HANCOCK – Earl Milton Johnston, 86, of Hancock, died Nov. 27, 2016, at his home. Earl was born in Hancock on July 21, 1930. He attended the old Mount Desert Ferry School and graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1948, after which he enlisted in the Army Air Force.
Growing up in Hancock with his older brother, Richard, and 46 first cousins from both the Clarke and Johnston families, Earl was related to many people from Hancock and all over Maine. He worked on the Clarke family farm and also for summer families on Hancock Point. One winter he got to stay at the Peirce family farm in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He was also a Boy Scout with the Hancock troop.
After basic training in the Army Air Corps (forerunner to today’s Air Force) in Texas, he was stationed at Savannah, Ga., and then in England, which he learned to love. He had a girlfriend there named Mollie for whom he named his daughter.
Returning to Maine after four years in the service, he married his first wife, the late Mary Thomas from Sullivan. They had three children. Earl built a camp at Molasses Pond, which became a popular hangout for both summers and hunting season. Earl loved the woods and hunting and driving his snowmobiles and other ATVs. He worked for the New England Telephone Company for 35 years seeing many technological changes from old party line phones to dial phones and today’s computerized systems. Earl loved having a computer.
Earl was a member of the Hancock Congregational Church for 72 years where, as a boy, he sang in the choir; and later as an adult served as a trustee and deacon. When he married his second wife, Betty, who became president of the Federation of Maine Woman’s Clubs, he traveled with her around not only Maine, but as far away as Oklahoma. For 50 years, Earl was a member of the Masons.
Earl loved his community of Hancock, and served it well. For many years, he was the President of the Riverside Cemetery Association for which he kept the files and where he set out the American flags every Memorial Day. He served the town as a selectman several times. He was also a lifelong caretaker of several summer places on Hancock Point.
Earl was predeceased by his parents, Paul and Phoebe Clarke Johnston, and by his older brother, Richard. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” (Manchester) Johnston, and his three children: David of Hancock, Dennis and his wife, Lisa, of Hancock, and Mollie and her husband, Bob Higgins, of Waterford, Conn. He is also survived by five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, as well as his sister-in-law Stella Johnston and two nephews, John and Tom Johnston and their families.
The funeral will be held at the Hancock Congregational Church on Route 1 in Hancock on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016, at 2 p.m. A reception will be held in the Church vestry. A private burial ceremony will be held at a later date.
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