100 Years Ago: 1925

A departure from the usual routine in the ninth grade domestic science classes, is the serving of dinners to guests of the class on different evenings. The dinners are prepared under the direction of the class teacher, Miss Edith Wiggins. The girls, however, do all the work of preparing and serving the meal. They even buy the material to be used, thus receiving the practical application of what they are learning.

50 Years Ago: 1975

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Dumais were pleasantly surprised Saturday evening at a party given at their home, 21 Nichols St., Lewiston, in celebration of their silver wedding anniversary.

The numerals “25” and decorations in silver and white provided the background for the event which was planned by their two daughters, Susan, who is a senior at Bates College, and Diane, a sophomore at the University of Maine, Presque Isle.

On hand for the special occasion was Rev. Leonard A. LeClair, chaplain at the Togus Veterans Administration Hospital who had performed the wedding ceremony 25 years ago.

Mr. Dumais is an authorizer at the V.A. Center in Togus and Mrs. Dumais works in the X-Ray Department at the Central Maine General Hospital. She is the former Viola Chabot.

25 Years Ago: 2000

He doesn’t know how many babies Dr. Vincent Beeaker delivered over his 55-year medical career, but he does know his father’s face was the first thing many L-A residents saw when they came into the world.

Dr. Beeaker died Wednesday morning at the age of 92 at d’Youville Pavilion, across Campus Avenue from St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, the hospital where he and his late wife, Geraldine, worked for half a century.

Beeaker was born in Rumford Feb. 22, 1907, the son of Casimir and Tekla Bartash Beeaker and graduated from the University of Maine in 1928. He received his medical degree from Cornell University in 1932 and his Maine medical license in 1933. Two years later, he joined the staff of St. Mary’s, where he practiced until 1992.

“He was the last of a breed,” Bill Beeaker said Wednesday morning. “He wasn’t flamboyant; he just did his job.”

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.