Staff Writer

For a man who made a living moving houses, Eldred Harmon was well known for staying in one place.

Harmon, who was 99 when he died April 7, was born on a Black Point Road farm on Aug. 30, 1910. He died at the home he shared with his wife, Pat Harmon, about two miles from his birthplace.

“He was just a special gentleman, that’s all,” she said of her husband, who had been ill for about a month before dying of congestive heart failure.

While his heart may have given out after almost a century, Harmon left a legacy of a full life: He trimmed trees 20 feet off the ground when he was 97, was clamming at 94 and wore out younger firefighters while serving on calls at 85.

“Physically, he was still stronger than me,” she said.

Harmon, who since last August held the Boston Post Cane as the oldest resident in town, also was honored as the oldest living native of Scarborough during the town’s 350th anniversary celebration in 2008.

His life was a virtual timeline of Scarborough’s growth in the 20th century. Harmon was a member of the first class to graduate from what was the new Bessey School almost 80 years ago; he walked to school from the family farm, then returned for chores. In the evenings, he walked back for basketball games and dances, he said in a Leader interview last fall.

“I wasn’t too much of a scholar, I’d rather be home working on the farm,” he said.

More than 75 years ago, Harmon was a road commissioner in town, and often shoveled sand from the bed of a truck on icy roads as his first wife, Elizabeth, drove. He also recalled spraying dirt roads with oil in the summer to keep dust down.

He became the first full-time fire chief in 1973, Scarborough Fire Chief Michael Thurlow said.

“He was generous with his time, money and guidance – a true country gentleman with a farmer’s ingenuity,” Thurlow said while eulogizing Harmon at a memorial service Monday at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church off Black Point Road.

Harmon was a member of First Congregational Church, which is almost diagonally across Black Point Road from the site of his service. The service was shifted to make room for all the mourners and officiated by the Rev. Fred Gagnon of First Congregational Church.

While Harmon’s upbringing on the family farm imbued him with a fiscal conservatism, Thurlow said Harmon brought progressive ideas to the fire department.

He supported buying portable air packs and larger-diameter fire hoses in a tenure that lasted about five years in the mid-1970s, Thurlow said.

He held off mandatory retirement at age 65 for one year, Thurlow said, and continued to answer fire calls until well into his 80s.

As he approached middle age, Harmon became a trucker for Merrill Transport Co. in Portland, and hauled large equipment throughout New England and Canadian Maritimes.

“My bosses put a lot of trust in me, and I tried to give it back,” Harmon said.

Locally, he became known for his ability to lift and haul buildings, although Pat Harmon said he swore each job was the last.

“I have an album full of photos of the last house he was going to move,” she said. “He was always on the roof or under a building somewhere.”

The couple married almost 20 years ago after the death of Harmon’s first wife in 1983. Their retired life was robust: They visited all 50 states and drove to 49 of them. As Gagnon noted, many of Pat Harmon’s photos from the trips are taken through the windshield of the couple’s recreational vehicle because Eldred Harmon did not always have the patience to stop at tourist sites.

Harmon is survived by his wife Pat of Scarborough; his son Earl of Texas; a stepson, Paul Murray of Matinicus; a stepdaughter, Peggy Murray of Kennebunk; grandchildren Debi Guinones of Biddeford, Sherri Trauth of Georgia, Robert Harmon of Portland, Earl (Chip) Harmon of Texas, Stephen Harmon of California, and Eric and Emily Murray of Matinicus; and numerous great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, Harmon’s family requests donations to be made to the First Congregational Church of Scarborough Memorial Fund, 161 Black Point Road, Scarborough, ME 04074, or to the Scarborough Fire Department, 246 U.S. Route 1, Scarborough, ME 04074.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219