How do you describe a fine craftsman and loyal employee?  How do you describe integrity and vitality?  And boy, where can you find a yet another example of New England ingenuity.  Look no further than Dick of Millinocket - whose apartment I rented for a night – an apartment over his fine workshop – we will visit his workshop in a minute.

Dick is a retired papermill welder – and a highly respected on at that.  He was nearly always chosen, among the dozens of welders available, to do your difficult and tricky job.  One of his memorable assignments was a special weld-with-no-errors requirement inside 15-foot diameter underground water tunnel made of special steel – this assignment was only given to Dick because if was done wrong the cost in lost production was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  If you had a tricky boiler tube job on the massive steam boilers in one of the mills – Dick is your man.  If you needed a team player – a mentor who taught night school for aspiring high schoolers – call Dick.  When you speak with Dick you first feel his passion – or my favorite word – his zest for life – every part of it.

Dick loves welding so much he started his own business building wood stoves when he retired.  These are efficient machines.  People of New England, the true New Englanders, do not like to waste anything – in this case Dick wanted to get every last Btu of energy out of every log he put in his stoves – they are super efficient.  They are engineered to rob every last ounce of the warmth that every log can share as it turns to ashes – baffles are built into the stove to extend the “dwell” time for the hot exhaust.  And yet another efficient feature is the ash removal tray – when the ashes have cooled, just slide out a steel tray and dump in your ash pile - - no shovels needed and you can do it fast.

And lets not overlook the artistic nature of New Englanders – you can certainly see it in the beauty of his stoves.  A lovely mix of angles and curves – design touches all over to make this not just an efficient machine, but a pleasant object to look at.  Thanks so much Dick for ALL your warmth and for letting me glimpse into a small part of your rich life.