Nancy E Randolph:  

I was born the fifth of ten children in Columbus, Ohio. to a father (a stationery engineer and fifty-three at the time of my birth) and to an ailing mother who receded into the bedroom for days with pain from varicose veins. We moved around a bit when I was a kid but mostly lived near the foothills of Appalachia in Southeastern Ohio. Our family spent three years in rural Illinois living in a one-room schoolhouse—not converted to our use. The building retained it’s well at the front of the building and the double-holed outhouse at the back. Our family was poor white trash, but I loved to read and walk in the woods. In the summer, I would do all my chores and head into the trees and hills. Books, nature, and my stubbornness saved me from a lifetime of poverty. I was the only one of the Myers kids to go onto college from high school, and that was at the urging of my school counselor. I wrote my application letter declaring, “My highest goal in life is ‘to be the best’ regardless of my choice of career.” I was accepted with enough financial aid and work-study to attend a small, private college thirty-five miles from my family. That thirty-five miles could have been thirty-five hundred. I met people from different socio-economic backgrounds. I formed friendships with people who didn’t look like me. I had my first crush. As a sophomore, I served as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper. I had a crew of five and a budget. Every Wednesday night, we put together sixteen pages of campus news and advertisements. Every Thursday morning, I slept through my Developmental English class with the tacit approval of the professor. My Sociology professor and I met before class and strategized our arguments. Students would side with the professor or me allowing a lively debate. In 1973, Pell grants disappeared for a few months. That was enough to break my stride. I dropped out and joined the U.S. Navy in February 1974 after a 12-month delay caused by the Navy giving my Journalism “A” school seat to a male. I served as a Journalist on the hospital support ship USS Sanctuary, traveled to Misawa, Japan to work as a broadcaster, and finished my service in Hawaii as a flak for Admirals and Captains. There I wrote speeches for Admirals. In Hawaii, I met and married my best friend, the father of my children, George Randolph. We were transferred to and lived in Iceland for four years, after which George retired and we moved to Colorado where I completed my Journalism degree at University of Northern Colorado.. We moved to the East Coast and eventually to Maine. We settled into Topsham, Maine. As a small-town resident, a young mother of two, I volunteered with the school and took occasional substitute teaching jobs in the local schools. In 1989, I was elected to the Board of Selectman and served one term. In 1990 I started up my business services and printing business, Just Write Communications. Outside of work and politics, my love of nature activated my leadership in trail work. In 1993, I was named Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust’s volunteer of the year for my work in the design of, fundraising for, and oversight of the construction of cro...Expand for more