The chairman of the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen presented to the town’s Boston Post Cane to Waldoboro’s oldest resident, Francis Golffing, during a brief ceremony at Golffing’s home Oct. 3.
During the ceremony, Collamore read a declaration from the Selectmen and presented a framed certificate along with the cane.
Golffing was born in Austria on Nov. 20, 1910, one year after the Boston Post Cane tradition was begun. During World War II he served in Biloxi, Miss. as a Corporal in the United States Army. Fluent in French, Spanish, German, Italian and able to read Portuguese, he was the only soldier in Mississippi able to act as translator for the French Air Force which was his primary responsibility during his military service.
He earned a Doctorate at the University of Basil, Switzerland, and later became the Director of the Kennedy Institute in Berlin for a year before teaching at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
A prolific poet and writer, in 1956 Golffing authored what is considered to be the definitive translations of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy” and “The Genealogy of Morals.” Golffing’s works are called “a skillful, sophisticated translation of two of Nietzsche’s essential works,” by Michael Neulander , author of Political Philosophy, who continued his praise saying, ” Golffing brings the sensibility of a poet to the works.”
Now a resident of Waldoboro, Francis Golffing, lives with his stepdaughter Marjie Lupien and her husband.
The tradition of presenting a Boston Post Cane began in 1909 when Edwin A. Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post, sent 700 gold-headed ebony canes to The Board of Selectmen in towns (no cities) across New England. The canes arrived in each town with the request that they be presented with the compliments of The Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, for his use as long as he lived (or moved from the town.)
The only requirements to receive the cane are to be a resident of the town and its oldest living resident.
The canes arrived with the stipulation that, upon the holder’s death, the cane would be handed on by the Selectmen to the next oldest citizen of the town. The cane, therefore, belongs to the town, not the recipient.
The Boston Post Cane has come to rest in many hands during its hundred years in Waldoboro. Town clerk Linda Perry, who was instrumental in arranging the ceremony this week, is collecting stories of recipients to document the many hands that have had possession of the Cane.
Waldoboro’s current Boston Post Cane is a replica of the original, as has been the custom in many towns. Collamore brought the town’s original Boston Post Cane to the presentation along with the replica.
The Boston Post newspaper was once considered the nation’s leading standard-sized newspaper. When the paper fell into the hands of publisher Grozier’s son. it went into decline and closed its doors in 1957. In the only controversy surrounding the Boston Post Cane in it’s history, a heated debate resulted in one change in 1930. At that time, women were made eligible to be awarded the Boston Post Cane.
The original cane will be on display in the municipal offices of the Town of Waldoboro, as soon as a proper display case can be made, so residents can see the beautiful piece with it’s two inch 14-carat gold head inscribed with the words “Presented by The Boston Post to the Oldest Citizen of Waldoboro.”
