Richard Wilde answers a call Sunday afternoon, Jan. 19, while working at Ron’s Market, 119 High Street in Farmington. He has been working there every Sunday for more than 15 years to fund scholarships for students at Mt. Blue High School. His last day is Jan. 26. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

FARMINGTON — The familiar face of Richard Wilde seen Sundays at the cash register at Ron’s Market, 119 High St., will come to an end Jan. 26 upon his retirement.

Wilde has worked at Ron’s Market since 2007, worked Sundays at Big Apple before then.

“Amber Pond was my niece,” he said Sunday, Jan. 19. “The family didn’t have enough money for a gravestone, so Chris and I set up a memorial fund, and after we had collected almost $1,000 Gracelawn donated the head stone. So, Chris and I decided to wait until Amber would have graduated and give out two scholarships.”

A post on the Department of Public Safety’s media center website includes Pond in the list of Maine homicides from 1999. It further notes, On June 30, at 11 years old, she was strangled and her stepfather, Dana McAlpine, 36, was charged with murder.

A July 17, 1999, story in the Waterville Sentinel indicated blood found on McAlpine matched that of Pond. DNA test results, footprint analysis and police testimony led the judge to deny bail. A June 29, 2000, story in that paper noted McAlpine was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murdering Pond.

The Wilde’s gave scholarships to a boy and a girl graduating in the class Amber would have graduated with and her mother handed them out, he noted.

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“That was in 2005, felt so good that I had to figure out a way to do it again,” Wilde said. “I was working at the Big Apple that summer. I decided to stay on and just work Sundays. And then I asked John if I could work here. I have been here since 2007.”

Wilde said the Wilde Foundation for 19 years has given three $700 scholarships that provide $100 a month for the recipients. He plans to finance this year himself since he will no longer be working to raise the funds.

“I did five years of the Michael Bell scholarship, there were five other scholarships that were not included,” Wilde noted. Some of those were $300 scholarships, he stated.

“Every Christmas I have been able to fund $100 of oil for a needy family,” he said. “I didn’t know who got it. At Christmas and Thanksgiving I give out $50 worth of lottery tickets to customers at the store. One won $300 from a ticket I gave. That was absolutely wonderful.”

“It’s been a lot of fun doing this,” Wilde said. “It’s sort of bittersweet leaving. You make a lot of friends here. One of the things I used to say about this was, the nice thing about working at Ron’s is you get to reconnect with the community.”

As a teacher, Wilde does not have that much interaction with the community, and usually it’s not a good interaction, because they’re upset. “But here I get to talk with people,” he said. “And, you know, just see them on every Sunday. And, I mean, it’s just been a wonderful, wonderful experience. I highly recommend it. If you want to change your community.”

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Wilde has been teaching for 23 years, his plan is to teach at the high school next year. “I haven’t had a job for 23 years, well, for 22 of them,” he said. “This year, teaching at the middle school, I’ve learned what a new teacher goes through. And wow, I see why we lose so many of them.”

Wilde said he was getting burned out, the Blue Crew robotics team totally rejuvenated him as a teacher. “That is such a great program,” he noted. “I actually resigned as the coach because we have another coach that’s willing to take over, and I don’t want to stand in the way.”

Wilde said he plans to stay busy, has no idea what that might be, but he won’t be doing nothing. “Chris and I do plan to travel,” he noted. “We have a trip planned to Europe next summer.”

“I went to school with Richard and he worked for us for 15 plus years,” Ron’s Market owner Jon Bubier said later Sunday. “Doing what he does, donating his money to the organizations at the high school he believes in. I wanted to say how proud we were of him, glad to have had him and we are going to miss him a lot.”

Bubier wished Wilde the best in his retirement and all the endeavors he is looking to embark on. “It sounds like he’s going to have a lot of fun,” he noted.

Bubier remembers when Wilde came in, said he wanted to work Sundays and donate his pay to his scholarship fund. “He never took a dime,” he stated. “He always had us put it in an account for his scholarship fund. He’s been faithfully working every Sunday.”

Wilde is pretty amazing, does it all for his students, Bubier said. “That’s an amazing feat in itself, his giving it all for the students,” he noted. “So a lot of respect in that area, I don’t know how we can say we appreciate it more.”

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