PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2021
Robert M. Chute, 95, passed away on April 28, 2021 at his home on Middle Range Pond in Poland, Maine. At the one-room primary Lord School in Naples, he discovered his three lifelong interests: poetry, biology, and Henry David Thoreau. Invited to join the faculty at Bates College, Bob happily returned to Maine in 1962, serving as Chairman of the Biology department. He was an avid supporter of Veterans for Peace. Bob was also on the vanguard of environmental studies, publishing the textbooks. In the 70s, Bob founded the Lakes Environmental Association, which studies and protects the lakes of Maine, as well as the Congress of Lake Associations. As president of the Maine Biologists Association, he testified before the US Senate on the effects of marine pollution caused by the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. In the 80s and 90s, Bob acted as director of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area in Phippsburg.