One of Rolland Perry's few regrets is that he didn't quite reach his goal of planting 1 million trees before retiring from his more than four-decade career as city forester.
"I only got to 812,809," Perry, 70, said as he squinted at a computer-generated spread sheet tracking a career's worth of tree plantings, removals and other statistics.
If Bangor ever had a Johnny Appleseed, the Hampden resident would have to be it.
You don't have to look hard to see Perry's legacy in the city.
Just drive down any tree-lined residential street, or visit one of the city's four public forests, namely the 654-acre City Forest off Kittredge Road, 28-acre Brown Woods off Ohio Street, 35-acre Prentiss Woods on Grandview Avenue, and the 70-acre Essex Woods on Essex Street.
Until his retirement late last month, Perry also was responsible for some of the ornamental flower plantings around the city, including the perennials that each year grace the grounds at City Hall.
But it was Dutch elm disease that brought him to town and created the need to replace some of the 7,000 to 8,000 trees the infestation claimed, prompting him to establish the first of two tree nurseries.
And it was the Ice Storm of 1998, which damaged hundreds more trees, that continued to keep him busy closer to the end of his career with the city.
Perry was a one-person forestry division when he started work for the city almost 42 years ago. When he retired, the division had grown to include two arborists and several seasonal workers.
"They've cleaned the place up since I left," Perry said last week during his first visit to his old workplace since retiring. "Looks like they swept it out good," he said.
Perry said he learned to appreciate trees as a boy in northern Penobscot County.
"I was born up in Lincoln," he said. "I spent most of my life in the woods. I was raised on a dirt poor farm," he said, adding that during his boyhood, there were no indoor diversions such as video games and computers.
He said he decided to pursue a forestry degree while suffering a bout of extreme seasickness during a landing exercise off the California coast in the late 1950s, during a three-year tour in the U.S. Marine Corps that included a year in Korea.
During the exercise, three track vehicles were lost and several marines drowned.
"Not that I [saw] it," Perry said bluntly.
"I was sitting in the goddamned surf, thinking there's gotta be a better life than this," he said.
After completing his tour, Perry enrolled at the University of Maine, where the GI Bill allowed him to earn a degree in forestry.
His first job, with the Sewell Co. in Old Town, kept him away from home for weeks at a time, which was not conducive to family life.
When the city put out a call for a forester to help deal with Dutch elm disease, Perry jumped at the chance.
Assistant City Manager Robert Farrar said last week that the city eventually will hire a new city forester, though it was not yet clear when that will happen.
Before ending his interview with a news reporter, Perry said that another regret is that he almost completed his 42-year career without a single sick day.
"Had I retired at 65 I would have made it," he said with a measure of pride.
"These young people today," he said with his characteristic bluntness.
"They call in [sick] because they have a cold. The way I see it is you just come to work, blow your nose and go about your business."
Perry acknowledged, however, that the last two years have taken their toll on him. He recently had surgery on both knees and still is having trouble getting around. He also had an operation on his elbow, but that healed quickly.
In recent days, he also has been contending with irregular heart rhythms. The fact that he had spent much of the night before his interview Thursday in the emergency room of a local hospital did not deter him from touring the city's four forests and two tree nurseries with a reporter.
Perry's former city colleagues are holding a coffee hour in honor of his retirement at 3:30 p.m. today at the Public Works department at 530 Maine Ave.Bangor Daily News
