The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Maine History Documents Special Collections 2021 Schoodic Cove: A History, Chapter 2, The Gourley Years (1940 to 1972) Mary A. Y. Gallagher Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory Part of the History Commons This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History Documents by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Schoodic Cove: A History Chapter 2: The Gourley Years (1940 to 1972) Introduction to Chapter 2 In 1940, an unlikely couple, Bill and Kay Gourley, bought the camps at Schoodic Cove from their previous owner. Bill was born in Willimantic into a lower middle class family and received little education. He was employed as a guide at Packard’s Sporting Camps on Sebec Lake and earned money during the winter as a trapper. His wife, Katherine Stowe (Kay) was born in Nebraska into a family whose roots were in Maine. Kay did well in school, aspired to a college education, attended Simmons College in Boston in the mid-30s, and worked for several summers at Packard’s Camps, where she met Bill, married him, readily adapted to life in the woods, and shared his determination to own his own camps. The couple managed to buy the camps at Schoodic Cove in July,1940. They raised a family despite wartime hardship, developed a devoted and decidedly middle class clientele, modernized their operation to a degree without destroying the environment their customers cherished, and ran a successful business for 31 years at the end of which they sold the camps to a group of recreation directors and several of their former clients.