James Carignan has been through a lot in his 33 years at Bates College.

Three college presidents, massive campus expansions and attempts to move Bates from a conservative regional school to a nationally recognized liberal arts college.

And then there were Carignan’s two heart transplants and the sniper attack that left a bullet lodged in his chest.

So it may be surprising that when the retiring dean talks about the last three decades, he sounds a lot like a kid just back from a theme park.

“It was a great, great ride,” he said.

To Bates and back

Raised in a New Hampshire mill town, Carignan was always encouraged to attend college. His parents hadn’t graduated from high school and they wanted a better life for their son.

Bates – then a tightly constrained regional college – offered the teenager a scholarship and a pathway to a teaching career. Carignan liked the instructors, he said, but after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1961, “I had no intention of returning.”

Nine years and a Ph.D. later, Bates asked Carignan to apply to become the school’s dean of men. Carignan wrote back with a firm “no,” and the suggestion that the college should eliminate the position altogether if it wanted a unified campus blind to the gender of its students.

Carignan’s response piqued the college president’s interest. He asked the 30-year-old to reconsider, promising that the school would revise and rename the position if Carignan and Bates were happy together after a year.

When Carignan walked on campus as dean, he found a Bates College much different from the one he remembered.

“There was some energy here,” he said. “There was a vision of becoming a national liberal arts college of distinction.”

He stayed that year. And 32 more.

The shooting

For his first 18 years as dean, Carignan was involved in almost every aspect of student life, from discipline to extracurricular activities.

He taught history classes part time, he said, to stay connected with students and as a “constant reminder of what this place is all about.”

An energetic college leader, his days were filled with classes, meetings and discussions with students. As a husband and father of four, he made time to attend his children’s swim meets and baseball games.

He often spent all day at work, rushed home to eat dinner with his family and left again to attend a night meeting on campus.

Then came 1985.

That summer, Carignan said, Lewiston police officers approached him about a rash of forged checks circulating in the area. From the checks, he recognized a student’s handwriting.

Carignan confirmed the writing through two handwriting experts and confronted the young man. He gave the student a choice: Resign from the college with an opportunity to return after getting help or take his chances with a campus disciplinary board.

The student asked for an extra day to think about it.

That night, as he sat at his kitchen table, Carignan was shot in the back by a sniper who fired from a stoop behind the house.

The bullet lodged less than an inch from his heart, Carignan said. He believes it caused the damage that led years later to two heart transplants and a 5-percent chance of survival.

The young man who forged the checks was arrested for the shooting but acquitted after a trial. Carignan still believes he was responsible.

A new outlook

After the shooting, Carignan realized how close he had come to death.

“It became as clear as night and day to me. I did not want to sacrifice those things that were most important to me,” he said.

Carignan cut back on his workload, forgoing oversight of student life in favor of community relations, service learning, Muskie Archives public affairs, special projects and summer programs.

Within years, his list of activities on campus and off grew even longer. Through the 1990s, he served as coordinator of the Leadership Academy, Lewiston city councilor, a member of L/A Excels steering committee and a trustee of the Sisters of Charity Health Systems, among other groups.

Carignan’s spirit was irrepressible, said Celeste Branham, dean of students and a longtime family friend.

Calling Carignan “a consistent defender of the common man,” she said, “He has been going strong ever since, with more energy than any 10 of us put together.”

Time to go

But now that he is 63 and the grandfather of seven, Carignan says it is time for him to retire.

“To pay back a lot of hours to the family that were taken away by a job that is very demanding,” said Carignan from his small Bates College office, where he is constantly surrounded by photos of his children and grandchildren.

Except for some leadership and service learning titles that litter the top of an office table, his books are all packed away. His white office shelves are largely bare. His college gown, worn during last week’s graduation ceremony, hangs covered in plastic.

His last day will be Aug. 31.

In retirement, Carignan plans to garden, spend more time with his family, write political commentary and perhaps author a book about his heart transplants.

But ever the leader, he won’t go into retirement without at least some civic service. He will continue to serve on the Maine Math and Science Alliance and the Sisters of Charity Health Systems board. He has joined the planning board in his new hometown of Harpswell and was recently appointed to the State Board of Education.

Despite 33 years of trials, Carignan said one memory dominates. And it’s a good one.

“Sitting in the office talking with a student trying to work through a problem. And feeling at the end of a long conversation that the student might have made some progress and feels better when he or she leaves,” he said.

He would, he said, do it all again.

ltice@sunjournal.com



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