In his retirement, Ralph Sylvester ’50 of Auburn became a familiar and welcoming presence on the Bates campus, having breakfast most days in the Den or in Commons with a circle of Bates friends.
In November 2023, Sylvester died at the age of 99, but his positive presence will be felt at Bates for many years to come, thanks to his bequest of $1.3 million to Bates.
Made through Sylvester’s will, the bequest creates two new permanently endowed funds that will leave a legacy of access, opportunity, and community at Bates.
One endowment, the Ralph L. Sylvester ’50 Fund for Financial Aid, will provide need-based scholarships for Bates students, with preference for students from Androscoggin and Oxford counties. The second endowment, the Ralph L. Sylvester ’50 Fund for Dining Services, will support professional development for the members of the college’s dining team.
“Ralph was for the underdog, and he was always our champion,” said Christine Schwartz, associate vice president for dining, conferences, and campus events.
Schwartz learned of Sylvester’s bequest this week while she was handling swiftly shifting details for Commencement weekend — rain was in the forecast.
She teared up when hearing the news. True, the two hadn’t started out eye-to-eye: Sylvester didn’t mince words when offering feedback on goings-on at his alma mater, including her dining operation.
“Let’s just say that Ralph and I did not start out in a stellar way,” Schwartz says. “But we became great friends, and I really took in his wisdom.” During COVID, Schwartz and her team delivered meals to Sylvester at his home in Auburn.
In recent years, the two friends often talked about how to create opportunity and advancement for the many members of the Dining Services team. “How do we move people along their career path? How do we, as a college, help our staff members realize that there are many opportunities to either continue on the path you’re on, or to open yourself up to wider opportunities?”
Sylvester was born in Lewiston in 1924 and lived in Auburn for most of his life. Growing up, he was a newsboy for the local paper, graduating from Edward Little High School and entering Bates in September 1942. He worked in a local mill to earn tuition money.
Then came World War II. Sylvester joined the U.S. Army in 1943, serving with the 295th Combat Engineers. He landed on Omaha Beach five days after D-Day, when the beach was still covered with the bodies of dead American soldiers, and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war, he returned home to Auburn, and returned to Bates. War had taken a toll, and he left before graduating, but always remained connected to his alma mater.
He married Elaine Miller in 1949, and worked in local banks and in telecommunications, helping to deliver service to rural Maine. He was a lifelong supporter of public institutions in the Lewiston-Auburn community.
Active in veterans affairs, he supported Honor Flight, a nonprofit program that honors U.S. military veterans by flying them for free to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials dedicated to their service and sacrifice.
After retiring, he and Elaine started a morning routine of having breakfast at the Den. That was where Peter Steenstra, head coach of Bates rowing, met Sylvester. Steenstra liked to head to the Den for breakfast after the rowers’ early morning practice on the Androscoggin River.
Sitting, eating, and talking with Sylvester and others became a morning ritual. “Being able to chat with someone who had such a vast experience in the world helped me keep things in perspective,” Steenstra said.
In recent years, Sylvester shifted to Commons, where he got to know Bates rowers, who would greet the nonagenarian as they returned from the river after practice.
In April 2023, the Bates rowing team chose to honor Sylvester by naming its new shell Ralph Sylvester ’50. During the christening ceremony in Perry Atrium, Steenstra presented an oar blade to Sylvester, a symbol of the great esteem the coach and rowers had for him.
While having lunch with his teammates in Commons on Wednesday, Bates rower Leo Sullivan ’25 of Bloomfield, Conn., took in the news of Sylvester’s bequest. Sullivan was at the 2023 event, where he met and shook hands with Sylvester.
“It’s incredible that he was so invested in this community that he would pay it forward in that way,” said Sullivan. “It just speaks to what a major part of Bates he was.”
Categories Alumni Society and culture
