Michael Trainor

Veazie - Michael Brendan Trainor died with family at his side on July 24, 2023, at his summer home in Surry. Mike was afflicted with corticobasal degeneration, a rare progressive neurological condition, and had been in declining health in recent years.

Michael was born on June 17, 1947, in Abington, PA, the son of Francis and Martha Stuckel Trainor. He spent his childhood in McLean, VA, where he graduated from Bishop O’Connell High School. It was while Mike attended the College of the Holy Cross on an NROTC scholarship that he fell in love with Maine, introduced by classmates to skiing at a then-primitive Sugarloaf and sailing Muscongus Bay.

Mike graduated from Holy Cross in 1969 and that summer attended Navy Supply School in Athens, GA. He served as the supply officer on the destroyer USS Richard B. Anderson when it was deployed to the South China Sea during the Vietnam War. The ship was named for Medal of Honor recipient Richard B. Anderson, a 23 year-old PFC who, in 1944 in the Marshall Islands, fell on a live grenade to save his fellow Marines. Following the Anderson deployment Mike volunteered to serve a year in Antarctica as the supply officer for the Navy’s Detachment Alpha, Operation Deepfreeze. In the 1970s the Navy provided logistical support for the National Science Foundation and international research teams based at McMurdo and South Pole Stations. When the “ice shut down” for the winter the airfield closed and contact with the outside world was limited to short wave radio. Mike was honorably discharged as a lieutenant following his last assignment at Charlestown Navy Yard, MA.

In 1973 Mike married Ann Duggan, whom he had met in Washington, DC. They headed to Maine following their wedding in Ann’s central New York home town of DeWitt. They first lived in Bath, where Mike worked managing contracts for the Navy’s Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Bath Iron Works. Neighbors would claim they could mark the change in seasons with a glance at the Trainor VW bug: if it was spring or fall there would be a canoe strapped on top; in summer the canoe was swapped out for a Laser sailboat. In 1976 Mike enrolled at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. Following graduation he earned an LLM in taxation from Boston University. Mike and Ann moved to Bangor in 1980 when he joined the firm of Eaton Peabody.

During his 32-year law career Mike found particular satisfaction in working with Maine municipal leaders and school superintendents, and with bankers in Maine and New York, to secure tax-anticipated bond financing for projects throughout the region. He also represented Mainers involved in sophisticated tax issues, including resolution of criminal fraud cases.

As the result of what he viewed as a lack of opportunity for Maine young people, Mike became an advocate for the University of Maine. In one of the first projects he was involved in he helped then VP for Research Dan Dwyer acquire for the university a fishing research facility downeast. When a young professor Habib Dagher, the founding executive director of the Advanced Structures & Composites Center, was conducting research out of a temporary building, Mike became involved with securing crucial financial backing from the U.S. Economic Development Administration through its local representative Sandford Blitz. Other than the acquisition of the fishing research facility, Mike’s work on behalf of UMaine was voluntary. His service to the University led to his appointment to the Board of Visitors, where he went on to serve as chair.

In Mike’s free time he could be found pursuing his principal passion on a boat with his family, exploring the coastal waters from Camden to Schoodic on a Boston Whaler or a Tartan 37 sailboat out of Buck’s Harbor. Mike started playing guitar at the age of nine and when Chuck Berry‘s seminal “Johnny B. Goode” was released two years later he was ready to master it. He found great joy in playing all American music, especially rockabilly, performing both solo and with high school and college bands. In recent years Mike most enjoyed spending time with extended family and friends at his summer home on Newbury Neck in Surry.

Michael is survived by his wife Ann; his beloved sons Brendan Francis Trainor (Nichole Trainor) and their daughter Charlotte, of Greenbush; Dylan Michael Trainor of Veazie; and Kevin Joseph Trainor (Julianne Page) of Portland. He is also survived by his brother Kevin F. Trainor (Linda Trainor) of Twin Falls, ID, and Ann’s siblings, who loved him like a brother: David Duggan (Lynn Cleary) of Skaneateles, NY; Mary Duggan of Portland; Kathleen Duggan of Yarmouth; and Elizabeth Duggan Coenen (Nick) of Cottage Grove, MN. He also leaves many nieces and nephews and their children. Mike was predeceased by his parents and his brother-in-law, John Duggan (Sharon Duggan) of DeWitt, NY.

The family would like to express fond gratitude to Dr. Dara Rock for many years of expert and compassionate care. In Mike’s final months he was cared for at his home in Surry by an exceptionally skilled and tender team of hospice professionals from CHCS. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Mike’s memory to Literacy Volunteers of Bangor (lvbangor.org) or to the Mood and Memory Clinic at Northern Light Acadia Hospital (northernlight.org) where Dr. Clifford Singer’s blend of clinical insight and enduring wit and wisdom were central to Mike’s wellbeing in the years he lived with the effects of his illness.

Relatives and friends are invited to call from 5:00 - 7:00 pm, Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at Brookings-Smith, 133 Center Street, Bangor. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00 am, Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at St. Paul the Apostle Parish, St. John’s Church, 207 York Street, Bangor. Friends and family are invited to share conversation and refreshments in the church hall, immediately following the Mass.