One of the fun things I have found about being in local government of a small town is that sometimes historical questions come up and it is relatively easy to get a handle on the answers.

Haunani Wallace, chair of the Rockport Parks and Beautification Committee, was having dinner at 18 Central last fall when she casually struck up a conversation with another patron, Bob Williams. 

Bob is the father of Jessica Duffy who is the owner of 18 Central restaurant. Bob, himself, is the owner of Brooks Monuments on Route 90. 

The topic of parks came up in the conversation and Bob mentioned that he had a plaque honoring an Arthur Walker in his shop that the Town of Rockport had commissioned back in the early 1980s. 

For reasons that are unclear, it had never been picked it up. 

Haunani drove out to his shop the next day to retrieve the plaque and showed it to me while we were meeting to review an agenda for an upcoming Parks Committee meeting. 

The question then came up, “Who was Arthur Walker?”

As we talked about this it occurred to me, “I’ll call Maynard Tolman, he knows everyone in town.”

Maynard said to give him a little time to think about it and 10 minutes later he called me back.

Yes, Arthur had lived on Richards Hill in Rockport and had a granddaughter, Marion, who had married Bud Varney and they had a daughter (Arthur’s great-granddaughter) Arlene. 

Maynard conveniently had Arlene’s phone number for me.

Over the winter, I spoke with Arlene and made a couple of trips to the Camden Public Library.  It turns out that Arthur Walker was born on April 14, 1872 in Appleton to George P. and Olive Walker Lermond Walker.

He lived in Rockport from 1909 until the time of his death on Sunday June 26, 1955.

He was First Selectman, which, I believe is now the equivalent of Select Board Chair, of Rockport, for 26 years.

I spoke with Arlene about plans to rededicate Walker Park located on Sea Street to place the long forgotten plaque in its rightful place. 

Our hope was to have her attend in person a select board meeting, but first weather events conspired against us and now the virus has foiled those plans. 

Now, who deeded the land to the Town for the park?

Doug Cole lives in Rockport and sits on the Rockport Select Board.