Willard Bicket

BRIDGTON — The Rev. Willard A. Bicket, 85, of Route 5A, Lovell, died Friday at the Bridgton Health Care Center.

Born in Weiser, Idaho, a son of James and Nina Boyd Bicket, he graduated from Tarkio (Mo.) College and from Andover-Newton Theological Seminary. He was ordained into the Congregational Church in August of 1936.

His first church was the Hookset (N.H.) Congregational Church, where he served from 1936 to 1939. From 1939 to 1942, he was pastor of the Lovell Congregational Church and he helped organize the Lovell Fire Department and helped arrange public rights-of-way to local beaches. From 1942 to 1945 he served as an Army chaplain in North Africa and Italy. From 1946 to 1953 he was minister of the First Congregational Church in Rutland, Mass., where he helped establish the annual Fourth of July parade and celebration, and was chaplain of the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium. From 1953-1977 he was minister of the United Church of Christ in Plainfield, N.J., where he now holds the title minister emeritus.

In 1977 he retired and moved to Lovell. He served Lovell as a selectman and served on the Lovell Historical Committee and the East Stoneham “Food Kitchen. He also worked with Habitat for Humanity at Sweden and the National Veterans for Peace, served on the board of Coe Fund scholarships, was active with the Lovell Jefferson Group and was a member of the Sweden United Church of Christ. In retirement he served as interim minister at the Woodfords Congregational Church in Portland and the United Church of Christ at Sweden, and until recently he was still performing weddings and funerals and filling in for other ministers.

Surviving are his wife of almost 60 years, Elizabeth Kimball Bicket; a son, James of Plainfield, N.J.; a daughter, Mary Heroux of Baldwinsville, N.Y.; a brother, Creighton of Omaha, Neb.; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

From Sun-Journal Lewiston, Maine · Sunday, March 09, 1997