Bertrand Wister Lummus

Bertrand Wister Lummus (‘Bert’) passed away in Eliot, Maine on December 23, 2021 at age 91 -- leaving behind a loving family and a closet of well-used squash racquets. The youngest of 9 children, Bert was born on April 25,1930 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. His great-great grandfather had formed the Lummus Cotton Gin Company in 1867. In 1934, the family left the South to relocate to New York City, later moving to Old Westbury, Long Island, where Bert attended St. Paul’s School in Garden City. In 1946, the Lummuses settled in Cummaquid on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod. Bert graduated from Yale University in 1953, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall. He served in the 187th ARCT with the US Army Air Corp (Paratroops) stationed in Japan from 1953-1955. Upon his return, he accepted his first job in the purchasing department of the American Sugar Company. Soon after, his intellectual curiosity got the best of him and he returned to his beloved classroom. He taught English at the Nyack Boys School, The Milford School and at Brooklyn Poly Prep until 1961 when he joined his family on Cape Cod. Bert married the love of his life, Carol Travers (‘Tweetie’) of Barnstable, in 1962. They had two children, Sarah and Jonathan. They were together just shy of 60 years. Bert’s life-long constant curiosity and love of reading guided him into a career in the college textbook publishing industry. He was with Harper and Row, St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan, and Random House prior to retiring from McGraw-Hill’s College Division in 1995. As an acquisitions and sponsoring editor, he sought, signed, and worked with distinguished academics to guide them in the development of highly successful college textbooks. Among the many authors Bert’s editorial guidance supported were Fred Friendly (President of CBS); his friend Thomas Patterson (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) while at Random House; David H. Donald (History Department, Harvard University) while at D.C. Heath; and the beloved Donald Kagen (Sterling Professor of Classics and History, History Department, Yale University) and his son, Frederick (History Department, U.S. Military Academy). Professor Donald Kagan selected Bert to edit While America Sleeps, a highly influential study of U.S. defense spending written by the father and son academic team. Bert loved racquet sports: squash, tennis and played at the Wilton Tennis Club, NH; Hampshire Hills Tennis Club Milford, NH; and the Barnstable Yacht Club, Cape Cod. On weekends, he was busy mowing fields or plowing snow with his Gravely, making maple syrup, oystering and quahogging. In retirement in the early 1990s, Bert became a self-taught master framer for his wife Carol’s etchings, a passion he discovered and in which he excelled. Bert showed his affection for friends and family through cooking. He became a maestro chef long before the trend. His chef d’oeuvre was his ciabatta bread. Bert’s expertise included international cuisines: Asian, Italian, Southern USA, local and traditional. Bert is survived by his wife Carol and his children Sarah Travers Lummus and her partner Daniel Paradis of Cambridge, MA; and Jonathan Ames Lummus, his wife Deirdre Ann Shea and his exceptional granddaughter Sarah Jennifer Lummus of Dover, NH. Bert also left many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He was pre-deceased by his parents Annie Louise Hutchison and Julian Louis Lummus, his sisters and brothers: Sarah McAdoo Isham, Anne Hutchison Cain, Louise Peabody Van Woert, Julian Louis Lummus, Jr, Mary Kruming Douglas, John Wadsworth Lummus, Emily Charlotte Austin, and Constance Zucker Berkowitz. Though Bert has returned his last serve, he will be sorely missed by all those whose lives he touched. Private services to celebrate Bert’s life will be held. Donations in Bert’s memory may be made to the Perkins School for the Blind, 175 North Beacon Street, Watertown, MA 02472 or the Barnstable Land Trust, 1540 Main Street/Route 6A, West Barnstable, MA 02668

Bertrand Wister Lummus

April 25, 1930 - December 23, 2021