OWLS HEAD - Dr. Edward King Morse passed away peacefully at home, Friday, September 30, 2016, at the age of 98.  Dr. Morse, better known as E.K. to friends and neighbors, was born in Newton, Massachusetts, June 15, 1918, to wonderful parents, Ada Blanche Morse and Edwin John Morse of Waban, Massachusetts.  He attended Newton High School, graduating in 1936.  He later attended Middlebury College, before attending Tufts University Medical School.  He completed his residency in Surgery at Beverly Hospital in Massachusetts. 

Dr. Morse joined the U.S. Army, serving in Italy and Germany during World War II, and was promoted to the rank of captain.  Later, he served as the ship's physician on the Schooner Bowdoin, Arctic Expedition, with Admiral Donald B. MacMillan (see National Geographic Volume 100, Number 4, October 1951).  It was through the MacMillans that he met his first wife Helga Knudsen, a Danish citizen who was born in Greenland. 

After marrying Helga and completing his residency, Dr. Morse moved to Camden where he established a medical practice at the urging of his childhood friend, Dr William A. McLellan.   He was later joined in 1975 by his cousin, Dr. Gordon T. Paine.  A true general surgeon, he performed a full range of surgeries and procedures from gynecology and orthopedics to pediatrics.  Dr. Morse even made house calls, often receiving vegetables, eggs, lobsters or, from one particular patient, a rum spice cake, in payment. 

One stormy night the Coast Guard brought him out to sea to care for a badly injured fisherman, setting his broken legs on the deck of the heaving ship so he could be taken back to the mainland.

Dr. Morse was the second board-certified surgeon in Knox County and his contributions to the local community were many.  He started the local ambulance service in the 1960s with only hearses available, and also trained all of the EMTs.  He developed a radio communication system for emergency coordination using KJI605 as his call sign, carrying a suitcase radio to always be available no matter where he was.  At the end of the night, he would play a bit of music for the operator on the car radio before he signed off. 

Always concerned with providing medical care for those who could least afford it, he was involved in the Rockland District Nursing Association, along with Eliza Steele. 

When Ambulatory Care lost their OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) Grant, he along with other Physicians of Knox County, including Dr. Don Weaver and Dr. Johan Brouwer, took over the Public Service Hospital at Martin's Point in Portland.

After serving on the board of directors at Martin’s Point HealthCare for many years, he was honored with the creation of the Edward Morse Award for Clinical Excellence given to deserving outstanding physicians. 

In 1967, he formed the Schooner Bowdoin Association.  With the help of others he, ‘rescued’ the Schooner Bowdoin, raised and contributed money for her restoration, enabling the historic schooner to become a floating school and eventually become the official vessel of the State of Maine and the flagship of the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.  He was very grateful to all that helped and supported his efforts including Captain Jim Sharp, Captain John Nugent, Sonny Hodgdon and many others. 

He enjoyed hunting at Vern and Freda Stubb's Jerry Pond Camps with his good friends Frank and Lucy Kibbe.  Together with the Kibbes he also owned a camp in Rangeley where they enjoyed hiking, hunting and skiing at Saddleback.  An avid sailor, he sailed Penobscot Bay and beyond with the Brouwer family of Camden on their yawl, Swamp Fox.  Many good times were had aboard Swamp Fox with the Brouwers, as well as at their home in Cushing.  

Visitors were always welcome at the Morse home on High Street in Camden and later at Ginn Point, Owls Head. 

E. K. loved people and enjoyed sharing cocktails and dinner with guests while regaling them with stories, limericks and songs. 

He was always learning and always educating.  An inventor and tinkerer, he always found a way to make things work.  Several of his gadgets proved to be quite handy, including the electric hockey puck which could be found in dark corners when it slid off to the side of the Kibbe's pond during impromptu night games.

He was Founder and Commodore of the Ginn & Tonic Yacht Club. 

He was adventurous and had a great sense of humor; his generosity, dedication, and kindness knew no bounds. He is greatly missed by many. 

Nine years after the death of his first wife, Helga, he married her sister, Inger Margarete Holm, who passed away in 2013.

Predeceased by his sister Evelyn Morse, Dr. Morse is survived by his son, Christopher Edward Morse of Cumberland Center; three stepsons, Arne Holm of Raleigh, North Carolina, William Holm of Camden, Edward Holm of Chapel Hill, NC; his younger sister, Eleanor Dorothy Hunt of Catonsville, Maryland; five nephews, Ronald Hunt of Parkville, Maryland, Jeffery Hunt of Mechanicsville, Virginia, David Hunt of Seaford, Virginia, Louis Morse of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Michael Morse of Rothesay, New Brunswick, Canada; two nieces, Anne Lord of Leverville, New Brunswick, Canada, and Eleanor Morse of Saint Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada; as well as his cousin, Dr. Gordon T. Paine, of Camden.

At his request there will be no funeral; his life will be celebrated by close friends and family at his home in Owls Head.

To share a memory or condolence with Dr. Morse’s family, please visit his Book of Memories at www.bchfh.com.  Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.