Friday, Sept. 14, 1973

I looked down from my bicycle and carefully turned off the paved Route 3, Eden Street, surface to the packed gray gravel and sand driveway.  I adjusted my stance, took a deep breath and entered the COA campus.  Passing through the stone posts, their signs both wooden and unpainted with hand-carved lettering.  The left one read in script "College of the Atlantic" and the one to the right, "Maine Coast Heritage Trust."  I could see Bob Baker, my Branford, CT High School friend, ahead of me on his bicycle.  The camping gear that he was carrying on his bike was the same that I had lashed to my bike frame: canvas bags containing my mess kit, USGS topographic maps of our route, tent, sleeping bag and clothing.

As we entered the COA driveway, our final destination and our 8th day on bikes, we passed a small, green utility building on our left.  I thought back to last night at our Camden Hills State Park campsite, some 75 miles away.  Around the campfire, Bob had told me more about COA.

He was an avid hiker and outdoorsman.  He had shared this love with me and I had become addicted, too.  Everything was better outdoors; the longer, more rugged the trail, the better.  The summer before Bob graduated High School, he had gone to Washington State as a summer volunteer in the Cascade Mountains for the Student Conservation Corps.  It was there he had first heard about COA, a new college opening in Bar Harbor that would issue one B.A. degree - only in human ecology.

Bob decided to apply to COA and was invited to the first pilot program • a dry run, "soft opening", if you will -- in the summer of 1971.  The program had 13 students and 3 faculty to test and evaluate certain aspects of the proposed curriculum.  The faculty members for the "pilot" summer program were: Bill Carpenter - Literature, Glenn Paulson - Environmental Sciences, and Francis Singleton - Political Science.  The staff members were: Ed Kaelber - President, who had recently started a school in Africa; Mel Cote, who had assisted Ed in Africa and was now the COA Admissions & Student Affairs Director, and Sam Elliot, Vice President.  Sam's Grandfather, Samuel Eliot Morrison, had been President of Harvard and had written a book about the history of MDI.  The Chairman of the COA Trustees Board was Dr. Seldon Bernstein, Assistant Director of the Jackson Lab; Elmer Beal, Sr., Dr. Rene Dubos, Rev. James Gower and Les Brewer.

Bob explained to me that College of the Atlantic was started by a handful of MDI residents that wanted to stabilize the island economy by forming a year round institution that would bring educational opportunities, jobs, activities and culture to the island during the three seasons when the 2 million annual Acadia National Park visiting tourists had gone home.  First, the Acadia Peace College had been proposed.

However, the four-year college of COA was granted temporary approval on June 23, 1969, by the Maine State Board of Education.  At that time, Leslie Brewer was Chairman and Father James Gower was Secretary.  (The COA application for accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges would not be granted until 1976.)

Bob told me that he had really enjoyed everything during the 1971 summer Pilot program: the campus, the faculty, MDI and the areas of study.  He had fallen off some rocks on campus that summer, displaced his shoulder and was hospitalized briefly.  However, he was not discouraged by his fall.

Then, he returned a year later, on September 8, 1972, when the COA orientation began for the 32 member first year class.

I looked up briefly from the driveway and could see the main COA building up ahead; the place that I had heard so much about.  The "cottage" with the fabulous ocean views from every room.  As we drew nearer to our final destination I could feel my feet aching from the long 8-day ride, 63 miles per day, which was finally ending.  I could see a few students up ahead greeting and surrounding Bob as he stopped his bike.  I took another deep breath.

To Be Continued…

By: Frank Twohill '80

Frank is a COA 1980 graduate.  His internship was at the Yale School of Forestry and his senior research project became the publication, "Ecology of the Stony Creek Quarry Preserve."  He also earned a M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Vermont Law School.  A practicing attorney for 21 years, Frank is admitted to practice law in Connecticut, Florida and the District of Columbia.  He has been elected seven times to the Representative Town Meeting in Branford, Connecticut.