He was born in Dorchester, MA, on June 13, 1921, the only child of Arthur L. and Ramona (Metcalf) Butler.
Mel grew up in Dorchester, MA, and graduated from Mount Hermon in 1938, then attended University of Maine at Orono until 1942 when he joined the Navy’s V-12 program. After seeing service in the islands of the South Pacific, he came home safely in 1946. He returned to UMO and the following year, completed his degree in animal husbandry. Mel married Jacqueline Dean in 1947 and lived in Lexington, MA, where they raised daughter, Cameron, and son, Randall, until they moved to Longmeadow, a decade later.
He went to work for H.P. Hoods in 1948, starting with scrubbing milk storage tanks in Boston and worked his way through several positions including foreman, lab tech and eventually plant manager of the Portland facility. He retired from that position in 1982 and made the most of his time in creating new adventures. Renovating the cottage at Cundy’s Harbor that he and Jackie built in 1953, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, playing bridge and square dancing with friends and family filled his life. He loved nature, especially anything to do with the ocean, and was an avid photographer. Trips to the Caribbean, Scandinavia, England, Hawaii, New Zealand, and the South Pacific were all well documented in his slide shows.
After his lifelong love and wife, Jackie, passed in 2014, he moved to their summer home in Harpswell until the weather got too cold to enjoy. When he was confined to the house (during the snowy winter months) he would spend his time down cellar “making sawdust.” What we all know as some wonderful furniture of any type you asked for, either by himself, or even better, with his partner in crime, Adam. If things got slow, they would solicit jobs from family and friends and the church fair just for an excuse to go play with power tools.
He is survived by his daughter Cameron Johnson and her partner Judd Brown of Barrington, NH; his son Randall and wife Kathleen of Augusta, ME; and two grandchildren, Derek Douin of Manchester, NH and Whitney Butler of California.
Services will be at the First Congregational Church in South Portland on Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m., followed by a reception at the church.
Memorial donations to the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Taylor Road, Harpswell, ME 04079, would be greatly appreciated.
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