Dr. Edward King Morse, 98

Owls Head, Maine

Dr. Morse, better known as E.K., passed away on Sept. 30. After graduating from Middlebury College, he attended Tufts University Medical School. He joined the U.S. Army and served in Italy and Germany during World War II, and was promoted to the rank of captain.

He served as the ship’s physician on a schooner Bowdoin’s Arctic expedition with Adm. Donald B. MacMillan. It was through the MacMillans that he met his first wife, Helga Knudsen, a Danish citizen who was born in Greenland. After marrying Helga, and completing his residency in surgery at Beverly (Mass.) Hospital, he moved to Camden, Maine, where he set up a medical practice.

In 1967 he formed the Schooner Bowdoin Association, “rescued” the schooner Bowdoin, and raised money for her restoration, enabling the historic vessel to become a floating school and, eventually, the flagship of the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. He was grateful to those who supported his efforts, including Capt. Jim Sharp, Capt. John Nugent and Sonny Hodgdon.

A true general surgeon, he performed a full range of surgeries and procedures, from gynecology and orthopedics to pediatrics as well as doing house calls. He often received in payment vegetables, eggs, lobsters, or, from one particular patient, a rum spice cake. One stormy night, the Coast Guard took him out to sea to care for a badly injured fisherman, setting his broken legs on the deck of the heaving ship so he could then be taken back to the mainland.

An avid sailor, he sailed in Penobscot Bay and beyond with the Brouwer family of Camden on their yawl, Swamp Fox. He enjoyed hunting at Vern and Freda Stubb’s Jerry Pond Camps with his good friends Frank & Lucy Kibbe, with whom he owned a camp in Rangeley, where they hiked, hunted and skied at Saddleback.

Visitors were always welcome at the Morse home in Camden and later at Ginn Point, Owls Head. He was founder and commodore of the Ginn and Tonic Yacht Club. He was adventurous, had a great sense of humor, and his generosity, dedication and kindness knew no bounds. He is greatly missed by many.