Person Page - 544

He studied for the law and entered the office of Isaac Parker of Portland. After the elevation of that gentleman to the bench Sewall entered into a partnership with Mr. Mellen who was happy to do the advocacy whilst he remained in the office but he still preferred the quiet pursuits of the scholar, and devoted much time to poetry and prose composition. While in practice, he prepared and published a Register of Maine. He was Secretary of the Senate; and later, he assumed editorship of the the Portland Advertiser.⁷

He was a member of the firm Arthur Sewall & Co., Shipbuilders of Bath, Maine. After graduating from the Worcester, Massachusetts Polytechnical Institute in 1882 he went on to study at John Hopkins University, he then entered a mercantile office in San Francisco remaining there for three years. He then returned to Bath to become a member of the Sewall shipbuilding company. He subsequently became president of the Bath Savings Institution; director of the Fidelity Trust Company of Portland and director of the Sandy River and Rangely Lakes railroad.³

Former Bainbridge resident William D. Sewall, 83, of Bath, Maine, died April 26.
He was born in Bath, Maine, on Jan. 22, 1921, the son of Arthur and Laura Barler Sewall. He was educated at Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the United States military from September 1942 to February 1946. He was awarded two medals and several military citations.
He and his wife, the former Phebe Buckman, moved to Seattle in 1951, and to Bainbridge Island in 1956. He worked as an accountant for Boeing and as a stock broker for Dominick & Dominick before owning and operating Western Tours, Inc. While in Bainbridge, he co-founded the Port Madison Yacht Club. He was a lifelong Rotarian. He retired in 1979 and returned to his family home, Stonehouse Farm, in Maine. He devoted the remainder of his life to a variety of civic and philanthropic concerns. His first project after returning to Bath was to help with fund-raising for the restoration of the steeple of the Winter Street Church. He helped open the new Maine Maritime Museum; presided over and fund-raising for the Coastal Humane Society; was actively involved in the Bath Rotary; and delivered Meals on Wheels to senior citizens. He also co-founded the Sewall Family Fund for the purpose of restoring and preserving Bath's maritime history and artifacts. His favorite charities included the Coastal Humane Society, the Bath YMCA, the Maine Maritime Museum, the Patten Free Library and the city of Bath ambulance service.
He was preceded in death by his wife in 1993, and sister Mary Hyde, who died in 1990. He is survived by four daughters: Abbie Sewall of Yarmouth, Maine; Laura Sewall of Phippsburg, Maine; Gretchen Sewall and her husband Harry Laban of Edmonds, Washington; and Lee Sewall and her husband Mike McAleney of Cumberland, Maine; six grandchildren, Emma and Thatcher Sewall Shultz of Yarmouth, Maine; Emmett and Asher Laban of Edmonds, Wash; Deehan and Elizabeth McAleney of Cumberland, Maine; and three nieces and nephews. Bainbridge Island Review, April 2003.¹