The Island Loses a Giant

Kendall (Duffy) Akerley made the community his family

BAR HARBOR—While Kendall B. (Duffy) Akerley’s time was ending in this world, he was still getting out some public last words and those words? They were a thank you to a community that he loved so much.

Kendall B. (Duffy) Akerley died August 25 after a brief illness. He was 76 and in his obituary, Duffy is quoted as saying, “My life has been a multitude of adventures all rolled into one big one and you were all part of it, whether it was a friendly hello and smile that may have changed my attitude for the rest of the day or gut-wrenching news, it mattered not. I have had 76 good years, sure some things could have been better, but a million things could have been worse. So, to all of you, acquaintances, friends, Paradises, Karen and family, especially family, Thank you.”

Thank you.

It is the community that should be thanking him.

As the Bar Harbor MDI YMCA Sharks said on a social media post, “The MDI Sharks, HS Trojans, and the entire Maine swimming family has lost a giant. His passion for the sport, dedication, and knowledge were unsurpassed. Sending love and support to Duffy’s family.”

Endurance, fortitude, support, love, knowledge, taking the steps to get things done and then doing it were all hallmarks of Duffy’s life and his swimming. He’d been a swimming official in Maine since 1966. He was still just in high school then. He was a staple in the pool and at the MDI YMCA, and a fundamental part of the state championship meets, which he ran for the Maine Principals’ Association. In 2014 he was inducted into Maine’s Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame. At the time, he’d been a swim official for more than 40 years.

Back in 2007, Duffy had a mild heart attack while he’d been shoveling snow. He’d felt ill and went inside where he took aspirin and called the ambulance. Two hospitals and two stents later, he was released.

Afterward, he was both philosophical and matter of fact. “It was kind of scary,” he told the Bangor Daily News. “I have to exercise a little more, eat a little better, and I’ll be OK long-term.”

“His dedication to the sport is without peer,” MDI YMCA swim coach Jim Willis told the Mount Desert Islander’s Liz Graves

He was dedicated to so many things: swimming, Boy Scouts, search and rescue, cross-country dirt bike racing, camping, and his family and friends and community—always his family and friends and community. Marilyne, his wife, and his children were key to his adventures, his confidence and his love.

In a moving post on Facebook, Paradis Ace Hardware’s Hannah Paradis wrote, “Duffy, thank you for teaching me so much. From a young age, you taught me that I can do anything that I put my mind to, despite what others may think. You gave me courage, determination, and showed me not to let anyone stand in my way.

“Losing you has been so painful, and every task I complete at work reminds me of you.

“As you laid in the hospital bed, you were thanking my family and I for everything we had done for you. If anything I felt like I should’ve been thanking you.

“I love you unconditionally. Thank you for being my ‘stand-in Grampy’.”

For many years, Duffy would head up to Millinocket right after Christmas. He’d take a sleeping bag, warm clothes, a tent, maybe a lawn chair, and get in line to try to get his beloved campsite at Baxter. It was a decades-long January tradition for Duffy to try to snag a cabin at Kidney Pond. In 2003, he got to be head of the line.

Sometimes the temperatures as he waited in line would be 40 below. Sometimes there would be a blizzard.

In 2003, others went to a hotel, according to a story by the Ellsworth American’s Craig Crosby, but Duffy toughed it out—alone, waiting.

Duffy endured it all for a chance to get to do what he loved, to snag the spot he cherished, to make memories there year after year. Even waiting in the line for the tickets became something fun, something where Duffy’s people skills became part of not just his story—but everyone’s.

“It’s become a social event,” he told Crosby. “I see people in line that I never see, just in line. They’ve become good friends. It’s fine….You have people talking and milling around, and it becomes something that’s enjoyable. That was the big difference.”

As the painting specialist at Paradis Ace Hardware in Bar Harbor, where he worked for 42 years, Duffy espoused advice. Don’t paint your deck, you want to stain it, he’d tell people. He’d patiently explain the difference between gloss, eggshell, and flat, explain to first-time home owners and first-time do-it-yourselfers what primer was and why you need it. If you want something to look good, he’d say again and again to friend after friend after customer, you want to get the right tools and put in the work.

“A good brush will save you a lot of the time,” he told Dick Broom of the Islander back in 2014, and that was true about Duffy too—a good brush with him and his calm knowledge, his sure hand and judgement, his kindness and desire to help was a good brush that impacted so many Islanders’ lives, not just in the pool or in a line or at the store, but in their homes and in their hearts.

On September 21, at 1 p.m., at the Regency Hotel’s Grand Ballroom there will be a celebration of Duffy’s life, a life of thank yous, community, love, and many a good brush with adventure.

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Duffy's obituary in the Islander

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