WATERVILLE – Afton “Bud” Berry Gove, 92, formerly of Winthrop and one of the old boys from Monmouth Academy, has moved on. Bud left us on Christmas night after a period of declining health.
He was born on Sept.8, 1928, in Monmouth to George Leon and Grace Berry Gove. The attending physician at his birth was Dr. Russell of Leeds. Bud survived the six-man football team at the Academy, working on the Town road crew, running the territory with his chum Arna Blaisdell and traveling to work at Limestone Air Base on his Harley ’74. He was a family man who married Pauline Richardson of North Monmouth on July 2, 1949. They raised three children at the place on Hoyt Brook on the Old Lewiston Road in Winthrop.
Bud served a 39-year hitch with Central Maine Power Company, Stations Department, retiring in 1990. When he was a younger man, he had worked at the textile mill in North Monmouth. Weekends in the fall were spent picking apples with his father-in-law Jesse Richardson on the farm in North Monmouth. He and Pauline took many trips in their retirement, going to Michigan, Nashville, Florida, Charleston, S.C. and the Jack Daniels Distillery, twice.
He was predeceased by his wife Pauline; and two daughters, Audrey Gove and Jerilyn Heath. He is survived by a son Alan Gove and his wife Nancy; grandchildren Lindsay Heath Beesley and her family, Jesse Gove and family, Meghan Gove and family, Nicholas Gove and family, Brett LaPlante and wife Tracy, and Ryal Leon Gove. His memory will live on with Grace Gove at the family camp on Parker Pond.
A graveside service will be held in the spring at Glenside Cemetery in Winthrop. Arrangements are in the care of Roberts Funeral Home, 62 Bowdoin St., Winthrop where condolences to the family may be shared on the obituary page of the website at http://www.familyfirstfuneralhomes.com Those wishing, may make memorial contributions to Kennebec Land Trust P.O. Box 261Winthrop, ME 04364in memory of Afton and Pauline Gove