His dedicated mother took the long, cold, and bumpy journey on back roads from Vermont to arrive in Thomaston before December 9, 1929. Ruth Grafton Andrews wanted to be near her family when her son, Paul Raymond Andrews, was born. After he arrived healthy and happy, she went back to Plainfield, Vermont to raise him in that bucolic town on the Winooski River, with Paul's father, Edward Clinton Andrews, Sr., and his brother, Edward Clinton Andrews, Jr.

Paul grew up playing sports — winning two high school basketball state championships, going to camp on Hardwood Mountain throughout the year to cut wood and hunt anything that moved, and playing tricks on his friends and anyone else willing or otherwise. Graduating with a class of 14 students (as valedictorian, albeit without bragging rights), and after meeting his future wife, Mary Perrin, he went to Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Since he could remember, he wanted to be a writer. And Middlebury was perhaps his ticket to that career, as he graduated in 1951 with a degree in English Literature.

He and Mary also wed that summer, starting a 64-year journey that endures in the relationship they modeled so well for their children, grandchildren, and beyond. If possible, their relationship only strengthened in the face of recent physical adversities that brought Paul’s life to a close and still challenge his bride.

Paul wound up teaching english to middle school students, was committed to education at all levels, and would later help found an innovative high school in East Montpelier, Vermont. After teaching, he entered politics and state government in Vermont. Becoming the first Director of Planning in the state of Vermont, managing a colleague’s run for governor and then working for the same person as the Assistant to the Chancellor of the Vermont State College System, Paul had a dedicated and exemplary career serving residents and students throughout the state.

But he still wanted to be a writer.

Once the last of his four children finished high school in 1978, he and his wife Mary moved to Gay Island in Cushing, Maine. There, he burned the old chicken coop his father floated down the St. George River that had served as “camp” since 1920, and he built a small house on the land. Paul loved to design and build houses, and he did so — perhaps to his wife’s chagrin — almost every five years for a couple of decades; but here, in the solitude of island spruces, mud flats, and the morning rumble of lobster boats, he could finally write. And so he did: plays, short stories, and later poetry, inspiring those who knew him and loved him how we should never lose sight of our dreams and passions.

His wife, Mary, worked at FMC in Rockland until her retirement in 1995. After their home on the island was constructed, Paul would write in the morning and move outside in the afternoon, clearing the land to create an inviting and meticulously landscaped home for friends and family to visit. He also took care of his mother, Ruth Andrews, who had moved back to her childhood home of Thomaston to be near Paul and his wife, as well her other son Ed and his wife Jean in Cumberland, until her death in 1997.

Paul died last week at his home under the loving care and attention from this wife, his family, and mostly from his oldest daughter Jody, a trained hospice nurse. He had started that long, challenging, and life changing disease called Alzheimer’s nearly two years ago. But his family marveled that he knew everybody in his family until the day he died.

Paul’s wife, Mary, continues to reside in their home on Pleasant Point in Cushing. Paul's oldest daughter, Jody, and her husband Bruce Dewey, live in Westfield, Massachusetts. His daughter, Evan Andrews, also lives in Westfield, Massachusetts. His son, Kevin Andrews and wife Suzy Andrews, live in Cumberland, Maine. And his son, Loren Andrews and wife Rita Furlow, also live on Pleasant Point in Cushing. Paul has seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren, spanning in age from 4 months to 33 years old. They will all remember him and honor his remarkable life at a family event this summer.

For those who knew Paul Andrews and wish him well, please do so. For he will always remain dear in our hearts and a man of enormous and unending influence in our lives.

Hall's of Thomaston has care of the arrangements. To extend online condolences, light a candle for Paul, or to share a story or picture, please visit their Book of Memories at www.hallfuneralhomes.com