DR. FREDERICK A. FINDLEN DMD

 

Hot Spring Village, AR, Pownal & Fort Fairfield - Dr. Frederick Allen Findlen DMD, aged 62, formerly of Pownal, Maine, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, August 6, 2016, at his home in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. Fred was born April 6, 1954, in Fort Fairfield, Maine, the fifth child of the family’s eight children, to Joseph P. and Louise B. (Hoyt) Findlen. Fred grew up on a potato farm in Northern Maine and worked on the family farm until he graduated from Fort Fairfield High School in 1972. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Maine at Orono in 1976, he attended Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, MA, where he earned his DMD degree in 1979. Upon graduation Fred joined the United States Army as Captain, serving as a military dentist in Germany for three years. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, meeting new people and learning about their customs and cultures. This lifelong love of travel and history motivated him to explore his own family’s Irish ancestry. Yet, no matter how far or how often he traveled, Maine’s rolling potato fields and rocky coast remained closest to his heart. Fred returned to the Brunswick, Maine area in 1982, and set up his dental practice in Topsham, ME where he practiced dentistry for the next thirty years. Skilled and practical, with a gentle chair side manner, Fred was fondly known as a “real person’s dentist” because his primary concern was for the oral health of his patients. A long time member of ADA, MDA, and Merrymeeting Dental Associations, Fred also volunteered his time doing dental missionary work in Mexico and Belize. He retired from dentistry in 2012. He and his wife later moved to Arkansas to be closer to his daughter and her family. One of his greatest joys was being “Opa” and spending time with his three grandchildren. An active member of community theater in the Brunswick area, Fred’s love of music led him to join a ukulele band in Falmouth, Maine (The Flukes) and to form the Hot Springs Ukulele Band in his new community in Arkansas. He was always on the lookout for an opportunity to play music and to meet new people. Fred was predeceased by his parents Joseph and Louise Findlen. He is survived by his beloved wife Audrey (Viles) Findlen and his daughter Freedom (Findlen) Grim, her husband Lawrence, and their children Amaziah, Faith and Zeraia; his sister Marcia (Findlen) Cyr and her husband Van of St. Joseph, MI; brothers and sisters-in-law, Joseph and Helen of Fort Fairfield, ME; Patrick and Anita of Clifton, ME; Michael and Judy of Lecanto, FL; Richard and Kathari of Houlton, ME; Chris and Nancy of Windham, ME; and Gregory and Gayle of Dade City, FL; numerous nieces, nephews and friends, including special friend and career-long dental assistant Lisa York of Lisbon Falls, ME. Fred will be remembered for his love of family and friends, his generosity of spirit, his smile, his dedication to his dental patients, his gifts of music, writing and storytelling, and his lifelong love of travel. Fred’s sense of humor and his ability to tell a good yarn shone brightly in stories that he wrote about growing up in the “County,” some of which were published in Down East and Echoes magazines. A Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, September 30, 2016, at 1 pm at The Taste of Maine, Rt. 1, Woolwich, ME. Burial will be private. Donations may be made to the Brain and Behavior Research Institute, 90 Park Ave. 16th floor, NY, NY 10016 or online at www.bbrfoundation.org . Please make a notation that it is in his memory. Online condolences maybe expressed at www.gibersondorseyfuneralhome.com