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 Le Club Calumet Outstanding Citizen Award
Peter G. Thompson
March 25, 2006
-- Augusta, Maine
“My late Mother used to quote Benjamin Franklin to her young boys… lines such as:
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
“Honesty is the best policy.”
“Haste makes waste!”
And a few of her own:Stand up straight, Share with your brothers, Be polite!
Many of us grew up on those phrases, and of course, to some extent ignored them, until we began to teach them to our own children
Ben Franklin also said: “Many complain of their Memory, few of their Judgment.”
Well, sometimes I forget things. I may tend to forget names, and places. I occasionally forget where I put my glasses, my car keys, my car! On the judgment side, few complaints here. With my forgetfulness hormones raging I can simply forget my bad decisions. And of course I have excellent judgment in selecting my friends and acquaintances.
For example: President Gilbert and my friends of Le Club Calumet, I thank you for this special recognition.
During my 38 years here in Augusta, I’m sure I’ve visited Le Club Calumet more than 100 times. I’ve made many speeches here “en Francais.” This club is an important a part of this Capital City as well as a preserver of the French heritage.
I know that in the years ahead the Club will become even stronger in its leadership role in the community – because of the wisdom you all showed recently to open the club for full membership to Franco-American women.
Thanks also to my family, many friends and associates for sharing this evening.
I’m excited and honored to be among so many friends. And I’m very humbled, because one doesn’t usually get such a nice crowd unless it’s a retirement party. Or a funeral... I was quite surprised a few weeks ago to see my own picture and story on the Kennebec Journal’s Obituary page.
I have five words to share with you tonight. They are Inspiration, Education, Strength, Pride and Love. I’ve also got a few quotations that seem appropriate
1. A word about my fellow outstanding citizens: Inspiration
Walter Chrysler said: “The real secret of success is enthusiasm.”
These people are perfect examples of citizens with passion, with enthusiasm. They continue to inspire me with their love for life, their love for people, and their untiring efforts to improve their community.
Norm Elvin says his “greatest satisfaction in owning a successful business is the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.” He’s doing it!
Nancy Glusker: My choir director for 22 years, organized Maine’s greatest tribute to the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976 with 180 Bicentennial Singers and traveled throughout the state to perform patriotic tributes.
Bill Sprague Jr.: A very successful business person and an articulate community cheerleader. While leading a highly successful real estate agency, Bill has served in numerous leadership capacities.
Mark Johnston: One of the truly good people in our world. Mark finds time to play piano each week at Kiwanis, leads an energetic team in a successful bank and contributes in so many ways to enrich life for all of us.
Rev. David Glusker: One of the many people who try to keep me humble… on the golf course and off.
2. A word about my many bosses, past and present. Education
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” -- Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau was talking of people, like you in this room, who have helped guide and support me. You all continue to be my educators.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
You people here tonight and others refuse to do nothing. You reach out to make things happen, and, most often, you do it by stretching your imaginations. By being innovative, by taking action and by finding others to share your passion of doing something good together.
“Results! (said Thomas Edison) Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know of several thousand things that won’t work.”
No, we don’t always get the results we’re looking for, but we get a little better educated and move on with a positive attitude.
3. A word about my step-father and brothers: Strength
Barbara Bush said “Cherish your human connections – your relationships with friends and family.”
Dan Burdin: Stepfather for 47 years. Dan is a modest paratrooper hero of World War II. He worked decades for a Guilford trucking company, drove school bus many years and now at 82 still drives around the county delivering flowers. Dan took on five stepsons nearly five decades ago and has been a good father to all six of his sons.
A couple of years ago when my mother was age 80, playing golf most summer days and going to the gym daily with Dan to keep in shape, she remarked to me that she had had a good life. “I’m very satisfied,” she said, “I’ve reared six boys and not one of them is in jail!”
I’m very proud of my brothers for the support and strength they have given to me. Jay and his wife Chris live in Syracuse, NY. Bill and his wife Sheila are from Guilford, Philip and Janet, Gorham and Mark and Ada, Miami. Our youngest brother is Doug Burdin. He and Bobbi Jo live in Gardiner.
4. Now, A word about my children: Pride
Son Jay is employed by Verizon in Portland. He lives in Old Orchard Beach, but is now on vacation in Hawaii photographing the insides of a volcano.
Grand-daughter: Valen Richard, Jay’s beautiful daughter, is a freshman at Salem State College in Massachusetts.
Daughter Julie Anne is an actress-singer-songwriter-model now living in Milwaukee and just completing a Florida vacation.
Our son Adam, 15, is a freshman at Maranacook HS. He’s an athlete (baseball, soccer, alpine skiing), a musician (violin, saxophone, electric bass, drums), an actor – tonight he’s performing in his high school play “Urinetown (yes, you heard that right), The Musical.”
5. A word about my wife, Mary: Love
This next quote came from Joan Baez: “The easiest kind of relationship is with 10,000 people, the hardest is with one.”
Baez failed to mention that that relationship with your spouse is also the most precious and most rewarding of all relationships.
Mary Kinney was a teacher at the Gilbert Elementary School right here in this neighborhood for many years. We first met as singers in the Augusta Community Chorus, later the Bicentennial Singers… later on a climb to the top of Mt. Washington… We discovered we’d had the same first grade teacher in Winthrop, although quite a few years apart.
I was still Mayor of Augusta when I convinced her to meet me at Old Fort Western one sunny day in the spring of 1988. Yes, folks, I got down on one knee, presented her a diamond ring and asked her to marry me.
We settled a year later in our new home in Readfield where we have had the awesome pleasure of rearing our 15-year-old son, Adam.
Before I sit down, I’d like to talk a little about fabrics.
Both my grandfather and my father worked in textiles… creating woolen fabrics. Grandfather John Thompson ran the Winthrop Woolen mill just a few miles from here. My dad, Lawrence, worked there and later worked as a superintendent at the Guilford Woolen mills, now Guilford of Maine.
They made tons and tons of large rolls of woolen cloth of many patterns and colors. Cloth that would later be made into suits, dresses, shirts and blankets. When I was young I’d get to watch the workers run the huge looms creating beautiful fabrics from yarn.
The great loom would yawn open separating hundreds of threads. A shuttlecock would shoot across the loom laying a new cross thread. The loom would close and yawn in the other direction and back comes the shuttlecock laying down another thread, faster and faster than the eye could register. The result was a tightly woven cloth that would later become some form of comfort to a consumer somewhere in the world. Perhaps a pretty skirt, a Pendleton jacket, a Sears suit.
There is another kind of fabric that we live within. It is the fabric of our society, the fabric of our economy, the fabric of our environment, the fabric of our community, the fabric of our lives.
We weave the threads of this fabric by living and working together.
How we relate to each other is key to the pattern, to the color and to the strength of this fabric. As a self-proclaimed expert on our social fabric in the Augusta region, I’m pleased to say we’re doing very well, thanks to your combined efforts.
Helen Keller said: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
I look forward to working with all of you as we continue to do so much to strengthen the fabric of our Capital region.
And, finally, Benjamin Franklin said: “Well done is better than well said.”
Well, I’m done. Thank you.
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