LEWISTON — The Androscoggin Historical Society board presented its Volunteer of the Year Award to Richard Plourde of BlueStar Graphics, Lewiston, at its recent annual dinner and meeting.

Plourde has almost completed renovation of the society’s website to make it more attractive and more technologically current. The unveiling of the site will occur this summer.

After the dinner, Associate Professor of History Joseph Hall of Bates College spoke on “What Does Androscoggin Mean?”

He noted the difficulty when English speakers attempted to transcribe an unfamiliar native American tongue. Moreover, the name of the river changed, according to location. Even more difficult was to recreate how Wabanaki understood the deeds, petitions and other documents. As the early colonists were dependent on Wabanaki trade and forbearance, there is evidence the Wabanaki were asserting their right to remain in the territory.

Curtis Jack of Lewiston is the newly elected society president. After graduating from Old Town High School and the University of Maine at Farmington, Jack began his teaching career at Auburn Middle School as an eighth-grade social studies teacher.

After 17 years, he took a position in Regional School Unit 4 as a sixth-grade social studies teacher, until assuming the role of administrator. He continued as an administrator until 2013, when he retired from public education to pursue a role as an educational consultant working with districts from Madawaska to southern Maine.

A history enthusiast almost from birth, Jack is particularly fascinated by U.S. history, with a particular interest in the Civil War period.

Beverly Robbins was elected as the new vice president. She is administrator of Outreach Ministry of Hope Haven Gospel Mission and is active in Harbor Baptist Church, Lewiston. She is vice regent of the Maine Daughters of the American Revolution and the chapter regent of Mary Dillingham-Burnt Meadow Chapter. She is past president of Sons of Union Veterans Auxiliary.

New board members are Lucy Bisson of Lewiston, Stephen Marsden of Auburn, and Ethelind Wright of Lewiston.

Bisson is chair of the board of directors at Senior College at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College and treasurer of West Auburn School Historical Society. She volunteers at SeniorsPlus as a Medicare counselor.

Marsden, an Auburn native, attended the West Auburn School. He was a co- founder and is president of the West Auburn School Historical Society. He left Auburn in 1992 to accept a position as a nursing home administrator, first in Ellsworth and then in Skowhegan. He retired from Cedar Ridge Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in 2007 and returned to Auburn. Marsden is immediate past chair of Maine’s Legal Services for the Elderly.

Wright has taught LAC’s Senior College courses in genealogy for several semesters and is a member of several genealogical societies. She is serving as the registrar of the Mary Dillingham-Burnt Meadow Chapter, DAR, and as historian for the High Street Congregational Church, UCC, Auburn.

Officers re-elected were Merton Ricker, recording secretary; David Chittim, treasurer; and Bruce Hall, John Henderson, Cathy McDonald, Rick Morris, Marilyn Wilkinson, Elizabeth Young and David Colby Young, board members. Outgoing president Douglas Hodgkin continues as a board member.

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