Carroll Bartlett Knox

Caribou – Carroll Bartlett Knox, a Korean veteran died September 27, 2018 at Caribou. He was born at Presque Isle on August 26, 1929, the son of the late Hazen Bartlett and Mildred Violet (Witham) Knox. He attended Gouldville Elementary School and graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1947. While in high school, he was employed during the summers as an entomologist’s assistant at the Maine Agricultural Station’s Aroostook Farm. At other times during those years, he delivered newspapers for the Bangor Daily News. Carroll enlisted in the U. S. Army in September 1948 and received basic training with Company E, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He was then sent to the Medical Field Service School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas where he graduated from the medical laboratory procedures course in April 1949 and became a member of the American Society of Medical Technologists. After 14 days ‘delay en route at home, he reported to Camp Stoneman, California for shipment overseas. In preparation for a luxury cruise across the Pacific aboard a troop transport, he and a buddy were trained as Special Services projectionists, and charged with showing full-length evening movies to entertain the troops during the upcoming voyage. On the first of June, they sailed from Oakland, California aboard the liberty ship Lt. Raymond O. Beaudoin, which blew a boiler before passing Alcatraz. After two days of hammering and banging in the bowels of the vessel, they raised anchor and sailed majestically under the Golden Gate to begin a 13-day voyage to the Land of the Rising Sun. On arrival, he was assigned to the Medical Zoology Section of the 406th Medical General Laboratory in central Tokyo, Japan. In early August 1949 he was flown to Okinawa with a five man party to survey the native population for parasitic diseases. Back in Japan after a month, he frequently traveled, lived and worked on a specially equipped laboratory train to conduct epidemiological surveys on all of the main islands of Japan except Shikoku. During the Korean War, he was also assigned to special duty as an air courier accompanying shipments from blood banks in Japan to distribution centers, field hospitals, and hospital ships in Korea. From January to July 1951 he participated in 92aerial flights and delivered 14,211 pints of whole blood to the places where they were needed in the war zone, losing only one pint bottle to a stray enemy bullet. Carroll was especially proud of that record and he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for that service. He was returned to the U.S. (this time with no special privileges or duties) on the same old Liberty ship and honorably discharged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on September 7, 1951. A few days laterhe enrolled at the University of Maine at Orono, planning to major in zoology. But in April1954 he was offered and accepted a U. S. Civil Service appointment in the hospital laboratory atWalter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., where he was employed in thehematology and parasitology sections. Carroll married Gloria E. Norsworthy of Presque Isle, Maine at Rockville, Maryland on June 25, 1954. They resided at Takoma Park, Maryland until June 1956, when Carroll learned of an opening and requested a transfer to the still-developing hospital at Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine. He established the biochemistry and parasitology sections of the new base hospital laboratory and was in charge of those departments until his retirement on August 2, 1982. He also served as officer in charge in the absence of the military laboratory officer. From the time he received the Master Mason degree in 1971, Carroll was an active member of Caribou Lodge No. 170, A.F. & A.M. in Caribou and served in various offices before being elected Worshipful Master in 1975. He served as District Representative in 1976 and 1977. He was appointed as an Assistant Grand Lecturer by Grand Master Roger P. Snelling in 1978 and 1979 and conducted 16 ritualistic schools of instruction in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 24th districts of Aroostook, Washington and Penobscot County Masonic lodges each year. In 1981 the Grand Master of Nova Scotia appointed him as Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia near the Grand Lodge of Maine. In 1985 he was elected Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Maine and thereby became a Permanent Member of the Grand Lodge. He also served Caribou Lodge No. 170 as its secretary from 1982 to 1991. Carroll was a member of the Scottish Rite bodies in the Valley of Bangor, a 32º member of Maine Consistory, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, a member of The Philalethes Society. and a charter member of The Maine Lodge of Research. Carroll was also a member and Past Patron of Elizabeth Chapter No. 108, Order of the Eastern Star before it merged with Lunar Chapter No. 126 of Presque Isle. Carroll acquired an interest in reptiles and amphibians in high school and became an avid amateur herpetologist. He joined the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and was listed in the Naturalist’s Directory before finishing high school. In 1947 he discovered the local occurrence of a distinctive wood frog subspecies and published a report of his findings in the Maine Field Naturalist. He participated in the Maine Amphibian and Reptile Atlas Project from 1982 to 1989 and contributed new scientific information on the genetics of hybrid toads and polyploid blue-spotted salamanders in Maine. He wrote the species accounts on wood frogs, American toads and blue-spotted salamanders and contributed photographs for two editions of The Reptiles and Amphibians of Maine, published by the Wildlife Department of the University of Maine, Orono, and regarded as the first authoritative guide to Maine herpetology. In several scientific journals he also published notes and reports on the geographic distribution of snapping turtles, and on the taxonomy of Hudson Bay toads and Tremblay’s salamanders. In July 1986 he provided live salamander specimens and assisted a professional nature photographer in filming them for a segment of Marty Stouffer’s ‘Wild America’ nature series that was shown on Public Television. Carroll’s other interests included photography, acrylic and oil painting, woodworking, flower and vegetable gardening, picking fiddleheads apples and berries, bird-watching, writing, boating, camping, hunting, trout fishing, personal computer applications and family genealogy research. In 1958 he built his own 16 ft. boat and licensed it to carry passengers for hire while he was a registered Maine guide. After attending a family picnic in New Brunswick in 1978, he became an avid genealogist and compiled a referenced database of over 32,000 related or otherwise connected individuals. Carroll had his DNA analyzed and could trace some of his ancestral lines back for 33 generations, or to the mid-1100’s. He was a long-time member of the Queens County Historical Society (now called Queens County Heritage) of Gagetown, New Brunswick, and was a former trustee of the Nylander Museum in Caribou, Maine. Carroll is survived by his lovingly devoted wife, Gloria E. Knox of Caribou; three daughters: Susan (Mrs. Timothy) Chase RN of Westbrook, ME; Debra (Rev. Robert) Beaumier of Auburn, ME; Lisa (Mrs. Douglas) Marsh of Fredonia, Wisconsin; a son and daughter-in-law, Gregory D. (Karen) Knox of Clifton Park, New York; six grandchildren: Tyler and Evan Chase; Benjamin Beaumier; Rebekah (Beaumier) Noyes; Deidre and Toria Marsh. He also has four greatgrandchildren: Anastasia, Levi, Isaac and Elzena Noyes. Two sisters, Shirley (Mrs. Lloyd) Bragdon of Presque Isle, ME and Ruth (Mrs. Granville) Carter of Florence, South Carolina also survive him. Thus ends Carroll’s speculation over which might expire first: he, himself, or his driver’s license, which was due to expire on his 90th birthday. Private family services will be held at the Northern Maine Veterans’ Cemetery.