Bob Anderson, founder of the original Harpswell Anchor, dies at 70

Robert Anderson, founder of the original Harpswell Anchor, died March 21 at the age of 70. Anderson’s commitment to his hometown was evident in his dedication to the paper that he ran, wrote for, and sometimes supported by digging clams, for more than two decades.

Better known as Bob, Anderson was born Feb. 10, 1954. He was the son and adopted son, respectively, of the late Anne and Gary Anderson. As an adult he was able to connect with his biological father. He had two daughters, Sara-Jane and Nell. Anderson grew up in Cundy’s Harbor. Later, he lived on Lookout Point Road, near where his mother’s family was from.

Anderson started his working life as a fisherman and clamdigger. As a kid, he and other boys harvested sea moss to sell to his adoptive father. He gave up fishing to pursue his dream of starting a paper for Harpswell, according to his longtime friend Richard Graves, of Graves and Sons Excavating. Thanks to a federal grant program, Anderson was able to take journalism classes at the University of Southern Maine. In July 1998, he launched the Harpswell Anchor.

Anderson envisioned a paper that would tie Harpswell together and maintain a sense of community that he feared was fading, according to those who knew him. He mourned for bean suppers, pond skating, and pickup baseball; his story about fishermen’s annual inter-island baseball games graced the front page of the Anchor’s first issue.

An editorial in that first edition says, “We would like to make Harpswell Anchor your newspaper.” It promised “news you can use, news to amuse, fun reading material,” and invited readers to call, send letters, or drop by the office on Harpswell Neck Road to share their thoughts.

Those visits were a part of the job he relished, says David Hackett, president of the Harpswell Historical Society and a contributor to the Anchor during its original run. “He told me one thing he enjoyed was how much people stopped in to talk,” Hackett says.

Anderson was committed to keeping the paper’s focus on good news in Harpswell. Readers say he was reluctant to report on divisive issues, even when they were the talk of the town, like the early 2000s proposal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at Mitchell Field.

One of his particular pleasures was the April edition, which for many years ran with a full front page of humorous articles and ads for imaginary businesses to celebrate April Fools’ Day.

His paper struggled at many points to remain viable. At times, Anderson used money he earned digging clams to keep the paper afloat. Realtor Rob Williams, who grew up with Anderson, remembers that in the Anchor’s early years Anderson would schedule his workday around the tides so he could get out to dig clams.

Kara Douglas, a staff writer for the original Anchor who owns Fishmoon Yoga on Harpswell Neck, says Anderson loved clamming. “I think that really brought him alive,” she says. He taught her and her children how to dig clams, and Douglas happily took clams and scallops in lieu of a paycheck when the Anchor was short on cash.

Anderson published his last Anchor in October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Friends and acquaintances give varying reasons for the paper’s end. The paper’s financial challenges always grew more acute as winter approached, when Harpswell has fewer people, events, and open businesses. Anderson would occasionally tell people some advertisers weren’t paying their bills. Douglas wonders if perhaps his commitment to focusing on good news had simply run its course.

Soon after Anderson ceased publication, a group of residents formed the nonprofit Harpswell News and raised funds to buy the newspaper. The organization resumed publication of the Anchor in June 2021. In spring 2023, Anderson sold his longtime office in Harpswell Center, which is now the Itty Bitty Coffee Shop.

“Bob Anderson started up and ran a local paper successfully for 20-plus years. That’s not easy to do, and I respect the work he put in to keep the paper going,” says Greg Bestick, president of the Harpswell News Board of Directors. “He provided a needed service for the community. The goodwill he built up gave us the initial support we needed to launch the new Anchor. We’re grateful to him.”

The Anchor may have been the most visible way that Anderson worked to sustain his community, but it was not the only one. 

He was a committed volunteer with the Boy Scouts, serving as president of the Harpswell Scouting Association. Anderson, who was a registered Maine guide, also led Scouts on hiking, biking, rafting and camping trips.

“He attended every possible function he could,” says Graves, who was a fellow Scouting leader. And Graves says Anderson included news about Harpswell Scouts in the paper whenever he could.

Anderson was also among the group of people who first envisioned what would become Harpswell Coastal Academy, after West Harpswell School closed in 2011. Joe Grady, co-owner of Two Coves Farm and a former high school teacher, says Anderson envisioned a school where local students could learn skills that would connect them to the natural world and keep them in Harpswell.

Anderson was no longer involved by the time the charter school was operating, but he covered developments in the paper. Grady believes he was instrumental to the school’s creation. “I think without the Anchor, people wouldn’t have known about it,” he says. And Anderson continued to make space in the Anchor not only for stories about the school, but for students’ writing as well.

Those who knew Anderson say he could be idiosyncratic and prickly in his relationships. He refused to cover businesses if they didn’t advertise in the Anchor, or because of a perceived affront. He had fallings-out even with his family and closest friends, some temporary and some permanent.

But Douglas says that Anderson had many soft spots under his hard shell. She remembers his kindness to her young children, asking about their interests and remembering things they had told him. And he would often pay her a little extra, sometimes in clams, when he could.

“I think that a lot of the ways Bob cared were misunderstood. He really cared about what happened here and how Harpswell was taken care of. I think that was really a driving force for him,” says Douglas.

“He had a good heart. He had good intentions,” says Graves.

Grady recalls Anderson’s kindness to him when he moved to Harpswell in 2009. Anderson was excited about the farm, and Grady would continue to reach out to him over the years when he had questions about Harpswell or wanted to get in touch with someone. He considered Anderson a local treasure.

“I’ll never not think of him when I drive by that little building,” Grady says. “That was his perch for so long.”

Sam Lemonick is a freelance reporter. He lives in Cundy’s Harbor.