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Kotlas - Waterville Area Sister City Connection P.O. Box 1747 Waterville, ME 04903-1747 Write to Us |
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We are greatly saddened by the death of our dear friend and Executive Committee member, Jack Mayhew, who has devoted the last 23 years to the founding and nurturing of our Sister City relationship with Kotlas. Jack has worked tirelessly and meticulously and always with his gentlemanly good spirits on every exchange, in every Russian Sampler, at every Annual Meeting, and on every tour of Maine for Russian guests. Our partners in Kotlas, who often hosted Jack at their apartments and dachas, share our grief at the loss of one of their most beloved American friends. In a letter of condolence to Jack’s wife, Pauline, The Waterville Committee in Kotlas writes that "our thoughts and prayers are always with you. ... We will always remember Jack as an honest and cheerful man, who loved to joke. ... Everybody here in Kotlas, who had a beautiful chance to meet Jack, will never forget his amazing sense of humor and his great gift for storytelling." Jack Mayhew served in the US Navy and later worked at both Grenier and Hanscomb Air Force Bases as a civilian employee. Jack retired from the Xerox Corporation after 30 years work as Field Manager for much of the state of Maine. While still working and then in retirement, Jack devoted much time and energy to the Sister City Committee, serving as its Co-Chair for 7 years and accepting the role as Chief Coordinator of the Open World teacher exchange in 2008. In 2013, when the Open World delegation of social services workers visited, Jack arranged and coordinated several of their site visits with aplomb and his ever-warm smile. Jack and Pauline Mayhew were honored with a REM Volunteers Service Award in 2006. During the years of the Cold War and the later years of thawing relations with the Soviet Union and Russia, there could not have been a better personal representative of American hospitality, grace, energy, and "getting the job done" than Jack. We mourn his loss. 
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