1925 – 2014

INDUSTRY — Medary “Dary” Ames Prentiss Jr., a lifelong Industry resident, passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at his home, following a lengthy illness.

Though born in Bellerose, Long Island, N.Y., on Oct. 8, 1925, Dary fell in love with Maine as a young child, when his parents first brought him to Overlake Camp on Clearwater Lake in Industry in the late 1920s. Every summer since that first visit was spent on this lake, and Dary became an accomplished fisherman and developed a true reverence for the lake and the land.

Early in the summer of 1943, he graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa., and then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the age of 19. With the country embroiled in World War II at the time, he trained as a tail gunner in the remote-controlled turrets of the B-29 bomber and was assigned to the Eighth Air Force.

Following the war, he returned to Maine and attended the University of Maine, where he majored in agriculture. Overlake Camp would again play a role in his life when he met Marcia Devers, who was a summer guest at the camp, and following Dary’s graduation from college, they were married in 1950. Their two sons, Medary Ames Prentiss III and Mark Devers Prentiss were born in Farmington, and Dary and Marcia then moved to the family’s Mile Long Farm on Federal Row in Industry, where he lumbered, farmed and raised and showed champion Herefords.

Becoming permanent residents of Industry, Dary constructed their home on Federal Row and in 1961, he also began teaching chemistry at Farmington High School, until he retired in the mid-1980s. Following his first wife’s death, Dary met and married Ann McNeil in 1979, and they remained on Federal Row, where Dary continued his passions for reading, traveling, fishing and flying. He was regularly seen landing his pontoon plane on Clearwater Lake, where he had a summer camp.

During his lifetime in Industry, he helped form an advocacy group for mentally challenged children with his first wife, Marcia Devers Prentiss. He also served as an Industry selectman and was a strong community member.

Dary is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Ann McNeil Prentiss, of Industry; his two sons, Dary Prentiss of Kingfield and Mark Prentiss of Industry; and his three grandsons, Benjamin Prentiss, Alexander Prentiss and Samuel Prentiss, all of Industry.