Sandra S. Dinsmore, 84

Bath, Maine

Sandra Sinclair Dinsmore died on March 12 after a four-month decline in health due to a stroke. Sandy, as she was affectionately known, was born in Princeton, N.J. She played tennis, piano, and sang and performed at Princeton High School. While attending Bradford Junior College, she was invited by a friend to Bowdoin College in Maine where she met Charles A. Chapman, a jazz drummer. They married in Castine. Sandy and Charlie settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. The following year, they moved to Rochester, Mich. Tragically, on an outing at Lake St. Clair in 1962, her husband Charlie was in a diving accident and became a quadriplegic. He was only 26 years old. Eventually, Sandy had to start over on her own. In 1967, Sandy worked as a secretary to Admiral Rodgers at Maine Maritime Academy, and was reunited with her high-school sweetheart, Dr. Tom Robbins. They wed in 1968, and she and the children moved to Blawenburg, N.J. The couple divorced in 1971. In 1974, Sandy owned her own antiques business, and attended a show where she became reacquainted with Drury Ap Rice, a fellow dealer, living in Woolwich, Maine. They enjoyed a quick courtship, married and moved to Maine. Drury was hit and killed by a car in 1976. Eventually, Sandy recovered from her losses. From 1976-1983 she managed her antique business, wrote copy and advertising for “Antiques” and “Maine Antiques Digest.” In 1984 she attended Bowdoin College, and the University of Massachusetts. She relocated to be near her mother in Castine and reconstructed her career. A voracious reader from childhood, Sandy became a writer. Since 1989 Sandy worked as a volunteer and advocate for literacy and the arts and wrote articles for multiple publications. Her last 20 years were spent writing about the working waterfront for “Commercial Fisheries News,” and books, including “More by Eye Than by Measure,” which was nominated for a Maine Literary Award in 2020. She is survived by her three children – Reed, Debbie and Wendy – as well as her siblings Elizabeth and Marjorie.