Willard Colson of Southwest Harbor sits in his living room with the Boston Post Cane, a community heirloom given to the town’s oldest resident. Colson turns 100 Jan. 20.
Willard Colson of Southwest Harbor sits in his living room with the Boston Post Cane, a community heirloom given to the town’s oldest resident. Colson turns 100 Jan. 20.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETE COLSON
Willard Colson’s painting of Stinson’s Canning Company in the 1960s.
Colson, the oldest resident of Southwest Harbor, will turn 100 on Jan. 20. Colson is the current holder of the Boston Post Cane, a community heirloom that the Southwest Harbor Historical Society awards to the town’s oldest citizen. The historical society presented Colson with the cane on March 15, 2022.
Colson was born in Milbridge and grew up on Dyer Bay. He moved to Southwest Harbor 69 years ago. For 46 years, Colson worked for the former Stinson Canning Company, which was located at the site of Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina. At the time of his retirement in the ‘80s, Colson was vice president of operations at facilities in Belfast, Prospect Harbor and Southwest Harbor, a Stinson ground fish operation in Rockland and a pump station in Lubec.
Colson and his late wife Marion raised three children, including their son Peter, who currently lives in Southwest Harbor.
Throughout his life, Colson has enjoyed hunting, fishing, painting and reading. “He basically has a library at the house,” said Peter.
Today, Colson lives with Peter and daughter-in-law Cindy. He still owns a blueberry property in Beddington and a camp on Spring River Lake, and enjoys going out to Dyer Bay to see his childhood home.
Piper Curtin covers municipal government in Southwest Harbor and arts for Mount Desert Island. She recently moved to Southwest Harbor after graduating from St. Lawrence University. Piper welcomes tips and story ideas.
