Guide to the Edward Farrington Abbott, Jr. Papers, 1915-1978, undated

Edward Farrington Abbott, Jr. was born in Auburn, Maine, January 4, 1909 and died on October 17, 1979. He graduated from Bowdoin cum laude in 1931 and studied at Harvard from 1931 to 1932. He was the son of Edward Farrington Abbott (Bowdoin 1903) and Mary Dana Abbott. Two brothers were also Bowdoin graduates, Luther Dana Abbott (Bowdoin 1939) and John Cushman Abbott (Bowdoin 1943). On June 30, 1951 he married Maude McCurry. One of their children, Philip J. Abbott, graduated from Bowdoin in 1980. Edward Farrington Abbott, Jr. was a businessman in the Lewiston-Auburn area from 1933 until his death in 1979, except for three years during World War II. During the war, he served as a weather forecaster in the USAAF, reaching the rank of staff sergeant. He was a director of the Auburn-Lewiston YMCA and a former president of the Auburn YMCA and the Maine Contract Bridge League, winning several New England Bridge Championships. In Bowdoin affairs he was a member of Theta Delta Chi, was chairman of the Lewiston-Auburn area Capital Campaign from 1962 to 1964, was a director of the Alumni Fund from 1958 to 1960, and served as 1931 Class Agent in the Fund from 1956 to 1960.

The collection contains World War II correspondence of Edward Farrington Abbott, Jr. to family members, 1942-1945 and miscellaneous biographical material. Primary correspondents are his parents, Helen Abbott (sister), and Margaret Campbell (sister), but other family members are represented as well. The letters principally concern Abbott's day-to-day and recreational activities. Most of the biographical material is for Abbott, with a few items for other immediate family. Material includes school report cards, identification cards and photographs, and contract bridge cards.