To the Editor:
Aloha mai no –
David Sanderson died last November in an accident while helping a neighbor take down a dead tree. He was a proud New Englander and a keen historian of local Maine history. Raised in Rhode Island, David and his late wife, Cathy, lived on the family farm built in the 1860s by his ancestors and located next to Birch Rock Camp.
David enjoyed a varied working life, which included jobs in marketing, lobbying for the recreational vehicle industry, and managing the New England Trail Riders Association. He co-founded an early software startup and finally worked as an Oracle database developer.
David was an avid musician and amateur musicologist and played the guitar, banjo, and fiddle. His lifelong passion was preserving the house and barn that his ancestors built, which still stands next to Birch Rock Camp in East Waterford.
I met David Sanderson (1943-2023) in June 1961, when I worked at Birch Rock Camp before joining the military (1961). On Sundays, my day off, we went hiking accompanied by Professor Arthur B. Hague, Sr., a retired Yale music academic. We, three, formed a bond my first summer in Maine (1961), a bond which I still cherish even into my 80s.
Professor Hague was 68 years old when I first went hiking with him (1961). He lived in the old David McWain home, located not far from Birch Rock Camp and across from the Howard Plate farm in East Waterford. I met Arthur Bartlett Hague, Jr. (1927-2023) during the summer of 2011 while visiting friends in Norway/south Paris.
I told him of my fond memories of his Dad playing on his upright piano, exposing an 18-year-old Hawaiian to the pleasures of listening to Mozart and Beethoven. The ‘Moonlight Sonata’ remains my favorite and I heard it from an old Professor, who patiently took the time to acquaint me with the classics. I was told that my words brought tears to his sonʻs eyes. Bart devoted his life to public service, which spanned four decades.
In closing, memories recalled of my early youth in East Waterford, Maine, continue to entertain, even in the sunset of my years.
Mahalo and RIP David and Arthur, Jr.,
Wayne Hinano Brumaghim
Hawaiian historian
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