Walter S. Staples

TAMWORTH — Walter Sylvester Staples, 90, of Tamworth, passed away at his home on Turkey Street on August 14, 2004. He was born in Eliot, Maine, Sept. 13, 1913, the son of the late Victor R. and Gladys (Langley) Staples.

The oldest of three, Mr. Staples grew up on a small farm in Eliot where he acquired the love of farming and the outdoors. Like many other young men during the Depression, in 1933 he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He was assigned to a camp in Frenchmen’s Bay in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he proudly served for “a year, a month, a week, and a day."

While a student at the University of Maine, Mr. Staples joined the 1937 Arctic expedition of Admiral Donald B. MacMillan as a student crew member on the Gertrude L Thebaud. The expedition sailed to Baffin Land and the Arctic Circle charting new coastlines, performing medical studies on the native Inuit, collecting wildlife specimens and running around, nearly losing the ship in Griffin Bay. Fifty years later, he organized a reunion at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, bringing together all surviving crew and scientists of the 1937 expedition.

After graduating from the University of Maine, Orono, in 1938 with a degree in poultry science, Mr. Staples worked for General Mills, eventually managing a feed store in Laconia. Preferring research to retail, he left the feed store for a job with Cobb, Inc., one of the world's leading poultry breeders based in Littleton, Mass. While there, he created their disease research department and set the standard for poultry disease research worldwide. After retiring in 1980, he purchased a bulldozer and logged his land in Tamworth and Wesley, Maine, as well as managing 14 acres of Maine wild lowbush blueberries.

Mr. Staples passion was fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, which he indulged in with 25 trips to LaPoile River in Newfoundland and many trips to Miramichi in New Brunswick. It was while in Newfoundland that he became compelled to write his first book, "The North Bay Narrative," a history of a Newfoundland outport village. He subsequently published several poetry books and "Blueberryland," a book about Maine wild lowbush blueberries. His latest poetry book, "Country Boy," is currently at the printers, and his book entitled "Mostly My Maine" is in the final stages of publication.

Knowing a farm was the best place to raise a family, in 1953 Mr. Staples purchased Pine Top Poultry Farm in Tamworth, and moved there with his wife Mildred and their children.

He is survived by his brother Basil of Rochester, New York; his children, Daniel Staples of Milford, Mass., Mary Holladay of Tamworth, Barbara Meader of Tamworth, Russell Staples of Tamworth, Jim Staples of Loudon, Rebekah Pugh of Tamworth, Dinah Salazar of Tamworth and Mark Staples of Tamworth; 12 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

He is predeceased by his first wife in 1967, Mildred Goodwin Staples, by his second wife, Virginia Barnard Staples in 2000, sister Hilda Dearborn, son Stephen, and granddaughter Maggie Pugh.

A graveside service will be held on Sept. 25, 2004, at 2 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Eliot, Maine.

Donations in memory of Walter may be made to Memorial Hospital, P.O. Box 5001, North Conway, NH 03860, Restricted to Chemotherapy/Oncology Service, or to The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 3647, Portland, ME 04104-3647.