ROCKLAND — Harris J “Pete” Bixler, longtime resident of Camden and Northport, died peacefully at Breakwater Commons on November 8, 2025, at the age of 93. Much like his wife and mother before him, there was no long illness, he just wore out.

Pete was born in Harrisburg, PA on December 14, 1931, to Elsie F. and Alvin P. Bixler, and was raised in New Buffalo, Pennsylvania, population 75, on a turkey farm where his parents lived during the Depression. He attended Carson Long Military Academy from middle through high school, which explains some things…one of which was his ability to eat a meal in less than 10 minutes. To get seconds at a military school, you had to eat fast!

Pete managed to get into MIT, having not had a strong science education at Carson Long. The story has it that he was so bad as an undergrad, attending one too many frat parties, that his parents drove to his graduation not knowing if he was actually going to graduate. He did in 1953, though just barely, and the school told him to go away and get his act together. He had participated in ROTC while in military school, so he went to England for three years for officer training. He met his wife, Canadian Ann B. Bixler, when he was a platoon commander at the Air Force base in Mildenhall outside of London and Ann was teaching at London College for Girls. Pete would “jump the fence” with some other guys to go get Ann and other young women so they could go see London theater productions.

Pete and Ann then went to Toronto after London, got married in 1956, and Pete attended the University of Toronto where he got his Masters of Science. They then circled back to Cambridge, MIT let him back in, and Pete received his Doctor of Science in chemical engineering. Suffice it to say that Pete’s rocky start at his education was just a blip in a long life of incredible achievements in anything he set his mind to.

He then went on to work at a small startup that developed a series of anisotropic, ultrafiltration-grade membranes constructed from refractory thermoplastic materials. For anyone who knew Pete Bixler well, that last sentence was him in a nutshell. His older daughter remembers using these products years later at the biotech firm where she worked, and Pete’s name was in the literature that came with the products.

Pete and Ann moved to Maine in 1970 when he got a job heading up Marine Colloids in Rockland. Thus began a long career in hydrocolloids, mainly carrageenan, a thickener made from seaweed. Those were happy years for Pete as he worked with a great group of scientists doing what he loved. Internationally Pete was widely seen as one of the architects of the carrageenan industry. He was affectionally called the “king of carrageenan” and a “hydrocolloid maverick” by his peers. However, despite all the high accolades, you’d be just as apt to find Pete out back on the loading docks at Marine Colloids chatting with the guys as you would in the front offices. Pete made a point to connect with everyone who worked with him.

Life in Maine was good for Pete and Ann, where they raised their two daughters, Sarah and Alleson, and Pete joined many boards and committees including those at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. In the late 70s Marine Colloids was bought by FMC. Not to be managed by any corporate muckity mucks, Pete departed and moved his family back to Massachusetts for a short period before coming back to the midcoast. This time Pete and Ann built their forever home on a beautiful point of land in Bayside, where Pete was a member of many boards for the towns of Northport and Bayside.

At this time Pete worked to expand the production of carrageenan internationally and moved to Cebu, Philippines to connect the emerging seaweed farming base there to a growing global carrageenan industry. Pete understood early that the future of the sector depended on commercial farming of carrageenan seaweeds. He helped establish international standards and reaffirm the safety of carrageenan in foods. His work strengthen collaboration between farmers, industry, academia, and regulators. Once getting plants established in the Philippines, Pete then moved back home to Bayside and started Ingredients Solutions in Waldo, which facilitated the sale of the carrageenan produced in the Philippines.

Not to be pigeonholed as just a nerdy scientist, Pete had his hand in organizing and helping many organizations over the years. He continued his life of fitness, having been quite and overweight smoker in his earlier years. One could say Pete got fanatical about it, no surprise to anyone who knew him, and started Penobscot Wheelman, a small cycling club, that organized rides for serious riders and for family-type trips all over Maine. Pete participated in a number of century rides that encompassed 100 miles and even did a 200-mile double century, all done within a 24-hour period. Sometime in the early 70s he also started his beloved Hard Core Hiking Club, better known as (HC) 2 , with a group of dear friends who started doing a fall hike every year around New England. It morphed over the years to include big hikes in the Western US, Africa, and Europe. The group has slowed slightly over the years but is still meeting for their fall hikes, with Pete attending his last one in 2021.

Always a lover of the arts, Pete and Ann made annual trips to London for many years to get their fill of concerts, ballet, and theater productions. For 20 years, Pete served as a trustee at his beloved Bay Chamber Concerts. He was one of the founding members of the music school and served on the finance, education, development, and executive committees. He was a very proud to have been a part of helping Bay Chamber find its permanent home in Camden and their rebuilding of High Mountain Hall into the Bixler Music Center.

With his insatiable drive to learn, Pete took up the piano at age 82. He took his lessons very seriously and despite his significant obstacles of hearing loss, bad eyesight, arthritic fingers, and, during Covid, the issues of navigating Zoom connections, according to his teacher, “His incredible willingness to learn, to try again and again, and meet each moment with his characteristic humor and determination—both fierce in the best possible way—were and continue to be an absolute gift.”

Pete couldn’t have succeeded in living such an independent, long life without a little, and eventually a lot of, help along the way. It was determined later in his life, after a few too many mailboxes were plucked from the roadsides of Waldo and Knox Counties, that he should stop driving. Incredibly, this very determined, self-sufficient man took to being driven like a rockstar. Bruce Ladd, who had worked for Ann and Pete for years as a property caretaker, took on this Driving Miss Daisy task with an ever-patient and can-do, where-are-we-off-to-today willingness. Heather Leach, who started with the couple driving Ann on her daily errands, morphed into Pete’s above-and-beyond caregiver, taking him on shopping trips when he was still working well into his 80s, complete with social media posts showing off their “employee lunches”. They had a special bond. For anyone who has seen an elderly person through their later years, it’s not the most glamorous of duties. Heather was Pete’s constant companion, always there for him in ways that only the most compassionate of people could provide. To both of these incredible individuals, the Bixler family is forever indebted.

The family would also like to thank Pete’s very dedicated friends, Kevin Johndro, who continued to indulge Pete by bringing lobster rolls, burgers, and Subway sandwiches into his nursing home on a regular basis, and Dominica Porco, who showered Pete with goodies, flowers, and her exuberant zest for life on her visits. Also the dedicated caregivers in both Quarry Hill and Breakwater Commons who enjoyed Pete’s humor and need to find a way to cheat at Bingo, as well as the wonderful Constellation hospice workers who made Pete’s end of life comfortable.

Pete was predeceased by his wife, Ann B. Bixler.

He is survived by daughters Sarah Bixler (Christopher Tonkin) of Arlington, Massachusetts, Alleson Bixler of Camden; granddaughters Lizzie Tonkin of Madison, Wisconsin, and India Tonkin of Arlington, Virginia.

There is no public service planned. A gathering will be planned at Bay Chamber next summer.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School, 5 Mountain St., Camden, ME 04843.

Condolences may be shared at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com. Arrangements are with the Long Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.