as told to Annee Tara
Coast Journal contributor

Ken Brunsvold lives in Bath, where he makes Native American flutes he calls Spirit Wind, because “I just thought ‘Well, when you’re playing the flute – if you’re blowing into it, there’s a wind that comes out. And if you’re really into it, there’s a spirit there.’ So, I thought well Spirit Wind would be an appropriate name for the flute.” His latest project is with John Dennen (Coastal Journal Coastal Character, May 31, 2012); they plan to make a CD that will be distributed to Rotary Clubs around the world to use as a fundraiser. He will be offering a flute-making workshop in the coming weeks. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Here is his story, and a little of his philosophy of life:

I’ve spent my whole life in music. I was very accomplished singer. Starting in junior high, I also played instruments. I started originally with the piano when I was about the third grade. And so I’ve always had this great love for music and then later on, when I was 15, I started playing guitar. I’ve played guitar my whole life – and sang. I went to the West Coast in 1969. The hippie era. I stood on the corner of Haight and Ashbury – just going like “wow” in 1969. I sang all over the area; I got involved with this other man, and we sang as a duo and were very good. We came very close to making the big time. I did some backup singing on the Doobie Brothers’ first album, and used to sit with Carlos Santana and his sessions at this place Pacific Recordings in San Mateo. I spent seven years in the Bay area. 

transcribed by Will Gottlieb
Coastal Journal staff

You talk to a lot of people in this business, and you have to listen very carefully to all of them. Some people speak a little too softly, some people talk fast about complex subjects, some people don’t have much to say, and you have to help them make sense. And then there are people like Dick McElman, who is a very funny human being with a lot of great stories and a wry sense of humor. Dick has a great take on the car business, but he also knows a lot about people and about life in general, and you could learn a lot, whoever you are, by listening to him.  

I’m from Woolwich, the Montsweag area. The house is still there; my grandson’s living in it this summer. I live in West Bath now, but I’m still a resident of Woolwich. Went to a one-room school for eight years, nine years counting kindergarten. The first year, it was kindergarten through eighth grade – one school, one teacher. And then, as time went on, they spread it around, so the last two years, seventh and eighth grade, I was bussed over to a two-room school with no plumbing. Never had any plumbing until I went to high school. It’s on the old Arrowsic Road, right down here. It’s a residence now. The original one over on Montsweag is still there, and they use it for a social club or something for the neighborhood. And it still doesn’t have any plumbing. They’re just meeting there. Obviously, they have short meetings, because they have old people and no plumbing. 

as told to Annee Tara 
Coastal Journal contributor

Rick Wilson directs the School to Career program, which includes Service Learning, at Brunswick High School. One of his community partners is StanTec, a land-use and environmental consulting firm with an office in Topsham. He is also the Executive Director of the Cathance River Educational Alliance (CREA) in Topsham. We talked at the Cathance River Ecology Center. Wilson is a native of the midcoast. He says he can do both jobs because of the support he receives from his wife, Cheryl Sleeper who serves as Site Support Coordinator at CREA and his colleagues at CREA and at BHS.

My first 18 years in education dealt with history, social studies. I taught in the midcoast – in Rockland for four years, and then at the junior high for another five or six. And then migrated to the high school, continued to teach history and this position opened up. 

Community Service and Service Learning

A couple of school board members called me who knew I was leaning toward service learning projects as a history teacher. In my European history class, we had just done this huge project with Seeds of Peace. And that was one of the most rewarding things that I’d ever done as a history teacher. It really opened my eyes to the experiential: How do you get kids involved? How do you connect the curriculum to real world applications?