Millard Dority with his constant companion and helper Willie
BAR HARBOR — When College of the Atlantic opened in the fall of 1972, Millard Dority had already been working there for more than two years. Now, 51 years later, he is still there.
His job title is director of campus planning, buildings and public safety.
“But there is no title that really captures how important he is to the institution and to me personally,” said COA President Darron Collins. “He is the living archive of College of the Atlantic. I trust him deeply and profoundly. He’s a special, special guy.”
“I didn’t even know you had to turn a screwdriver clockwise in order to screw the screw in.”
Millard dropped out of Mount Desert Island High School in the spring of his sophomore year when he was 17. He was something of a misfit, a nonconformist, and the principal actually encouraged him to leave.
Millard played guitar and dreamed of becoming a rock star, but his mother insisted he get a job. When he showed up for his interview with Ed Kaelber, COA’s founding president, and Ann Peach, the business manager – the college’s only two employees at the time – he thought there was no way they would hire a dropout with hair down to his waist. But they gave him a groundskeeping job.
“I didn’t know a thing,” Millard told an interviewer some years ago. “I didn’t even know you had to turn a screwdriver clockwise in order to screw the screw in.”
