The World Of Dahlov Ipcar

On Adolph Ipcar's Passing....

(10/24/03)

It's with sadness that we note the passing of Adolph Ipcar at the age of 98 in October of 2003. He was unquestionably Dahlov's biggest fan and supporter - he cleared the way so that she might be free to create. Thanks to Adolph, the bright colors of autumn have taken on new meaning for all of us who loved him....Bob Ipcar

Times- Record Obituary
Article Times-Record

Adolph Ipcar
obituaries@TimesRecord.Com
10/24/2003

GEORGETOWN - Adolph Ipcar, 98, died Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003, at a Brunswick hospital, after a brief illness. He was born in New York City, N.Y., in 1905, a son of Aaron and Rose Ipcar. He moved to Youngstown, Ohio, with his family and lived there through his teenage years. He returned to New York City with his family and graduated from City College of New York in 1926, with degrees in accounting and philosophy. He worked as a public accountant from 1927 to 1932 and became a math/history teacher in a model school and resettlement project for unemployed coal mining families in Arthurdale, W.Va.

He met his future wife Dahlov Zorach while on vacation in Maine, and they married in New York City in 1936. They moved to Robinhood Farm in Georgetown in 1937 and ran a successful dairy farm. He was involved in town affairs, worked for nine years as chairman of the Georgetown school board, was moderator of the town meetings, spearheaded the creation of a new central Georgetown School with school bus service in 1948, organized the purchase in 1973 of the current Town Wharf in Five Islands, the upper parking lot, and the 33 acres of open-space overlooking the harbor now known as the Ipcar Natural Preserve. In 1991, he was honored by the town of Georgetown by being selected "Citizen of the Year," and in 2001 he became the proud recipient of the Boston Post Cane.

He was also active in statewide environmental issues. In 1968, he was co-founder and president of Citizens for Safe Power, an organization that raised questions about the development of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant in Wiscasset and secured some important agreements from the company which lessened the impact of the nuclear plant on the environment. He worked with other environmental and conservation organizations, including the Maine Association of Conservation Commissions and the Maine Natural Resources Council.

He retired from dairy farming in 1966. He was director of the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset from 1967 to 1971, co-chairman with Dahlov of the Maine Scholarship Committee of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture from 1972 to 1982, a member of the board of directors of the Maine Arts Commission from 1980 to 1983, artistic director of the Maine Festival from 1979 to 1980, and co-founder and president of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Arts Council. He was recognized for his work in the arts in 1972 as a co-recipient with Dahlov of the Maine State Award from the Maine Arts Commission.

He was predeceased by two sisters, Julia and Helen. Survivors include his wife, Dahlov of Georgetown; a sister, Melvene Dyer-Bennet of Great Barrington, Mass.; two sons, Robert of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Charles of Richmond; four grandchildren and one great-grandson, all of New York.

No funeral services are planned.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 199, Georgetown, ME 04548.

Adolph Ipcar: A Man of Vision
By Bob_Kalish@TimesRecord.Com, 10/24/2003

Georgetown loses an environmentalist, dedicated citizen, and advocate for the arts

GEORGETOWN - Adolph Ipcar was remembered by those who knew him as a man with an eye on the horizon who was tenacious in his beliefs and unafraid to speak out. Ipcar died Wednesday at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick after a brief illness. He was 98.

"He was a man of vision," Ed Pert said. "He could look to the future and act accordingly." Pert, one of Ipcar's successors as town moderator at Georgetown's annual town meeting, said it was Ipcar who was largely responsible for the purchase in 1973 of the town wharf in Five Islands, the upper parking lot and more than 30 acres overlooking the harbor, an area now known as the Ipcar Natural Preserve. "He stepped right in, accepting the daunting task of raising $60,000," Pert said. "An amount equivalent to 60 percent of our entire town budget back then."

Bill Plummer, currently the town's first selectman, said Ipcar's legacy would be the town wharf. "If that wasn't there, there wouldn't be any fishermen out there," he said. "Not many nowadays can afford their own spot of shorefront to fish from. I had some doubts about the wharf before, but it's working now and it's thanks to him and the others who could think ahead."

Ipcar was born in New York City and graduated from City College with degrees in accounting and philosophy. He met his wife, the artist Dahlov Zorach, in Maine during a summer break from his teaching job in New York City. They were married in 1936 and the next year moved to Georgetown, where Ipcar ran a dairy farm, delivering fresh milk to the residents of the town until 1966. Georgetown legend has it that during Ipcar's years as the local milkman, there wasn't one child in the town who didn't have enough milk to drink.

During his career as a dairy farmer, Ipcar became deeply involved in the affairs of the town, especially when they concerned the environment. In the early 1980s, the town experimented with spraying to control its notorious mosquito population. They sprayed a test site one year, and when it came time for the second year of the experiment, Ipcar spearheaded a vote to discontinue the experiment, which has not been tried since.

It was that same concern for nature that compelled Ipcar to speak out against the building of a nuclear power plant in Wiscasset, only a few miles from his farm. "He felt that nuclear power was just not the right way to go," recalled Maria Holt, one of the founders of Citizens for Safe Power, a nuclear watchdog group formed shortly after Maine Yankee opened. "He and Dahlov together gave us such support," she said. "When we insisted on putting up radiation monitors around Maine Yankee, they were the first ones to allow us to put one up on their property." Holt said it was Adolph who called her one day to inform her they had a high reading on their monitor. "It turned out that the plant had released some stuff without telling anyone," she said. Holt said she will always remember Ipcar's "love of life and his interest in science, in how things worked."

Stanley Tupper, former state legislator (U.S. Congressman) and anti-nuclear activist, said that Ipcar contributed as much as anyone else to the movement. "We all knew so little about (nuclear power) back then," Tupper said. "But Adolph was one of the few spear-carriers who knew enough about it to be against it."

Once he retired from dairy farming, Ipcar devoted much of his time to the environment and to the arts scene. In 1968 he was one of the founders of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Arts Council. He hired Edie Doughty as the group's first secretary.

"There was no unified arts scene here at that time," Doughty said. "We became great friends, Adolph and me. He and Dahlov sort of adopted me, called me their 'favorite daughter.'" Doughty, who left Maine for several years to live in Barbados, said one reason she came back to Maine was to be near the Ipcars. She recalled the way they were instrumental in launching the Maine Festival, a summer celebration for all types of Maine artists. "I introduced Marshall Dodge to them one day and that's all it took," she said. Doughty said that the late-Gov. James Longley called Ipcar "the most powerful man behind the scenes in the state." "He wore a hat of many colors," she said. "He was on so many boards and so many committees. He was just an amazing man."

It was Adolph Ipcar who gave Doughty away at her wedding. "His love was constant," she said. "What I'll keep from him is his sense of humor, his loyalty, the way he and Dahlov loved each other, and his brilliant mind."