Mary Brewer to enter New England hall of fame

Mary Brewer, who joined the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in October, will be honored again for her career spanning more than 50 years at the Boothbay Register. In an induction ceremony Feb. 8 in Boston, Brewer will become a member of the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Brewer joined the Register as a summer intern soon after her first year at the University of Maine, and began working there full-time after graduating from the Katharine Gibbs school in Boston. She was named editor in 1962 and held the job until she retired last year. She was president of the MPA in 1982-83 and was Maine Journalist of the Year in 1984.

In announcing her induction, the New England Newspaper & Press Association said “she demonstrated the finest characteristics of our profession: integrity, honesty, courage, hard work, and just plain common sense.”

Brewer will be inducted along with Peter Caruso Sr., one of New England’s top media lawyers; Thomas Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal; Morgan McGinley, who was editorial page editor of The Day in New London, Conn., for 25 years; Mary Pat Rowland, managing editor at Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover, N.H.; and the late Peter Watson, who was editor of the Gloucester Daily Times in Massachusetts.

The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. You can call  NENPA at (781) 320-8042 or email info@nenpa.com for more information.

Maine is also represented in the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame by Alan Baker and J. Russell Wiggins of The Ellsworth American, Robert Bissonnette and Alexander Bacon “Sandy” Brook of the York County Coast Star, Paul Dietterle Jr. of the Sanford News, Winnifred French of The Quoddy Tides, Ray Gross of The Courier-Gazette and Sam Roberts of The Lincoln County News.

Wiggins, Brook, Gross and Roberts are in the MPA Hall of Fame.