Lewiston, Maine Bliss College Survival Project

Before and during the programs I was working on with the Lewiston Jaycees, after high school, 1965 through 1975, I attended Bliss College on a work study program.

The Maine Historical Society has published the following material about the initial establishment of Lewiston’s Bliss College:

Olney Dewey Bliss passed his childhood and early youth in his native town. For the preliminary portion of his education he attended the local public schools, from which he was graduated with the class of 1894. He then became a student in Bliss College at Columbus, Ohio, where he studied for about a year and was graduated in 1895. Two years later he accompanied his father to Lewiston, Maine, and aided the elder man in the foundation of the now celebrated Bliss College there. After his father's death, Mr. Bliss became sole owner and manager of this institution and to the present day occupies the position of president thereof. He has made the school his life's work and endeavored to realize in it the very best educational ideals and striven to make it serve that most important of purposes, the training of young men and women in those departments of knowledge which have an immediate and practical application in the daily affairs of life. In this effort Mr. Bliss has met with a phenomenal success, and the school has become well known through a large part of New England as affording an excellent education for those desiring a complete knowledge of business, commercial and financial matters.

Before my engagement at the college in about late 1966 – 1967, the school was having difficulties with presidential management, its Board of Directors, instructors and finances. Ironically, all of the issues for which Mr. Bliss established his college to teach students were eating away at its management and operation. Also, during this time, its management and board were considering the move from a business school to become the Bliss Jr. College. My engagement at the school eventually move me from my janitorial work study program to Special Projects Assistant to develop fund raising programs for the school. I remember establishing a dialogue with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation concerning their position about Jr Colleges. They said, “when students start their educational experience at Jr. Colleges, in most cases, little will deter them for transferring to and completing a four-year college. So, also during this time, Bliss was negotiating with the historic Bates College of Lewiston, to transfer Bliss accreted classes to Bates. It is not an easy lift. Administration, instructors and even the school library had to be upgraded in order to reach certification, all expenses requiring outside support.

When the school finally reached its financial inability to continue, we organized the students to a campaign to “Save Bliss College”. During this time we had produced a Bliss scrap book tracking our events and local newspaper coverage of the student “Save Bliss” project. After having this in my closet for the past 40 years, I am in the process of sending it to the Maine Historical Society.

1974 Maine’s Independent Governor, James B. Longley

Another one of my “projects.” All my life I have developed things by starting with an OUTLINE and referring to things as “projects.” On rare occasion through life we come across people who are “special”, James B. Longley was one of these people. The easiest way to describe this type of man is, he had a “Prophetic Personality.” At your first encounter, you knew you were talking with a truthful sole and this is a game changer for the establishment of a relationship with another person.

Under Construction

Almost anyone attracted to community service inevitably gets involved in politics as one of those “issues”. The Longley Independent Governor race in 1974 was my launch into political awareness. Many people didn’t realize why Mr. Longley decided to run for Governor. Actually he had been a life-long Democrat, and in reality, from my perspective this was the beginning of the separation between liberals and conservatives. I will USE the following definition again I have used in other writings: Our changing times in our dictionaries and our encyclopedias. When I was a child 65 years ago, liberal meant that I liked a lot of butter on my mashed potatoes. Conservative meant, I must eliminate salt on my potatoes for health reasons. Actually, the suggestion of living conservative was recommended in the Bible as doing everything in moderation, not overly excessive with anything, live within your means, and not beyond your means so that you are not beholding to others. Today’s dictionaries mostly refer to the political version.

Governor Longley’s political actions were strongly influenced by his astute, self-employed business since. He was mostly occupied with his business interests, I don’t “think” he had much interest in politics, until; 1973, he chaired the Maine Management and Cost Survey Commission, which was intended to provide cost saving economic recommendations to the State of Maine government. The Commission studied the workings of state government and identified areas where money could be saved, but, as usual, the Governor and Legislature dissed the Commission Survey. Dissatisfied with state response to the survey's recommendations, Longley, a lifelong Democrat, decided to run for governor in 1974 as an independent, with the intent to implement the Commissions work. . . . . Shall be continued.