Obituary

Jeremiah D. Newbury

Fri, 01/06/2023 - 3:00pm
 

Jeremiah Dexter Newbury, 88, of Scarborough passed away on Dec. 27, 2022.

Jerry was born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 23, 1934, to Nathan Newbury Jr. and Elizabeth Stuart Dingley Newbury. They lived in Rumford, Rhode Island until 1939, when the family moved to Weston, Massachusetts.

Jerry graduated from Meadowbrook School, an elementary school in Weston, Massachusetts, in 1945. He attended Rivers Country Day School, then in Chestnut Hill until he entered Milton Academy, graduating in 1952. ln 1951 he attended Westminster School in London, England as an exchange student, the first exchange student to Westminster School following World War II.

While attending that school, which is physically connected to Westminster Abbey, he spent a lot of time roaming around in the Abbey, attending one service per day and two on Sundays. A pipe organ student, he was asked to play the prelude for a Sunday service in the Abbey, an experience he well remembers; he was terrified. He earned his A.B. in music from Harvard College in 1956 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1959.

He married Anne Maxcy in Lexington, Massachusetts on June 29, 1957. Their daughter, Katharine, was born on March 12, 1959. ln the fall of 1959 they moved to Falmouth, Maine and later to Cape Elizabeth, where they made their home for 37 years. Their son Dexter was born on Feb. 14, 1962. After Cape Elizabeth, they lived in South Portland for 16 years before moving to Piper Shores in Scarborough in 2012.

Jerry served as law clerk to the Honorable Edward T. Gignoux, then the only federal Judge in Maine, from 1959 to 1961, when he started his lifelong career as a practicing attorney with the Portland, Maine law firm Hutchinson, Pierce, Atwood and Allen, which after many changes of name became the Pierce Atwood LLP of today, from which he retired in 2012, completing 53 years in the practice of law. He started in the estate planning group, but quickly moved into the corporate reorganization discipline, in which he built his reputation as an expert. He was also involved in the energy field, especially gas and oil pipelines and nuclear energy.

He was especially proud of being corporate counsel for CMP and Tom's of Maine. For his entire career Jerry represented several entities on Squirrel Island, becoming known as an expert on island law and practice. During his years at Pierce Atwood, he became involved with many eleemosynary institutions, especially in the fields of music, adoption, visual impairment and the like, serving as organist and choirmaster for the Church of St. Mary's the Virgin in Falmouth, St Alban's Church in Cape Elizabeth as a warden and vestryman, president of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, and the Maine Center for the Blind and
Visually Impaired (now lris Network).

Afflicted with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, he was legally blind for most of his legal career and totally blind towards its end. The practice of law, active pursuit of music and the pipe organ, community involvement and blindness left him with little time for hobbies or other pursuits, except his lovely family.

He was predeceased by his wife Anne in August of 2019.

Jerry is survived by daughter Katharine (Kathy) Ray and husband Alan, of Cape Elizabeth; son Dexter G. Newbury and his wife Melanie of Augusta; four grandchildren, Megan Ray of Waltham, Massachusetts. Oliver Newbury of Waterville; Destiny and Sophia Newbury of Winthrop; brothers Nathan (Ted) Newbury of Pepperell, Massachusetts and John (Jack) Newbury of Chesterville; and many nieces and nephews and their spouses.

The family would like to especially thank Linda Carville, Carole Craig, Piper Shores and Hospice for the loving and excellent care he received from them.

Visiting hours will be on Jan. 19, 2023, from 4 to 7 p.m. at: Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland, ME 04106.

Funeral services will be on Jan. 20, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. at: St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 885 Shore Road, Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107.

Contributions in lieu of flowers may be sent to the: Squirrel lsland Preservation Foundation, Nina Garrison, Treasurer, 3 Clacton Way, South Portland, ME 04106; Squirrel lsland Chapel C/OSIVC, P.O. Box 85, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538; The lris Network, 189 Park Avenue, Portland, ME 04102, (207) 774-6273.

Interment will be in the spring at the Riverside Cemetery in Cape Elizabeth.