LIVERMORE FALLS – Ernie Steward Jr. took his future wife to Rangeley more than three decades ago to ask her to marry him.
He was looking for a restaurant to set the romantic moment for him and Cathy, but they were all having outdoor barbecues, the Livermore Falls police chief said Monday.
So he settled on a takeout chicken restaurant.
“I wrapped the ring in a napkin and handed it to her, and she almost threw it out. She thought it was garbage,” Steward of Jay said. “I’m glad I did it there. Cathy, being typical Cathy, got all emotional on me.”
The couple were married July 4, 1976, the country’s bicentennial celebration, he said. That way, he would remember their anniversary date. They now have two grown children.
Steward, 50, said he’s a family man and enjoys spending time with his wife, and when she works, he misses her.
“We’ve always been close,” he said. “We just like each other’s company. We’re best friends. We haven’t had too many spats.”
Steward, who started in Jay as a police officer, became chief of Livermore Falls Police Department in 1988. He also works part-time for the University of Maine at Farmington’s Public Safety Department.
He knew what he wanted to be since 10th-grade, he said, which kept him out of trouble in school because he didn’t want to jeopardize his career choice.
As a child, Steward recalls, he had a bicycle with a banana seat. He put a blue plastic cap from a coffee can over his bike light and had a siren on a chain.
Steward said he used to do a lot of art. He’s taken classes and done a portrait of his wife in oil paints. He’s more of a cartoonist and sketch artist now, he said, and does more art on the computer.
He learned he was somewhat colorblind, he said, while he was taking art classes and the instructor asked why he didn’t put red highlights in his wife’s hair.
“I didn’t see them,” he said. He also has difficulty distinguishing between blue and green when they blend together.
On the screen of his office computer, Steward has a collage he made with a picture of his wife, photos of Livermore Falls department officers and a dream cruiser – a Dodge Hemi, along with a photo of a U.S. flag and an eagle.
Steward’s hobbies are limited, he said, since surgery for an aggravated neck injury last fall, and his responsibilities as chief.
Steward’s name is featured among other high scorers at Meadow Lanes Bowling Alley in Wilton. He has had three series at 700 or more; his highest series was 719 points.
He also does remodeling around the house and yardwork at his wife’s request.
“I’m kind of a homebody when I’m not here” on the job, Steward said.
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