Albert Edwin Sears, 88, of New Harbor, formerly of Washington, D.C., died on June 13.
He was born in Newton, Mass., the eldest son of the late Walter Harrington and Eleanor (Stockin) Sears. He attended Newton public schools. Immediately after graduating from high school in 1945, he entered Tufts College and enlisted in the Navy. He completed one semester before being called to active duty. He was honorably discharged in time to return to college in the fall of 1946 and was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. In 1949 he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. degree in English and history.
After working for a year in the editorial department of Scott, Foresman and Company in Chicago, he reenlisted in the Navy. He served as a Yeoman 3rd class aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Bairoko during the naval blockade of North Korea. After completing OCS in 1952, he was commissioned as an ensign, U.S.N.R. He served as a staff communications officer afloat and ashore, notably at Bikini Atoll during the 1954 atomic bomb tests. He was honorably discharged in 1955 and entered the Harvard Business School where he graduated with an M.B.A. with distinction in 1957.
For the next 27 years he worked in the Bell System at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, advancing in positions of increasing responsibility in the traffic, engineering, accounting and personnel departments.
In 1963 he was named a Public Affairs Fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington. In 1968 he was appointed as an assistant vice president and head of the Labor Relations Department of four C&P companies. In this position he negotiated and administered the agreements covering C&P’s 30,000 union-represented employees. He also was instrumental in introducing the many changes in personnel administration dictated by the civil rights laws. During his years in Washington, he served as a director of the Health and Welfare Council/United Way of the National Capital Area and of the National Capital Medical Foundation.
He retired in 1984 and moved to a house by the sea on Pemaquid Point in New Harbor. He was an active member and past president of the Bristol Area Lions Club and past treasurer and board member of the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid. He served for 17 years as an alternate member of the Bristol Planning Board and for 27 years on the town budget committee, for 11 of which he was chairman.
He was predeceased by his brother, Benjamin R. Sears of Bedford, Mass., in 2001.
He is survived by his sister, Harriet S. Fraser of Falmouth; three nephews; and four nieces and their families.
Per his request there will be no funeral or memorial service.