by Janet Clement
Coastal Journal contributor

Charlie Burden, a retired pediatrician and one of the founders of the Maine Maritime Museum, was born and raised in Bath. His mother Evelyn was a homemaker and the mother of three boys: Charlie (the eldest), Bruce, and David.

When Burden was a boy, his father Alexander worked at Bath Savings Bank for $25 a week. By the time Charlie went to college, his dad was earning $5,000 a year, and eventually became president of the bank.

Burden graduated from Morse High School in 1951, and was valedictorian of his class. While he didn’t go out for sports, he was the editor of the high school newspaper, the Mentor, and editor of the school yearbook.

As he got his homework done in school, he delivered papers for the Bath Daily Times after school, and eventually became circulation manager. At that time, the paper’s circulation was between 2,000 and 3,000, and part of his job was collecting money from the delivery boys. He worked as a lobsterman.

by Janet Clement
Coastal Journal contributor

Liz Proffetty of Sheepscot, a professional potter, was born in Massachusetts. She grew up in Bridgewater, a town south of Boston, in a classic Italian American family. She lived on a dead-end street. All her relatives had homes on that street as well – grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others more distantly related.

She graduated from Bridgewater Regional High School, and while in high school, she worked in an art shop. She was the first in her family to attend college. 

“It wasn’t that others in my family weren’t smart enough to go to college. It just wasn’t something they thought about. They were not really invested in going to college and didn’t expect me to go,” she said. 

In fact, Proffetty might not have considered going to college if it had not been for a high school teacher who took an interest in her and helped her check out several schools.

“I looked at many and decided I really loved the Portland School of Art, now called the Maine College of Art,” she said. 

by Janet Clement
Coastal Journal staff

Patty Walchli of Bowdoinham, a teacher, world traveler, boater and farmer, is a Jill of many trades. She has lead an interesting, adventurous, exciting and down to earth life and intends to keep it that way. In case you don’t notice, she has a dry and wry sense of humor.

Born and raised in Rumford (the girlhood home of both her mother, Phyllis, and her grandmother, Lulu Mae), Walchli attended Rumford schools and the University of Maine at Orono where she earned a degree in Child Development. Like her grandmother, who graduated from Farmington Normal School and taught in a one-room schoolhouse, Walchli spent many years teaching, including two years on Matinicus Island.