CUMBERLAND FORESIDE — Oliver Leland Loring Jr., 75, died June 4 at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough.

He was the husband of Maureen Ann Connolly. For 14 years, he lived with advanced prostate cancer and was sober more than 27 years. After a career as a reporter in print and broadcast news, he was proud to be an L.L. Bean employee for 26 years.

He was born Oct. 27, 1938, in Fall River, Massachusetts, son of Oliver Leland Loring, former Episcopal Bishop of Maine, and Elizabeth Brewster Loring. He attended Waynflete School and Kent School, Connecticut. He was a member of the Class of 1961 at Harvard College, but after his freshman year, enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a cryptographer in Japan. Following military service, he returned to Harvard to complete a degree in political science.

He joined the reporting staff of the Portland Press Herald and later became a reporter for United Press International, and, for a short time, The Associated Press. He was co-host of the nightly Maine News and Comment on Maine Public Television and Radio and taught broadcast journalism courses at the University of Maine. He went on to become a reporter and weekend anchor at WCSH-TV, Channel 6, Portland. He joined the L.L. Bean Returns Department in 1987.

He was an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He found joy and satisfaction in going out for breakfast with a group of guys, reading The Economist and Wall Street Journal, keeping the bird feeders filled, and napping in the sun with a radio tuned to a Red Sox game. He was a gentleman, handsome and quiet, with a deep spirituality, keen intellect and sense of humor, and gratitude for a life well lived.

He was predeceased by a sister, Elizabeth Loring Sewall Throop.

He is survived by his wife; brother, Stephen H. Loring, and wife, Hilary; nieces, Christina Sewall and Ledlie Loring, and husband, Will Ikard, of Newcastle; nephew, Benjamin Loring, and wife, Inna; mother-in-law, Evelyn Connolly; along with the extended Connolly family he embraced wholeheartedly. He took great pleasure in the companionship of his beloved dog and two cats.

A memorial gathering will be held at Camp Hammond, Yarmouth, on June 29, from 2-4 p.m. Burial, with military honors, will be at Bridge Street Cemetery, West Newbury, Massachusetts.

Sidebar Elements

---

Loring

Copy the Story Link