In Ye Olden Times: Golfing with Bruce at Bridgton Highlands

Howdy neighbor! How sorry I was this past week to hear of the passing of my — and everyone’s — good friend, Bruce Chalmers. For truly whether you knew him or not, if you lived here in Bridgton, Bruce was always a friend to you. Here was a man who, over the course of his life since moving here in 1945, did more than anyone to help build and develop our community through the second half of the 20th century. His life and good works will be remembered for generations to come, most obviously through the insurance agency he managed after his father; taking up the reigns of a firm established here in 1857 under George Wight, which descended through the Libbys and Braithwaites to the Chalmers family in 1948. 

But this of course is barely the tip of the iceberg, for all Bruce Chalmers did for Bridgton. From his work establishing the Historical Society and local Chamber of Commerce, to his days as incorporator of Norway Savings Bank and trustee of Bridgton Academy, to his charitable giving through the Ham Foundation and Camp Sunshine, it’s hard to think of any worthy local institution which he did not have at least a hand in funding, if not managing outright during his generations of community service. One incredible fact he once told me, which I’m not sure many folks know, is that he even directed in its last years the old Canal Bank of Portland: representing Bridgton at the closing of an institution first founded by, among others, the Perley family in 1832, to help build the Cumberland & Oxford Canal.