RUMFORD – Elliott “Bud” Burns loves his town, studying its history, and writing about it.

His latest work, an update of Jack Leane’s “A History of Rumford, Maine,” has recently been published. It is an expansion of Leane’s work, which ended in 1972. Burns takes his hometown history through 2000.

“I’ve lived a lot of that history. I was brought up in Rumford Point and have seen it go from a small social group to a suburb of Rumford. I went to the Kimball School in Rumford Point,” said the retiree of Boise Cascade where he worked as an engineer for 35 years.

Burns combed through old newspapers for articles and advertisements and searched the Rumford Historical Society archives to bring the book up to date. He also took dozens of pictures. The new version of the book has 75 additional pages and 83 added photos.

One of the most difficult parts of writing that history was dealing with the labor problems of the 1980s.

“I had to be real choice in my words,” he said.

He also mentions few names in any of the history of the last nearly 30 years. He didn’t want to leave anyone out. He has made three exceptions, though.

Judy Kuhn, founder of the Rumford Association for the Advancement of the Performing Arts; Dot Sanchas, Santa’s Helpers and Free Store founder; and Margaret Beliveau, founder of the Hope School for the retarded.

“Many people have done things, but these three stuck out. They went about their everyday lives and saw fit to do for others and to make a difference,” he said.

Updating his hometown’s history isn’t the only time he has ventured into all things historical. He wrote the Wrap Sheets in 2001 to mark the 100th anniversary of the local paper mill and updated another history by Leane, “The Oxford Story,” bringing that history from 1957 to 1991.

He has future plans, too.

While updating the Rumford history, he discovered that virtually every street corner in Rumford and Mexico was the site of a gas station. He hopes to document these gas stations and the impact of the automobile on the culture and changes in the area. He also wants to research and write about the buildings that once existed on Mt. Zircon.

“There is so much history around here,” he said.

Over the years, Burns has given time to his community through memberships in the growth council, school boards, Planning Board, and fire station committee.

He said he is also grateful to his wife, Barbara, for her patience during the history writing project.

“She helped a lot in the research and was tolerant of me going off into a corner to write,” he said.

Book sales will benefit the Rumford Historical Society. It can be purchased at the society’s archives in the Municipal Building, and at Puiia’s Barbershop and Bartash’s on Congress Street.