FARMINGTON – Richard Mallett, 96, died Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Farmington.

He was born Dec. 5, 1908, in Farmington. He graduated from local schools and then Bowdoin College in 1930. After earning his master’s degree from Washington and Lee University in 1933 in English and history, he returned to Farmington State Normal School to teach those subjects. He went onto Yale University, completing his doctoral exams before teaching at Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts and at New Jersey State College.

From 1948 to 1968, he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, returning to Farmington to teach at UMF from 1968 to 1973. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Maine in Farmington in 2000.

As an historian, he authored four books on the history of Farmington, Farmington schools and the University of Maine in Farmington. His interests included writing articles for the Franklin Journal, where he shared many colorful and humorous stories about Farmington’s history. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, he remembered watching Babe Ruth play. He played the flute in a jazz group as a young man.

His wife of 54 years, the former Helena Long, died in 1992.

He is survived by sons, Richard P. Jr. of Los Angelos, Stephen and his wife, Judith, of Topsham, Grant and his wife, Kim, of Harpswell; one daughter, Anne of Farmington; two grandsons, John and Miles Morton of New York City; and a niece, Deborah Mallett Cressall of Farmington.