TOPSHAM — Timothy Matlack Warren, 89, died Dec. 21 in Topsham, surrounded by his wife and family.

Warren was born on Dec. 9, 1923, in New Canaan, Conn., the son of Keith Faulkner Warren and Barbara Matlack Warren. He was raised in New Canaan and then in Lovell, where his family moved in 1930, seeking a simpler and more tranquil lifestyle.

The next 11 years of Warren’s life were among his most memorable. He spoke often of his charmed childhood during the Great Depression, when he attended a one-room schoolhouse, Lovell Village Grammar School, and founded a football team. With the help of his father, who ran the family publishing company in Boston, Warren also served as one of three young editors of The Lovell News. These childhood years later became the source of material for the tall tales and jokes he enjoyed telling in a thick Maine accent.

After attending Fryeburg Academy, Warren entered Bowdoin College as a member of the class of 1945. This began an enduring commitment to Bowdoin. Warren was elected to one of the governing boards as an overseer of the college in 1985 and elected overseer emeritus in 1991. In 1992, he was given Bowdoin’s Alumni Service Award, the highest honor given by the Alumni Council. Through the fall of 2012, Warren could still be found on the Bowdoin campus, attending musical performances, lectures or sporting events.

During World War II, Warren served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In the summer of 1942, he met and courted Phyllis Faber, of Essex Fells, N.J., while she was working at Camp Mudjekeewis on Lake Kezar in Lovell. The couple was married on Aug. 14, 1946.

Warren and his young bride spent two years living in Brunswick while he completed his degree at Bowdoin. In 1948, the couple moved to Somerville, Mass., and Warren joined his father working in the family publishing business, then known as Warren Publications.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him, Warren rose through the ranks to become company president. In 1988, he handed over management of the company, now known as The Warren Group, to his son, Timothy M. Warren, Jr., a member of the fourth generation of Warrens to run the family enterprise.

In 1950, the couple moved their young family to Concord, Mass., where they raised their children and immersed themselves in church and community affairs. Throughout his life, whether he was working on town, church or college committees, or in his role as a business leader, Warren was a facilitator, bringing people together.

In January 2012, Warren was diagnosed with a progressive blood disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome. Despite declining mobility, he enjoyed a good quality of life in his final months, making it out to share Thanksgiving dinner in Camden with family, including his great-grandchildren.

In addition to his wife of 66 years, Phyllis Faber Warren, Warren is survived by his three children, Timothy Matlack Warren, Jr., of Cambridge, Mass, Elizabeth Faulkner Warren-White, of South Freeport, and Peter Grenelle Warren, of Camden; two daughters-in-law, Sarah Russell Wentworth and Deborah Nichols Warren; a son-in-law, Nathaniel Morton Warren-White; six grandchildren, Joshua Marcus Warren-White and his partner, Maria Poblet, Jessica Millar Warren Kyle and her husband, Daniel Kyle, Tyler Keith Warren and his wife, Sarah Cunningham Warren, Mariah Matlack Warren, Keith Wentworth Warren and Eliza Russell Warren; and two young great-grandchildren, Bennett Kyle and Lucy Kyle.

A memorial service in celebration of Warren’s life will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 4, at First Parish Church, 20 Lexington Road, Concord, Mass.

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Timothy Matlack Warren