CASCO – Otisfield’s oldest resident, G. Howard Dyer, took a break from mowing his sister’s lawn Wednesday morning to look back on his first century.
Dyer is celebrating his 100th birthday today. Although his doctor convinced him to move into an assisted living facility this spring, he remains active and independent.
Polly Durant, activities director at Country Village Assisted Living, said Dyer drives himself to church every week, where he serves as a greeter. He maintains a vegetable garden at Country Village, and he traveled on his own to Newfoundland last year.
Born in Otisfield, Dyer was the second son in a family of two boys and two girls. “I had an uncle that lived with us,” he said. “My grandmother died when he was born, so my mother took him in. Then she had four of her own. Course they used to do that, back then.”
As a young man, Dyer once heard a neighbor describe him as being dependable. He said he’s tried to live up to that ever since.
Dyer would have liked to have gone to college, but Otisfield’s high school wasn’t accredited when he graduated. His diploma wouldn’t get him into a college.
General Electric had a school in Massachusetts, though, that not only accepted Dyer as a student, but paid him $10.50 a week.
Dyer worked as an apprentice during the day, and studied at night and on Sundays. Along with the $150 he had saved to go to school, his salary was enough for him to live on for four years. Back then, “you could get a good dinner for just 35 cents,” he said.
“I got the best education, and they taught you to think. That’s the one thing that’s most important.” Dyer was fortunate to have that skill, because his apprenticeship with GE didn’t quite go as planned. Most graduates of the program were hired into good jobs with the company, but Dyer got his apprentice diploma just as the Great Depression hit, and GE was laying off workers rather than hiring them.
“I thought what the heck, I’ll do something else,” Dyer said. He went to Boston and got a job with the federal government as an auditor. Dyer’s work took him back and forth across America, with his train tickets and hotel bills paid by the government. In his travels, he saw many who were less fortunate than himself. “They didn’t have the education that I had,” he said.
Dyer stayed in that job for a couple of years before returning to Otisfield to settle down. By the time the government began drafting soldiers for World War II, he had a wife, son, farm, and thriving sawmill. Dyer said he went to the draft board and told them “I got a farm and a sawmill, so if you want me you’re going to have to give me some time to sell them.”
“I didn’t hear back from them,” he said, “so I just kept right on a’pluggin’.”
Once good lumber for the sawmill became scarce, Dyer went to work with the state as a property appraiser. He rose through the ranks to become a troubleshooter.
“I learned right off quick, you wanted the big guy to get the credit for everything while you took the fall,” he said.
Dyer’s easygoing manner and versatility may be the key to his long life.
“I never got worked up about anything,” he mused. “Maybe that’s why I’ve lived so long.”
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