John Elliott Hodgkins

John was born in Farmington, Maine on February 23rd, 1935, the son of Elliott and Clarice Hodgkins. He spent his boyhood in Temple, Maine, and following his graduation from Farmington High School, earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from the University of Maine. He was hired by the Maine Department of Transportation a few summers during college, and was offered a permanent position after graduating.

In July 1965, John married Elizabeth Gamage of Augusta, a union that lasted for nearly 54 years until her untimely death in 2019. He was able to find love again with Rachel Green in 2020.

John headed the construction activities at the MDOT for many years, and was credited with bringing many new and contemporary contracting practices to the department. He served as State Traffic Engineer for a time, during which he implemented the Right Turn on Red law and wrote the regulatory procedures for Official Business Directional Signing. Also, as Traffic Engineer he had his “15 minutes of fame” when he denied Casper Weimberger’s request to lower the speed limit in front of his house on Mount Desert Island, a story that made it into the New York Times. He was quoted, “It didn’t make any difference who he was. I was more careful in writing the letter, though, I wanted it to be grammatically correct.”

John was subsequently named Director of the Bureau of Project Development. During his years at MDOT, he was accused more than once by his contemporaries of not being an “especially strong leader.” He retired from MDOT in 1999, however, as Deputy Chief Engineer after 47 years of professional public engineering, more than half of it in management.

John was the recipient of many awards for civil engineering excellence, including the coveted David H. Stevens award presented by MDOT and the ASCE Engineer of the Year Award for Zone 1.

John served as adjunct faculty in civil engineering at the University of Maine where he taught highway design and construction. He also participated for many years as a member of the Maine State Board of Property Tax Review, appointed, or reappointed, by three different governors. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Cold War.

As a freelance writer during John’s retirement, he wrote book reviews for Library Journal, essays and pieces detailing his personal experiences and travels for various magazines and newsletters. He authored two memoirs: A Soldier’s Son; An American Boyhood During World War II, the story of his boyhood in Temple, published in 2006 by Down East Books, which was followed by the self-published Our Game was Baseball, the post-World War II story of his growing up playing town ball with the Temple Townies, a team, he says, “that saved a town” in 2010. In 2020, his third book, Boiling Off, was published, part memoir and part history of maple sugaring in Maine.

John was principal owner of Jackson Mountain Farms in Temple, Maine where he and his wife Elizibeth produced maple syrup for more than fifty years. His maple syrup won many ribbons for quality in state and international contests. He consistently preached in his sugarhouse that the final test of the quality of maple syrup was its taste. “If it doesn’t taste good, it’s not good,” he said many times. He also grew Christmas trees for the cut-your-own market at his sometimes farm, “Pavements End,” in Temple, where he enjoyed keeping in contact with his boyhood surroundings.

John served on many volunteer committees and boards: President of the Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and for several years was on the national Board of Direction of ASCE; the Board of Directors of Bridgecorp Inc.; the Board of Directors of Temple Stream Theater; Chair of the Board of Deacons and several other boards at First Parish Church in Yarmouth, Maine; President of the Maine Maple Producers Association twice; and on the MMPA Board of Directors for many years. He was also a member of Maine Lodge 20 A.F. & A.M. in Farmington.

John served as Chair of the Yarmouth Zoning Board of Appeals, Chair of the Yarmouth Historical Society, as a member of the Yarmouth Planning Board, and as a member of the Yarmouth Central Men’s Club. He was a member of the first Parish Congregational Church in Yarmouth, where he taught Sunday School, served as Scoutmaster of Yarmouth BSA Troop 35 for many years, served as a counselor at Pilgrim Lodge church camp in West Gardiner, Maine, and coached little league baseball in Temple, Maine.

John had several outdoor hobbies. He raced canoes through whitewater rapids; ran marathons; hiked the Appalachian Trail throughout the New England states in various stages; climbed Mount Katahdin a few times (three times in winter); climbed the Grand Teton in Wyoming on rock, ice, and snow in his sixties; traveled to nineteen foreign countries; and played golf in twenty-five of the forty-seven states he visited.

John is predeceased by his lovely wife Elizabeth, his sister Nancy and her husband Bill Swank.

He is survived by his second love Rachel Green of Yarmouth, Maine, his children, daughter Bethel and her husband Bob Stephens of Brentwood, New Hampshire, sons Jack Hodgkins of Superior, Colorado, and Bill Hodgkins and his spouse Joe Wyspianski of Portland, Maine, sister Patti Hodgkins of Salem, New Hampshire, and seven dear grandchildren.

Due to family schedules and obligations services will be planned at a later date.

Contributions may be made in John’s memory to Maine Boys to Men, PO Box 8325 Portland, Maine 04104; and the Temple Historical Society, P.O.Box 375 Temple. ME 04984.