Stephen Reid Capps

 

Stephen Reid Capps, 89, died suddenly at the Island Commons on Chebeague Island on February 8, 2004.

He was born in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 1914, a son of Stephen Reid and Isabelle Webster Capps. He attended Washington D.C. public schools and graduated from Illinois College in 1937.

After graduating he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to begin a training program at International Harvester. With the onset of World War II, he moved to General Electric in order to make a greater contribution to the war effort. His work in GE's Specialty Transformer Department spanned more than 30 years, and he ended his career as the Manager of Employer-Employee Relations for that Department, retiring in 1973.

One of the highlights of his young life was the summer he spent in Alaska in 1935 working for two colleagues of his father, all geologists with the United States Geological Survey, who were charged with mapping the Alaska interior.

He was a lifelong summer resident of Chebeague Island, where his youth was filled with sailing, fishing with some of the Island fishermen and playing golf. He first met his wife Katharine Swenarton on Chebeague at the age of 10 and married her on June 21, 1941. They returned to Maine as year-round residents in 1982, living first in Portland, where he was a long-standing member of the State Street Church Choir. He moved to the Highlands in Topsham in 1999 and to the Island Commons on Chebeague last August. He was a member of the Great Chebeague Golf Club Board and served a term as its President. He enjoyed working with his hands and drew on his strong artistic bent by caning, rushing, and repairing chairs, hooking rugs, and gardening. He was an ardent Red Sox and Patriots fan and was able to find common interest with everyone he met.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 63 years, Katharine, of Chebeague; his two daughters, Sarah Tubbesing of Freeport and her husband Carl and Rosemary Merchant of Oakland, California, and her husband John; one son, Stephen Reid Capps IV of Mount Airy, Maryland, his wife Linnea, their two daughters Katharine and Jennifer and a great grandson, Michael; and his brother Webster of Portland. He was pre-deceased by two sisters, Mary Capps Stelle and Louise Capps Scranton.

A memorial service will be scheduled this summer on Chebeague Island. Instead of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to:
The Island Commons
132 Littlefield Road
Chebeague Island, Maine 04017

Arrangements are by the Lindquist Funeral Home.