ORONO (AP) – A University of Maine graduate has received a pardon for his antics with a paint brush in the 1950s.

At the Class of ’57 reunion, Richard Bastow of Auburn was revealed as the student who took graffiti to new heights back in 1953.

As a freshman, Bastow showed his class spirit by twice climbing 150 feet to the top of one of the steam plant smoke stacks to paint a six-foot “57.” He also climbed to the top of Stevens Hall to paint another “57.”

The episode drew rebukes from the administration. But President Robert Kennedy gave Bastow a full pardon at the weekend reunion. The university even surprised him with a large “57” on a banner hanging from the cupola of Stevens Hall.

The identity of the ’57 painter had been a real whodunit.

Except for a few classmates who knew his secret – one of them used to holler, “Hey, Rembrandt!” – Bastow concealed his identity as the graffiti artist until this year’s reunion. It was revealed during the Class of 1957’s Golden Reunion dinner Friday.

For Bastow, a teacher at Central Maine Community College in Auburn, the story of reaching the top of the Stevens Hall cupola is one of his favorite memories from his time on the Orono campus.

During a surveying class, the civil engineering major was asked to calculate the height of an inaccessible high point. The high point was the same cupola he had climbed to create his Black Bear masterpiece.

“The funny part was … I’d already been there,” Bastow said.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

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