Nathan Bates Witham, oldest child of the Rev. Cecil Witham and Afton Bates Witham Haggett was born on Aug. 14, 1938, in Rockland. He passed away peacefully after a short illness on May 28, 2024, in Holzminden, Germany, where he lived for many years. He was predeceased by his parents; and his two brothers, Barry and Robert “Jake.”
Nathan “Nate” grew up in the parsonage of the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle, where his father, the Rev. Cecil Witham, served for 15 years. His mother, Afton, had grown up in the small cape house next to the church, where his grandmother, Edith “Meme” Bates, still lived at that time. The Witham, Sproul, Allen, Glidden Giles, Minot, Wright neighborhood gang of children reveled in all manner of outdoor play (Nate was always the general and was never defeated in “war games”). Sadly, Cecil died suddenly at the age of 42, attending a church conference in California, which necessitated changes in the growing family. Afton kept the family together with the help of family, friends, and the local community.
Nate spent his summers lobstering off Green Island in Penobscot Bay. He started out rowing a “double-ender” hauling a string of 60 traps. He mentored his brother, Jake, who eventually became a full time lobsterman.
He graduated from Lincoln Academy in 1956 and went on to Dartmouth College in the class of 1960, where he ran the radio station and allocated a lot of airtime to a little band out of England whom the rest of the world would soon get to know as “The Beatles.”
After graduating from college, he joined the Army and was an infantry soldier who completed his airborne jump training. One of his favorite “lines” was: “Your head is not a point of contact!” He joined the Peace Corps, started by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, and was assigned to the Dominican Republic. He attended the University of Ohio, where he earned a master’s degree in history in 1966 and spent summers in Germany perfecting the language. It was in Berlin that he met his wife, Frauke. He went on to receive his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin after which he was hired by the Peace Corps in a leadership role and assigned to Santiago, Chile. After a few years in Chile, he and Frauke moved to Holzminden, Germany, where he became a boarding school teacher.
Nate always loved listening to music, from Bach to The Beatles. He read voraciously, especially about history, and he loved to play a game called “initials,” which, according to a cousin, he “always won.” Yet, with all his worldly adventure and extensive travel, he never forgot where he was from.
He and Frauke sent their two boys, Michael and David, to “get their feet wet” in the Damariscotta River, and to spend a post-graduate year at Lincoln Academy while living with their grandmother in the Bates family home. Nate’s visits to Maine became less frequent after his mother died, and he last visited Newcastle in 2013.
He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, uncle, big brother, and an adored cousin. He is survived by his wife, Frauke; his sons, Michael (Karin) and David (Marina); grandchildren, Alexander, Charlotte, and Robert; his sister, Wendy Wilkerson, of Indianapolis, Ind.; nephews, Troy Witham (Dawn), Jon (Cathy), and Mark (Kristyn) Wilkerson, Michael and Drake (Hazel) Witham; nieces, Tori Lebel (Louie), Kim Stone, and Sara McFarlen (Zach). Many Fogarty, Rackliff, Witham relatives of Rockland; and Hilton, Petrie, Bates, Brown, Lamia, and Johnson cousins from Maine to California.
He lived a fulfilled, faithful, and blessed life on both sides of the Atlantic. His final resting place is at the honorary cemetery of the Landschulheim am Solling in Lower Saxony, Germany.
He was never fond of saying goodbye; so, until we meet again.
Condolences may be sent to Frauke at fraukehb@gmx.de.
