Larry Kelsey, of South Bristol, stands on the porch of the South Bristol Historical Society on Thursday, Sept. 12. Kelsey, who has served on the towns select board, planning board, and school committee, is the president of the historical society. (Johnathan Riley photo)
The families of Lincoln County each have their own history and some of those histories include more of the area than others.
South Bristol Historical Society President Larry Kelsey, a former South Bristol Select Board chair and planning board member, continues a family’s tradition of tending to the needs of South Bristol that goes back generations.
“Since the beginning of the town, there’s been a Kelsey either a treasurer of the town, or selectman, they’ve always been involved in the community,” he said.
Kelsey, who was born and raised in South Bristol, said growing up in the area was incredible.
“You couldn’t ask for a better place,” he said. “It really was a feeling of community.”
As a kid Kelsey worked at his family’s garage, called Kelsey’s Garage, pumping gas in the village.
During weekends in high school Kelsey helped tend to the swing bridge that operated in The Gut, the harbors and waterway between Rutherford Island and the mainland. The swing bridge was functional from 1933 until 2015 when it was replaced with a drawbridge. Kelsey said his father, grandfather, and brother all worked as bridge tenders at one point in their lives.
All of Kelsey’s formative education, from kindergarten until 12th grade, occurred in South Bristol.
“It was great, the same kids, 12 years you were together,” he said. “We’d all go home and have supper and go around, we’d be on Thompson Road and play hide-and-seek and play games and in the winter go sliding.”
When Kelsey graduated from South Bristol High School on Rutherford Island in 1958 he joined the Army the same year and worked in transportation planning and inspection. While Kelsey said the eight years he served changed his life, he feels that those soldiers who saw combat should be credited for their service more than himself.
From 1958 to 1966, Kelsey spent the first five years in Germany, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Erika. He then split his time between Korea and Maryland for the next three years.
Kelsey said the communities of the world were not dissimilar to the South Bristol community he grew up with and when he was abroad he liked to be involved in them.
“It isn’t that I’ve spent all my time (in South Bristol) and been blinded by just the community here, I’ve done some considerable traveling,” he said. “I used to put myself out there, head further out into the community than the others (on base).”
Kelsey returned to South Bristol in 1966 with his wife. After a brief stint at Bath Iron Works, Kelsey began work at The Sonobuoy Test Facility, a sonar test facility, on Rutherford Island. There he worked shipping and receiving before moving to quality control.
In 1972, Kelsey became the office manager of Games Shipyard until 1981 when he started work at engine supplies producer Dipietro Kay Corp. on Bristol Road. Kelsey worked there until 1998 when he moved out to Tucson, Ariz. to be with one of his sons who started a family.
When Kelsey returned from Arizona three years later, he started work at Gamage Shipyard again temporarily, but by the end of the summer he was asked to stay longer
“I came back and was only going to stay the summer but they asked me to come to work for them and I wound up there for 15 years,” he said.
In 2015, Kelsey got involved with the South Bristol Historical Society. In recent years he said he’s seen fewer and fewer names he recognizes from the area.
“I sit there looking at the names in the membership dues (of the historical society) and some of the names … almost no longer existing in town, it’s changed. It’s really changed,” he said.
Kelsey’s family history begins in the area in 1750s, well before the formation of the town in 1915.
“I’ve always been interested in history and genealogy. When I’ve had time, I’ve devoted quite a bit of time here,” Kelsey said while sitting in the South Bristol Historical Society building. He has served as the president of the society for the past four years.
Like his ancestors before him, Kelsey has held several positions within the town, but he’s never liked being at the center of attention and to this day prefers to be in the background.
“It was never about who got the credit, but what the outcome was,” he said. “It takes all of us to keep this going, no one person is the center of it, we have some very good people, some dedicated people.”
Kelsey has been involved in the workings of South Bristol as an elected official, serving on the school committee for six years, the planning board, and was the South Bristol Select Board chair from 1981 until 1998. Kelsey’s father, Wilder Kelsey, was also a select board member for the town.
During Kelsey’s tenure on the board, a new firehouse was built, construction began on a new town office in Walpole, and a new a computer system was implemented so property owners could receive their tax bills more efficiently.
“We did a lot over the years, I was the chairman, but it was a team, really, we had all the same selectmen almost the whole time I was there. Everything that was done was done for the community,” he said. “It was no one person, it was all community oriented. I think what stands out about South Bristol is that people come together, when something needs to be done, it gets done.”
Through his involvement in town goings-on as well as his travels around the world, Kelsey said he’s learned that one of the best things we can do for each other is listen.
“Listen to other people’s opinions and consider them,” he said
In July, the South Bristol Select Board presented Kelsey with the Spirit of America Award for his decades of service to the town.
The South Bristol Historical Society building, at 2124 Route 129, is open from 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays during the summer. While the society closed for the year Sept. 14, Kelsey said he will open up the building before Christmas so people can purchase books about South Bristol for the holidays.
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