months after their wedding, John underwent open heart surgery in Albany to close a hole in his heart. The birth defect kept him out of the military as a 4F designation.

After several years in Albany, both John & Pat wanted to get back to New England. John took a job at Whitman and Howard in Boston and Pat transferred to the Travelers Insurance Company. After a couple of years, they moved again to Portland, ME. John worked as city engineer for the city of Portland and Pat again transferred to Travelers. In the following years he worked at EC Jordan and TY Lyn in Portland.

Their son Christopher was born in 1972 and finally they were home in Maine. Skiing was a favorite sport and a land purchase at Sugarloaf got them started. John designed a 2 bedroom chalet and many building materials were carried from Boston to Sugarloaf each weekend. Family helped with the construction. Years later Christopher played hockey for the Portland High varsity team as a defenseman and as many a weekend was spent at the ice rink, the chalet was sold. John kept the team’s stats every year and at the end of the season would present the players with their own book of their and their teammates’ records.

After retirement, Florida was a nice change of pace and many years were spent at a park in Zephyrhills before finally moving permanently to Oceanview in Falmouth, ME in 2015.

John was great at cards playing both bridge and cribbage. Anyone that played him in cribbage quickly learned of his masterful playing and struggled through a few hands of cutthroat cribbage before admitting defeat. He often won the local cribbage tournaments playing with his son. He won the first and only cribbage tournament at Oceanview and was presented with a large trophy.

Sadly, John had Alzheimer’s which started in Florida and was manageable for several years. Finally it was necessary to live in Memory Care at Legacy. We are thankful for the good care we received there by the wonderful staff. John passed away on Monday, February 9th surrounded by the wonderful staff and his wife.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years Pat Chesebro; his brother Robert Chesebro Jr. and his wife Jane; his nephew Alan Chesebro and his wife Kimberly; his niece Debbie Chesebro and his nephew Andy York and his wife Cheryl; his niece Allison Aley and many cousins.

He was predeceased by his parents Robert Alan & Shirley (Gould) Chesebro; his son Christopher; his brother Gordon and his sister Nancy.

A committal service will take place at a later date to be announce.

If you wish to make a donation in his name, please donate to Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine at 3121 Hotel Road in Auburn or your favorite charity.