SOUTH THOMASTON — After 91 plus years of gracing us with his presence, Peter Marckoon’s journey on the planet came to an end on June 28, 2024. He was born on May 1, 1933, the only child of Paul & Elsie (Wardwell) Marckoon.

Peter would emphasize to anyone around, that his arrival came in South Penobscot Maine, and he was only 3 pounds at birth spending time around a warm wood burning stove to properly incubate. He spent a fair amount of his childhood in Hartford, Connecticut, but wisely his parents moved back to Castine, Maine where he was a rare graduate of the former Castine High School, which now houses the Historical Society.

After graduating from the University of Maine at Orono with a degree in animal husbandry. Peter joined the US Army and was based in Germany, where he was a member of the award-winning Army Chorus during the Cold War. When he returned to Maine from serving his country, he married Ellyn-Jean Bailey from Bucksport in a blizzard on St. Patrick’s Day 1956, and they would celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary before her passing in June 2016.

His career included a job as a bread route salesman in New York State, a bacteriologist with a poultry company in Manchester Maine, a school teacher in Winthrop, and for the bulk of his professional career as a statistician for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Rockland. The federal government job took him on many adventures to sea with fishermen and fellow NOAA workers, to Woods Hole Massachusetts, and several conferences around the East Coast.

He and Ellyn-Jean and the kids moved from Winthrop to Rockland in 1970 and then to nearby South Thomaston in 1978 where in addition to working, they had a small vegetable farm on Dublin Road, raising raspberries and other crops for neighbors and summer clientele. Peter was a six-decade member of the Lions Club and leaves behind many close Lions from the South Thomaston area. He sang barbershop quartet music with the local chapter of the SPEBSQSA. He was an avid rock-hound for much of his early life, poking around mines on the weekends with fellow explorers and his family.

After retiring, he was a key volunteer with the AIO Food Pantry in Rockland. He was a master gardener, volunteering hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours with Brae Maple Farm in Union. For decades he was a member of People’s United Methodist Church in South Thomaston, taking care of the building, opening each Sunday morning for services, and singing in the choir which daughter Susan Marckoon Jones directs.

In 2017 Peter was named one of the 6 Who Care recipients by WCSH TV in Portland.

Dad was an avid Boston Celtics fan, having seen them win all 18 of their franchise championships (though he slept through game 5 this year), and the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. He put up with his Red Sox cheering children and greatly enjoyed going to Boston with his son Stu to watch them play from time to time.

Peter is survived by his son Stuart Marckoon and his wife Bonnie of Lamoine and their daughters, Rebecca (Nathaniel) Hines of Old Orchard Beach; their son Hudson; Sarah Marckoon and fiancé Travis Cushman of Saco and and their daughter Madison; Peter’s daughter Susan Jones and her husband Lowell of Union and their daughters, Jessica (Aaron Tibbetts) Jones; their daughter Corinne of Waldoboro; Amy (Michael) Griswold of Winthrop; their children Lydia, Braydon, and Dorothy; Abigail (James) Skrabek; their children, Virginia and Evelyn of Farmingdale.

He is also survived by his brothers-in-law, James (Sharon) Bailey of Oregon, and Robert (Debbie) Bailey of Brewer.

If we started listing everyone he called his friends, it would fill up the entire obituary page, and he’d find a kind way to chastise us for the cost. If they still published a phone book for Knox County, he’d know most of them!

Family and friends are invited to visit Tuesday, July 16, 2024, from 5 to 7 p.m., at Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.

A memorial service and celebration, for all who called him a friend, will be held Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at 11 a.m., at People’s United Methodist Church, 8 Chapel Street, South Thomaston.

To share a memory or condolence with the Marckoon family, please visit their Book of Memories at www.bchfh.com.