MELBOURNE,  FLORIDA – On Tuesday, January 8, 2019 Beverly Nolan passed away peacefully at the Holmes Regional Medical Center with her family by her side after a sudden, brief, unrecoverable medical condition.  She had a wonderful 75 years, and Bev will be missed by those who knew her for her volunteer work at the Penobscot Bay Chamber of Commerce and the Rockport Garden Club, for her arts and crafts, for her tennis playing, and for her love and admiration of her family.

Bev was born in 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Gilbert and Doris Lander. She grew up in Kittery, Maine and shared her high school years between two schools: Traip Academy and York High School, where she graduated in 1961.

Bev married her husband, Jim, in Kittery in 1964, and she followed him from the Air Force to the New Jersey Highway Patrol. She went on to support Jim throughout a successful career in law enforcement for the State of Maine, where they raised a family in Lewiston, Rumford, Bridgton, Hope, and Camden.

Jim and Bev met through a blind date as she was training to be an X-Ray Technician through Maine Medical Center. Soon, she was selected to be Maine’s first Cobalt Therapist. It was through her work with patients undergoing this therapy that she began to recognize the need to support the families of those undergoing treatments. Acting on this discovery, she went on to become a volunteer counselor for Camp Sunshine on Sebago Lake in the mid-1980s.

Bev is also remembered by the students she interacted with and nurtured at Rockport Elementary School, and many still recall the kindness and energy she brought with her each day to those young students who needed caring the most.

After moving to the Camden area in 1978, Bev was a mainstay volunteer at the Penobscot Bay Chamber of Commerce. Over her 25 years of service there, she shared her love and knowledge of the local community with visitors and co-workers alike.  

Bev was also an active athlete. In fact, if you stop in at the Kittery Historical & Naval Museum and look closely at the wall, you may spot a sparkle in the eye of a young woman atop a water

ski pyramid. Bev skied with the Pepperell Cove Ski club in the 50s and early 60s; and although it has been many years since she summered at the small lake in North Parsonsfield, Maine, she never lost her confident grace as a slalom skier. At West Pond, she taught nearly everyone to waterski who showed an interest, even her children when they were two and four. It was there at West Pond-- where she taught her children to love the water, the outdoors, and afternoons of spirited card games overlooking the lake – that she began passing on life lessons that, in time, would again be passed on to her grandchildren in later years at Pitcher Pond.

During recent winters spent in Melbourne Beach, FL, she enjoyed relaxing, dancing, crafting, and socializing with a community of friends as active and vibrant as herself. She took her competitive spirit to the tennis net, her enjoyment of exercise to the pool, her creativity and resourcefulness to the arts and crafts fairs, and she laughed with utter enjoyment at every card and board game she played.

You didn’t have to talk with Bev long before you knew she had a family she was proud of. She appreciated the quiet strength, caring, and steadfastness of her husband, Jim; the soulfulness, athleticism, and comfort of her daughter Jennifer; and the adventures and accomplishments of her son Chris and his family. They will all miss her for the special, wife, mother, friend, and Grammie that she was.

She is survived by Jim, her husband of 54 years, her daughter Jennifer, her son-in-law Chris Shotwell, her son Chris and his wife Heidi, and her three grandchildren – Kyle, Aaron, and Hannah.

A brief memorial service will be held Sunday, January 13, 2019 in Melbourne Beach, and her family will organize a service in Camden in the spring upon Jim’s return to Maine. She will be laid to rest in the Mountain View Cemetery in Camden.

If desired, memorial tributes can be made in her name to the Rockport Garden Club at P.O. Box 784, Rockport, ME 04856.  Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com.

Local arrangements will be in the care of Long Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.