Edgar Post has lived in Spruce Head his whole life, and he’s seen a lot.
KNOX COUNTY, Maine — Edgar Post isn’t used to hearing applause in his honor.
After a lifetime working as a lobsterman and then a quiet retirement, Edgar isn’t what most would consider a celebrity.
But in the small village of Spruce Head, he is very much a person to be celebrated.
Edgar Post, who has spent all but three years of his life here, just turned 104 years old.
So, when he walked into the Community Hall on a recent Saturday, Edgar received a standing ovation from a sizeable crowd of old friends and neighbors.
“He’s the oldest man in town” is how Edgar’s nephew, Buzzy Kinney, explains his uncle’s popularity.
But it goes beyond that, he says: “Well, he’s got a good reputation in town.”
Edgar has also lived in the community longer than anyone else.
He was born in the mainland village in 1921. He says it was a time when Spruce Head, like many small Maine towns, was really a different world. It was a place where almost everyone lived and worked close to home, and traveling to a large town or city was a big deal.
“I used to have to walk to Rockland,” Edgar recalled. “Took us quite a while. Didn’t have many cars in those days, maybe be one or two, would stop and pick us up.”
He also recounted the story of a neighbor born a year earlier at home and how his father had to take a team of horses to Rockland to fetch a doctor, who was then forced to stay overnight because the trip took so long.
Edgar went to grade school in the village, he says, and after graduating, he began working as a lobsterman.
World War II, however, changed that. At age 21, Edgar remembers, he signed up for the Coast Guard.
“I was going to be drafted anyway, so I enlisted in the Coast Guard because I thought I could be more helpful around the boats, and it would help keep me from being homesick for here,” he shared.
For three years, he served in the Coast Guard in Boston and Maine, including one short stint as a lighthouse keeper on Green Island, near Vinalhaven.
But as the war ended, Edgar was shipped to the Pacific.
“We went to all those islands—Saipan, Tinian, Leyte,” Edgar recalled. “I didn’t get ashore on some, but the ship went there.”
Finally, with the surrender already signed, Edgar did go ashore in Japan. It was a short visit, though, and just a few weeks later, he boarded a ship to sail back to the U.S. and home to Spruce Head, where his wife Helen was waiting.
“I started lobstering. Took up where I left off,” was his simple explanation of coming home. “I helped my father that winter and then had my own boat again and lobstered ever since—until I quit.”
He and Helen moved to Spruce Head Island, where they lived ever after. Helen passed away at age 96, after 76 years of marriage.
Edgar technically lives alone now but is seldom without visitors.
Buzzy, who is in his 80s, comes by every day to put out the flag and share some morning coffee. His daughter, Kelli, is Edgar’s caretaker during the day. And there is a steady stream of neighbors and friends who stop by to visit.
“They like to tell about the news or what people have done, what’s gone on before,” Edgar, who happily greeted two visiting women during our interview, said with a smile.
“What do you think about what’s going on in the world?” he asked. “I think it’s a mess,” Edgar replied.
In 2021, when he turned 100, COVID-19 got in the way of having a birthday party. Instead, local people staged a big parade to drive past Edgar’s house while he stood in the driveway, watched, and waved.
Now, at 104, the party finally happened.
There was a big cake, four pieces showing “104” and an exclamation point, which Edgar shared. The Coast Guard came from Rockland to salute him and offer thanks for his long-ago service.
And all those friends and neighbors shared their own memories and comments with Edgar, mostly one by one.
The people here, the natives, have known Edgar all their lives. Those who moved in have come to know him, all treasuring the man whose life has been defined by his work, his family, his service, and this small piece of Maine that, for more than a century, he has called home.
