Former head of the Maine Savings, Bank Barrett C. Nichols, died on June 11 at the age of 108. With cards and cigars, golf was his passion, and since his retirement 40 years ago he played nearly 300 rounds annually, got six holes-in-one, the last at the Portland Country Club at the age of 90. A long-time resident of the Maine coast, Barrett was an avid supporter of his alma mater, Bowdoin College, and according to a recent letter from the school holds the record as the longest living Bowdoin alumnus. Barrett was the son of Frank B. Nichols of Round Pond, Maine, and Ella Nickels of Cherryfield, Maine. He grew up in Bath, where his father owned the Bath Daily Times and, later, the Brunswick Record. After attending grammar school there, he went to Samuel Morse high School and then Philips Andover Academy. He left Andover prematurely, owing to a matter of smoking in his room. “Dumbest thing I ever did in my life” he said much later. After graduating from Hebron Academy in 1921, he went to Bowdoin College where he ran track, played baseball, and majored in ballroom and bridge. His yearbook contains this description: “He has a line and a manner that would thaw the coldest and most forlorn person…a dance that he misses is an unimportant one indeed.”
In a bridge game shortly after leaving Brunswick he made an aggressive four spade bid which prompted his opponent to offer him a job in the investment company of Merrill Oldham. Later, trading government bonds in New York City, he supplemented his income with Saturday afternoon cards. On a winning day he would call his wife, Lovis Sawyer, whom he had married in 1929, and say: “Get on your duds, Lovis. We are out on the town tonight.” For 60 years he kept the folding top hat and white kid gloves that were his evening attire at the theater in the 1920s. While in New York he also played B League squash.
Later, associates recommended him to the Shawmut Corporation. In 1933, at the height of the depression, a Bowdoin friend introduced Barrett to the FDIC. Within a short time he was installed as president of the Peoples’ National Bank of Barre, Vermont where he spent 16 years . The small city in Vermont at that time offered an array of ethnic communities: Italian stone cutters, Spanish granite workers, French Canadian farmers, a clutch of Syrians, Jewish merchants, and a community of Scots as well as native New Englanders. Barrett reveled in the assemblage and did business with them all. On Sunday afternoons in non-golfing weather, he sometimes drove his children over the green hills in the bank coupe to visit clients, sometimes just to check on their well-being, other times to join in their sugaring. He took a personal interest in their progress. His support of young people starting out in business was legendary. He developed a fine intuition about character when making loans. When questioned by the state banking inspectors as to why he made an unsecured loan, Barrett replied: “I believe in that young man, he will pay it back.” Often over the years in Vermont, he said to his family with a straight face but a twinkle in his eye, “The bank examiners were upset with me, again.” As he had expected, those loans were invariably repaid.
In Barre he indulged in his two favorite avocations: golf and bridge. Dashing down the fairway late in the summer afternoon, he would hit two balls, perfecting the breakneck speed with which he would later annoy golfing partners. He played bridge or pinochle once or twice a week, and on winter weekends at the Vincitia Club. One card partner there, allegedly, was the head of the communist party of Vermont. Barrett left Vermont to lead the Maine Savings Bank in 1950 and remained there until his retirement in 1970. When it was announced that he was leaving Barre, the family would awake to find ‘tributes’ on the back porch: a fresh killed turkey, a gallon of maple syrup, a case of home-canned food. He always knew the identity of the giver. Grateful clients sent goodbye notes to his office which Barrett would read and toss into the wastepaper basket. His secretary would ferret them out at the end of the day and surreptitiously bring them home to his wife. All his life, Barrett was uncomfortable with receiving praise but generous in dispensing it to others.
After retiring from the Maine Saving Bank, he lived happily for many years on the shore of Falmouth Foreside, hosting family holiday gatherings, complete with lobster races on the living room floor. He would sail with friends, play cards and billiards, and most importantly, golf. With his son Barry he won the Meadows ‘ Member Guest Tournament in a shoot- out at 100 years of age. He shot his age hundreds of times, was twice winner of the Maine Seniors, thrice of the Portland CC senior tourney. Two senior championships are named for him, one at the Meadows Country Club in Sarasota, Florida, where he winter golfed for over 25 years, and the other, the New England Senior Golfers July Tournament. Not surprisingly, many referred to him as “a legend in his own time.” Relatives called him “the Coach.” Two years ago he was inducted into the Maine Golf Hall of Fame.
A sentimental man, one could observe large gumball tears form in his eyes when beholding his extended family at a holiday celebration. A Down-Easter to the core, he did not articulate his feelings of affection, and often appeared gruff. But his immense generosity stunned and embarrassed his then young son-in-law. Particularly in later years, he was overwhelmingly generous to others but miserly with himself. Barrett had a sense of joy in the world, breaking into “Oh What a Beautiful Morning, Oh was a beautiful Day….” when he saw a clear blue sky or the sun-sparkled Casco Bay. Even in the last dark weeks, he would make a comment and laugh, though no one could understand his words.
Perhaps his good humored attitude spread to his health: he never had a major illness, and he lived independently until well past 100. Only at 106, after a case of the shingles and with increasing ill-balance did he need assistance in living. “Fruit,” he said,”lots of fruit,” and of course, constant activity. His parting advice to a very elderly neighbor was “Keep it moving, Betty.” Or it may have been the whiskey sours at lunch: “and I don’t mean lemonade” he would say to the waitress. To one neighbor he said “only an ounce and a half, but if your fingers should slip a little, that’s ok.”
His first wife, Lovis, died in 1975, and his second wife, Katharine Graves Phillips Nichols died in 1998. He is survived by his daughter Sukey Nichols Wagner of Colebrook CT, his son Barry Nichols of Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, and Barry’s wife, Sara Hay Nichols; by four grandchildren, Thomas Nichols of Duxbury, MA, Susan Nichols of Exeter New Hampshire, Benjamin Wagner of Sacramento, CA and Lisa Quinn McClean of Washington DC; and by ten great grandchildren.
Contributions in his memory would be welcomed at the
Maine Medical Center
22 Bramhall St.
Portland, ME 04102
or
Bowdoin College Brunswick
5000 College Station
Brunswick, ME 04011
There will be a celebratory reception at the Portland Country Club on August 3rd, 5 to 7 p.m. Those who wish to attend please email [email protected] or call 207 781 2340, by July 25.
Arrangements are being handled by Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home 199 Woodford St. Portland.
Please visit www.jonesrichandhutchins.com for additional information and to sign Barrett’s guestbook.
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