Adelbert M. (Ocean Park) Jakeman Jr.

Adelbert (Del) Morrow Jakeman, Jr.,89, passed away May 16,2019 at Seal Rock Healthcare in Saco, Maine. He was born at Goodall Hospital in Sanford, Maine, June 23,1929, the only child of Adelbert M. and Lillian Stevens Jakeman. He graduated from Old Orchard Beach High School in 1947 and Boston University School of Communications in 1957. He also attended Bates College for two years and Northeastern Business College in Portland before serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. His early schooling was in Westfield, Massachusetts, where he resided with his parents from 1930 to 1946. His father was head of the English Department at Westfield High School.

He married Jillian Suzanne Carle, formerly of Wellesley, Massachusetts, June 14, 1957, after a short courtship while both were attending schools in Boston. Their identical twin sons, Jeffrey Carle and Jonathan Morrow Jakeman, were born February 19, 1958 and died of muscular dystrophy at ages 20 and 21 in 1978 and 1979.

Del served in the U. S. Navy from 1951 to 1954 as a machine accountant, stationed at Ninth Naval Headquarters, Great Lakes, Illinois. He was later a reporter and copy editor for the former Biddeford Daily Journal from 1957 to 1959, after which he joined his father in the family real estate business, Jakeman Realty, established in Ocean Park in 1946.  He became owner of Jakeman Realty in 1972 on the semi-retirement of his father. He retired from brokerage in April 2001 and specialized in summer cottage rentals. He closed the agency, sold the family property and retired in 2004. His parents both died in 1983.

Del was Old Orchard Beach correspondent for the Portland newspapers from 1960 to 1965 and was awarded a gold press card for excellence in reporting. He was also active in the Old Orchard Beach town government for several years in the 1960's. He was moderator of the town's last town meeting in l966 and was a member of the town council for four years, serving as chair in 1969.

He was a member of the former Old Orchard Beach Kiwanis Club, serving as president twice and lieutenant governor of the New England District in 1967. He was also a former director and vice president of the Webber Hospital Association, parent corporation of the former Southern Maine Medical Center, now Southern Maine Health Care. He was a former advisory board of Key Bank and a former corporator of the Saco and Biddeford Savings Bank.

He and Mrs. Jakeman donated the ten-acre Jordan Park Marsh on West Grand Avenue to the Ocean Park Association on 1984 as a wildlife sanctuary. In 1985 they donated Memorial Park, next to the tennis courts on Temple Avenue, to the Association in memory of those who devoted their lives in Service to Ocean Park. They donated a third park area along the northern border of Ocean Park in 2002, completing a long-term conservation project. A triangular lot next to their long-time home at the north end of Free Street is designated as Jakeman Memorial Park, a property once owned by Benjamin C. Jordan, one of the founders of Ocean Park, and three generations of Jakemans.

Del was president four times over for more than 20 years of the Maine Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, a national corporate member, and a national vice president for more than ten years. He was the author of "Wednesday's Child" based on the lives of his sons, which was published nationally by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It was originally delivered as a speech before the last national MDA conference "My Burden Light," the memoirs of the late Right Reverend Robert J. White, Rear Admiral Retired, U. S. Navy, a prominent summer resident of the Grand Beach section of Old Orchard Beach. A copy of the unpublished 350 page manuscript is in the Law Library of Catholic University, Washington, D.C., and can be referenced on the internet.

He was co-editor, with his cousin, Gladys Miller, of Acton, of a biographical history based on the Civil War diary of their ancestor, First Lt. John H. Stevens, of Acton, a member of the Fifth Maine Regiment. He also researched and illustrated the 1881 "Centennial History of Ocean Park," written by his father.

Del is a 12th generation descendant of Alexander Shapleigh on his mother's side of the family. Shapleigh, of Kingsweare, England, landed at Kittery on his merchant ship "Golden Cat" in 1629, and at one time owned a large portion of York County, including the Town of Shapleigh, which was named for him.

Over the years Del enjoyed two newspapers a day, several magazines, watching television, enjoying the internet, taking day trips, traveling the entire State of Maine, and spending time with his wife, Jill, at their year-round octagonal hilltop home on the West Road in Waterboro for thirty years. He also had a long-time interest in theater organ music from when his paternal grandfather took him to theaters with Wurlitzer pipe organs in Boston. Del had been a member of the American Theatre Organ Society for more than 40 years. Del also was a movie projectionist at the Temple in Ocean Park and in several movie theaters in his younger years.

Del leaves his wife, Jill, and many cousins on the Jakeman and Steven sides of the family. Special thanks go to cousins, Ellen and Kathryn Harrison, who were so kind and helpful through a difficult time. He also leaves his sister-in-law, Stephanie Peck and her husband, Charles, their children and grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will be held on June 23 at Porter Hall, Ocean Park from 3-5pm. Burial will be at Evergreen Cemetery, Alfred, Maine, with military honors at a later date.

Expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in memory of Del, and his twin sons, Jonathan and Jeffrey.

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