Seaward Spinney

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  • Excerpt from obituary
    Headline: Seaward S. Spinney, 87, ex-maintenance chief
    Publication Date: February 12, 1991
    Source: Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, Massachusetts
    Page: C6
    Region: Massachusetts Obituary
    
    Berlin - Seward S. Spinney, 87, of 135 Pleasant St. died Sunday night in Oakdale Nursing Home, Oakdale. He leaves his wife, Mary A. (Lawrence) Spinney; a son, Seaward S. Spinney Jr. of Berlin; three daughters, Rose M. Sawyer and Eunice Hoban, both of Berlin, and Rita L. Morris of Montreal, Quebec, Canada; eight grandchildren; six great grandchildren; nephews and nieces. Mr. and Mrs. Spinney observed their 57th wedding aniversary recently. He was born in Harmony, Nova Scotia, Canada, son of Caleb and Margaret (Bartow) Spinney and later lived in Holden. He lived here for 40 years.
    Mr. Spinney was head of maintenance at Anna Maria College in Paxton, where he worked for 19 years, retiring in 1980. He began working in a grocery store in Acton. He was then a carpenter and home builder for his brother in Winter Park, Florida. He then became a caretaker for a mill owner in Acton. After that, he worked for 19 years in a machine shop in Ashland. At this point, he told the Sunday Telegram in 1979, the urge to get outside took over. He was caretaker of an estate in Connecticut.
    "I really liked that job," he recalled. "It was a big estate, always something to do".
    He went to work at Anna Maria College in 1961. Mr. Spinney was a former member of the Berlin Grange, the Berlin Board of Trade and Hudson Lodge of Odd Fellows.
    His work was his hobby for years, he told the Sunday Telegram in 1979. "Unwavering Fidelity  Sister Irene Socquet, S.S.A., former president and later business manager of the college, said, "Mr. Spinney has shown Anna Maria unwavering fidelity, and has worked for the college in a way a man would work for himself in his own business. He must have an invisible fireman's pole, day and night. When things go wrong he shows up in an instant."
    Another college insider said Mr. Spinney was "a real Yankee craftsman, blessed with an adaptablility to all needs and pruposes." Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Robert J. McNally Funeral Home, 304 Church St., Clinton. The Rev. Robert A. Grattaroti will officiate. Burial will be in South Cemetery. Calling hours at the funeral home are 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. The family requests that flowers be omitted. Memorial contributions may be made instead to the Berlin Rescue Squad, care of Andrew Munter, 11 South St., Berlin, 01503.