Stanley W Kent

Falmouth, ME- Dr. Stanley Webber Kent died on December 13, 2017 in Falmouth, following a long illness. He was born on October 20, 1924 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Rev. William J. Kent and Justine W. Kent. He grew up in Denver, Colorado. Graduating from high school with limited prospects for college, he volunteered to go to Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack and help the Navy rebuild. Returning a year later, his asthma prevented him from becoming a pilot, so he joined the Merchant Marine and trained as a radio officer. His trips included one which kept the ship frozen into the ice for the winter in Murmansk while trucks unloaded military equipment and vehicles to help the Russians fight the Germans. Following the war, he completed three years of college at University of Colorado in two years, and was then accepted at Harvard Medical School.

While a student there, he lived and worked at a Harvard teaching hospital, where he met his future wife, Connie Barker, who worked in the research laboratory. They were married at the end of his third year of medical school, and after graduation and a year of internship at New England Center hospital in Boston, Stan enlisted in the army during the Korean War. After serving in Providence, RI for two years, he completed a year of surgical residency and three years of obstetrics and gynecology residency in Boston. He then joined Dr. Warren Baldwin in practice in Portland, Maine, so they returned to Connie’s birthplace and he joined the staff at Maine Medical Center. In later years, Stan also partnered with Dr. Harry Bennert, Dr. Donald McCrann, and Dr. David Youngs. In 1974, he and three other physicians established a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical Center, which still continues to graduate four specialists every year. He also enjoyed teaching medical students from the University of Vermont and Tufts Medical School when the hospital served as a partner to those schools.

Stan enjoyed his large and ever more refined vegetable garden, producing large quantities of fresh vegetables every summer. He also loved fishing, and used his small Boston Whaler to pursue bluefish, striped bass, and salmon in Casco Bay, the Kennebec River, and Sebago Lake. Another great source of pleasure was extensive travel, largely focused on natural history, and including nineteen countries and numerous U.S. parks and natural areas. His photography filled many albums with wonderful reminders of the interesting wildlife and scenery he and Connie had enjoyed.

Stan was predeceased by his brother, Roxley, and his daughter Susan Winslow, and is survived by his wife of 66 years, Connie, his sister Phyllis Long, his son Thomas and wife Susan, his son John, his son-in-law Raimond Winslow, sister-in-law Roberta Barker, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. An informal gathering in his memory will be held in Blueberry Commons at OceanView, Marion Way, in Falmouth, on January 6, 2018 at 2 o’clock.

Suggestions for donations on Stan’s behalf include the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Maine Audubon Society, or Sweetser.