CARIBOU, Maine — With Father’s Day around the corner, members of the Caribou community shared stories about the lasting impact of fathers in their lives.
Caribou Social Studies Teacher Kenneth Atcheson II spoke of his father, whom he was named after, calling him his “hero.”
“He served in the United States Air force and had the [same level] clearance as the president of the United States,” Atcheson said of his late father, Kenneth William Atcheson. The senior Atcheson served at the former Caribou Air Force Base and helped build and guard atomic igloos where nuclear weapons were stored for then Loring Air Force Base.
After serving his country, his father established “Atcheson Farms” in Woodland, where he became a “well-respected potato farmer,” according to Atcheson II.
“He retired when he wanted to, not when he had to,” said the son, “and served on several boards in the town of Woodland.”
Atcheson II described his father as a man who “made his own way,” and that he made a decision to not do anything overly extensive when he approached the end of his life.
“He was a wonderful grandfather who adored his grandchildren and great grandchildren,” Atcheson said, “to whom he was affectionately known as ‘Bub.’ He was a good friend to everyone he knew, and he is missed greatly.”
Caribou Police Chief Michael Gahagan said his father Arnold Gahagan’s status as a lifelong public servant inspired him and his brothers in their lives.
“My father was a public servant for 44 years and, like all his sons, we upheld that tradition,” Gahagan said. Dad was Caribou’s first full-time fireman and served as fire chief for a year.
Before he was born, Gahagan said his parents and two brothers lived in what is now the city manager’s office, adding that his older brother William was actually born in the Caribou city office.
“There are so many memories and stories of my father that I wouldn’t know where to start,” said Gahagan. “He was well thought of and respected throughout the community.”
Local Jobs for Maine Graduates Specialist Dr. Valerie Waldemarson shared an anecdote of her husband Richard, referring to him as “the man I always dreamed of parenting my children.”
She said she met him during her final year of law school, when he was serving his 19th year in the United States Navy, working as a chief at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida. He brought two children to the relationship and she brought one, and the couple married in a “small private ceremony with [their] closest family and children present.”
Soon after, Richard Waldemarson adopted Valerie’s son, Landyn, giving him the Waldemarson name, an event that Valerie says changed her life.
“It was a beautiful ceremony that completed our family,” she said. “Richard’s two children gained a brother and Landyn gained a dad, and a huge extended family.”
At the time, Landyn was undergoing brain surgery for a “Chiari Malformation Type 1 with Syringomyelia and Pediatric Sagittal Craniosynostosis.”
“For Richard and I,” Waldemarson said, “it was the most heart wrenching time of our lives.”
Landyn ultimately pulled through, and Valerie Waldemarson said her husband’s love and support for him exemplify the qualities of a caring father.
“Richard chose to love another man’s child as his own, and never treated him as anything but his child,” she said. “He chose to adopt a child with disabilities, knowing the financial, physical, and emotional responsibilities, and chose to go through the intensive recovery process with Landyn every day, not leaving his side.”
