Edward M. Holmes ’33


Edward M. Holmes ’33 died July 23, at Tall Pines in Belfast, Maine. He moved to Maine with his wife, Jane, in 1939 and they lived for several years on Gotts Island and in various coastal towns. Since 2003 Ted lived in Prospect, Maine, with his daughter and her partner. Over the years Ted worked on a floating theater in New York, in the shipyards in Maine during World War II, organizing lobster fisherman cooperatives in coastal towns and on the islands, digging clams, trucking lobsters, and working as first mate on cruise schooners out of Camden. After Dartmouth Ted earned master’s degrees from the University of Maine in Orono and Brown University, where he later earned his doctorate as well. Ted began teaching in 1954 at Farmington State Teacher’s College, now the University of Maine in Farmington, and in 1956 at the University of Maine in Orono, where he taught English and then honors courses well into his 80s. Ted may be best known as a writer of short stories and essays about the Maine coast and its people. His books include Mostly Maine, A Part of the Maine and Driftwood and the novel Two If By Sea. He also wrote a column for Down East magazine for a number of years. Ted was predeceased by his wife, Jane, in 1983. He is survived by daughter Caroline and her husband, Lawrence; daughter Virginia and her partner, Shirley; daughter Constance and her husband, Daniel; grandchildren Anna, Lucy, Jacob and Robin; and great-grandchildren Sylvie Jane and Willa Jean.