11/17/2007
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By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer
Call him a philanthropist. Call him a multimillionaire. Call him a Maine icon.
Harold Alfond, who died Friday at age 93, was all of the above, a man who in his lifetime gave away more than $100 million to charitable causes through his foundation.
But for those who knew him best, Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoe Co., will be remembered, too, as a special friend and source of inspiration.
Ken Walsh, executive director of Alfond Youth Center, knows his facility, home to the Waterville Area Boys and Girls Club and YMCA, would not have been possible without Alfond's leadership in the form of a $3.5 million challenge grant -- a contribution the community stepped forward to match.
"I think in our times we have seen the passing of a humanitarian legend," Walsh said, "and what he has done for our community and beyond is something that will be long lasting. That is what Harold did: He taught people how to fish."
And he did so with a personal touch.
"In regard to personal relationships," Walsh said, "he has been a great friend, a great mentor, and I am going to miss him dearly and the conversations we had, not the ones about fundraising, but the ones about life."
Those sentiments were echoed by many others on Friday.
Talk to Colby President William D. "Bro" Adams, or Kents Hill School Headmaster Rist Bonnefond, or Goodwill-Hinckley School CEO Neil Colan, and each describes a man who coupled great generosity with great expectations of the causes and organizations he chose to help.
His approach, from beginning to end, was to help people with his great wealth -- Berkshire-Hathaway Inc., bought Dexter Shoe for stock worth about $420 million in 1993 -- as long as they were willing to help themselves.
He wanted nothing to do with the lazy or apathetic.
"It was the Harold way of doing things," Adams said, "and he wanted everybody involved, and that was part of his ethic and part of his approach to philanthropy."
THE LEGACY
In Waterville alone, Alfond's legacy is staggering.
The Alfond Youth Center has gained national renown as a Boys and Girls Club, including a visit by Colin Powell, shortly before he became the 65th U.S. Secretary of State.
Alfond also gave millions to Colby College and Thomas College -- both located in Waterville -- for athletic and residential buildings.
But he didn't limit himself to Waterville.
He gave millions to the Goodwill-Hinckley School in Fairfield and to St. Joseph's College in Standish as well.
Travel north about 70 miles to the University of Maine and you'll find Alfond contributed more than $8 million for various facilities, including the Alfond Ice Arena.
Travel south less than 20 miles and you'll find the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care at MaineGeneral Medical Center, a state-of-the-art medical building for which he donated $7 million.
"For Colby, Harold Alfond's legacy is enormous," Adams said. "Harold was involved here for almost six decades, and in the course of that time, he was close to four different presidents, and he gave a great deal of himself to the college over that period of time, and so his impact here is just enormous and so unusual in its duration."
Bonnefond of Kents Hill sees Alfond's largess as unrivaled in Maine history.
"Harold Alfond," he said, "was a man of extraordinary generosity who has done more for the people of Maine than any other individual in terms of philanthropy. We mourn his passing and are immensely grateful for the privilege of having known him."
Gov. John Baldacci said that generosity was all about Alfond's deep-felt affection for his fellow Mainers.
"He never forgot his home state of Maine," Baldacci said. "I was always impressed by his genuine concern for the people of Maine."
HUMBLE ROOTS
Alfond did not grow up rich. Born in 1914, he spent his childhood in Swampscott, Mass., one of six children raised by Russian immigrant parents.
He loved sports, a three-season athlete in high school who played football, basketball and baseball -- and he played them well.
Alfond could have attended Dartmouth College on an athletic scholarship.
But, instead, he chose to follow his father into the shoe industry.
Alfond later said he would not have taken such a course had he been born in modern times.
"I missed being a college man," he said in a Portland Press-Herald story. "My advice is to get a college education no matter what the cost. In my day, you could get along without it. Not today."
In his day, though, going directly into the work force proved to be a million dollar move.
Six years out of high school, Alfond teamed with his father to purchase an abandoned shoe factory in Norridgewock for $1,000 that they turned into Norrwock Shoe Co. The year was 1940.
An entrepreneurial star was born.
Harold Alfond sold the factory three years later for $1.1 million -- a tidy profit.
He married Dorothy "Bibby" Levine that same year and together they raised four children: Ted, Susan, Bill and Peter.
Alfond went on to found Dexter Shoe in 1957, a company that would sell more than 100 million shoes and become a critical component of the Maine economy.
THE MAN
Alfond's wealth continued to grow -- and grow immensely -- in the course of his business career.
Yet Alfond never let the business side of his life absorb him completely. The kid who played three sports in high school became the adult who loved to play and follow sports.
He befriended many a professional athletes and developed close relationships with many prominent sports personalities in Maine.
John Winkin was one.
Winkin, who established his own legacy by guiding the University of Maine baseball team to the college World Series six times, first met Alfond in 1954.
At the time Winkin was a first-year baseball coach at Colby College.
Alfond, Winkin said, liked to challenge people to see if they were up to the task. The task Alfond presented Winkin in 1954 was particularly daunting.
"He said to me 'I'm going to find out how good a baseball coach you are,' " Winkin said. "And then he said 'I need eight tickets to the World Series."
Alfond meant the World Series played by the big boys -- the major leaguers.
Winkin proved up to the challenge thanks to relationships he had developed with baseball greats Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Lefty Gomez of New York Yankees fame.
"So I got the tickets and for the next 35 years we went to the World Series together," Winkin said.
Winkin said he was Alfond's "ticket man" for the World Series every one of those years -- and the number of tickets Alfond requested increased each year, he said.
Some would have wilted at some point.
Winkin, though, used his connections with the Red Sox to solve the problem. When the Red Sox came looking for a Maine investor to buy a share of the team, Winkin suggested they ask Alfond.
Alfond was happy to oblige.
"I believe Harold held a 29 percent share in the team at one time," Winkin said. "Then it became easy for me. We got the (World Series) tickets from the Red Sox."
FAMILY VALUES
John "Swisher" Mitchell, the older brother of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, also had a long-time friendship with Alfond.
"I've known him since 1945," Mitchell said, "when I was playing basketball at Waterville High School."
Winkin said Alfond asked Mitchell and him to help run the Waterville Little League baseball program, a request that showed that Alfond's commitment to youth and community went beyond monetary contributions.
Mitchell said Alfond always had a great interest in children and catered to their needs throughout his life, especially children of lesser means.
Winkin said the general public's lasting impression of Alfond is as a philanthropist and businessman.
But for those who knew him best, Winkin said, Alfond is best described as a supreme family man -- and in three senses.
"He wanted the best for his family, the best for the people who worked for him, and the best for the state of Maine," he said. "So I looked at him as having three families."
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
chickey@centralmaine.com
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To his family, how luck you were, to have this great man as your Husband & Father, so sorry for your loss.report abuse
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