Mary Guild Leighton Homand Jones
Mary Guild Leighton Homand Jones died March 23, 2014, in Arlington, Va. She lived fully and with dignity.
Mary's mother, Annie Leighton, emigrated from Scotland to New York when she was a wee lass in her teens, and her life was not easy, work coming at a very tender age in Arbroath's rope making and tobacco rolling factories. Mary's father, Maxim Richard Homand, lost his parents at an early age and like Annie knew hardship and work early and often.
Mary was born Nov. 21, 1937, in Staten Island, N.Y., where Richard had a gas station. Mary's life took an unusual course when Richard was asked by the Arabian American Oil Co. (ARAMCO) to move to Saudi Arabia to teach the Saudis vehicle mechanics. Annie and Mary joined Richard in Arabia, and Mary, like all of the American kids associated with ARAMCO, attended the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon. The stories of a young girl flying solo on DC-3's from New York to Arabia via Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris are fantastic and perhaps the genesis of Mary's lifelong love of travel, independence, and her joie de vivre. Subsequently, Mary returned home to attend Simmons College in Boston.
Mary met Charles Bebee Jones in Macy's department store in San Francisco, where they both were employed as buyers and store executives. Love blossomed immediately, and they had many wonderful years living in San Francisco atop Telegraph Hill, Mill Valley, and Fairfax. A move to Sacramento brought Rebecca in 1966 and Leslie in 1969.
Mary was the consummate 'doer' and visionary, and her public service was quiet yet full of impact. Before it was a household term, Mary started an organic neighborhood garden on the grounds of her girls' elementary school, and devoted hundreds of hours to establishing and landscaping the grounds of the Sacramento Science Center with dozens of majestic California Redwoods. The family moved to Bangor in 1982 to run a commercial boarding kennel. Mary, Chuck and the girls grew their business substantially in terms of size, scope and stature in the community. Mary became a dog trainer, holding group classes and melding her natural talents with both animals and people. As she would always say, a trainer doesn't train the dog but trains its owners. Teaching people is a skill she always loved to use, and she did so in all sorts of interesting ways. Chuck and Mary retired in 1994.
After Chuck's untimely death in 1995, Mary put her talent and love of historic preservation into practice by renovating a turn-of-the-century fisherman's cottage in Bass Harbor. Through vision and a great sense of design Mary, along with her architects Kay and Augusto Rosa and builder Eric Henry, created "Seascape," one of those rare houses that is both comfortable and a feast for the eyes. For however long it perches on the shores of Bass Harbor, Seascape will exude Mary's love of a good home filled with good people.
Mary's love of place and the natural and cultural world did not stop at Seascape. Anyone driving through the community of Somesville will see the Historical Society heirloom garden she envisioned, designed, planted and tended. Hundreds of schoolchildren, as well as a fox or two, trod the nature trail in Tremont that she saw established skirting the upper reaches of the Marsh. While serving on the Maine State Historic Preservation Commission and as president of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, Mary cataloged the work of Fred Savage, one of the Island's turn of the century "summer cottage" architects as well as cataloging the historically significant homes in Southwest Harbor. Mary was one of the founding planners of Mount Desert Island's Acadia Senior College. Most recently, while serving on the Board of the Tremont Historical Society and with her dear friend Muriel Davisson, Mary led an effort to record the oral histories of longtime residents of Tremont and Bass Harbor. The list of Mary's service, both public and private is extensive - gardens cultivated, children and animals loved, buildings preserved, natural history shared - and her generosity was bountiful.
Mary is survived by her daughter, Rebecca Aumond McSweeney and her husband, Dennis, of Arlington, Va.; her daughter, Leslie Leighton Jones and David Williamson of Alexandria, Va.; her grandsons, Sean and Caelan McSweeney of Arlington, Va.; her companion and partner, Dick Dimond, of Southwest Harbor; and her canine friends, Liberty and Talisker.
The family requests that contributions in Mary's memory be made to the Tremont Historical Society, Hospice of Hancock County or a charity of your choice.