Person Page - 27

Ralph Massie Atkinson, 88, of Falmouth Foreside, and Falmouth By the Sea, died recovering from surgery on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011, at Maine Medical Center with his family beside him.
Mr. Atkinson was born on June 9, 1922, in Schenectady, N.Y., the son of Edward Grant and Adaline May Laut Atkinson. He attended Schenectady public schools graduating in 1941 and spent much of his childhood and teens at the family camp at Galway Lake learning to sail and canoe.
Mr. Atkinson entered Cornell University, spending two years enlisted in the Navy V12 program and graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1945. While at Cornell, he was a brother of Phi Kappa Psi - New York Alpha.
Following his marriage to Nancy Ellen Whittier, of Blawnenbury, N.J. at Trinity Church, Princeton, N.J. in September 1945, he was assigned to Davisville, R.I. Officers Training School, Naval Construction Battalion, Seabees Unit. After returning home from active duty in the Philippines, he was honorably discharged in May 1946.
Following his discharge, Ralph and Nancy went to Fort Kent to teach high school from August 1946 to June 1947. In the March 29, 1947 issue of 'Liberty' magazine, Ralph and Nancy were portrayed in an article entitled 'Frontier Teachers' documenting the young teachers' life in rural, northern Maine.
In 1952, Ralph and Nancy moved to Winchester, Mass., where they would raise a family until retiring to Falmouth Foreside in 1990. While in Winchester, Ralph was an active member of Town Meeting, the Winchester Housing Authority and a volunteer with 'CAP League,' a youth baseball program. He was a member of the Parish of the Epiphany Episcopal Church.
Mr. Atkinson's career included management and program consultant positions with Street and Smith Publications, General Foods Corporation, Stecher- Traung Schmidt Lithography Company, Diamond National Corporation, and the Executive Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Waltham, Mass. in 1988.
Mr. Atkinson was a life long bridge player attaining his ACBL certificated directorship and an avid reader of U.S. history and fly fishing stories.
Above all, his deep interest was for the time spent with family and friends at the Whittier family cottage at Juniper Point in West Boothbay Harbor whether it was splitting wood, enjoying sailing on the gaff rigged 'Small Fry' or hand jigging for cod on the 'Downeaster.' As a member of the Juniper Point Village Improvement Society, he volunteered his time at clambakes, and served on the housing and grounds committee.
Surviving are his wife Nancy of 65 years of marriage; his daughter, Sydney Ellen Atkinson of New Canaan, Conn., and his son, Scott Edward Atkinson and wife Meredith Mitchell Atkinson of West Boothbay Harbor. He was predeceased by his three older brothers, Randall, Cliften and Donald Atkinson, all of Schenectady, N.Y; and his oldest son, Christopher Whittier Atkinson of Falmouth.²