CORNISH- Wayne Raymor Gillette drifted into his next adventure peacefully at home on February 24, 2026. He lived a long, vibrant, nuanced life and left this earth still filled with curiosity and child-like positivity. He touched the lives of many and will be remembered and missed by everyone who knew him.
Wayne was born on November 19, 1939 in New London, NH to two teachers, Willard and Kelsea Griffin Gillette and moved to Buxton, ME at just 10 months old where he grew up and worked on his family’s apple orchard. The house of his youth, on Gillette Road, did not have electricity or running water, and Wayne liked to joke that one of his arms was longer than the other because of all the buckets of water he carried to the house over the years. He attended Bog Mills School from 1st to 8th grade, which also did not have electricity and was a one room schoolhouse. Wayne was quite the storyteller and often reminisced about his time at Bog Mills School. He once got in big trouble for using his best crayon to draw a very even line around the entire outside of the schoolhouse after the kids had been sent outside to play because it was too dark to read! He loved playing hide and seek in the stacked firewood piles in the basement and talked about how his teacher would make soup on the wood stove for lunch.
After graduation from Samuel D. Hanson high school, Wayne attended Gorham State Teachers College. He married his high school sweetheart, Gloria Wilson, while attending college, and he graduated in 1961 with a degree in Industrial Arts. He then moved to Mexico, Maine to start his teaching career. In 1964, he moved to Kezar Falls and started teaching at Porter High School where he set up its first industrial arts shop. He continued teaching shop, math and science as well as coaching girls’ softball at the new Sacopee Valley High School when it opened and taught there until 1975. Wayne and Gloria had 4 children together: daughter, Katharine Gillette MacKaye and sons Brian, Eric and David. He also helped to raise several foster children. David remembers his dad as being very levelheaded, helping him with his bicycle, and showing him how things worked.
In 1980 Wayne built himself a beautiful, peaceful house in the woods on his family’s Gillette Road property. He took great pride in being able to accomplish this and enjoyed living off the grid. The house was powered by a 12 volt battery and heated by a giant Russian fireplace which he built himself, of course. He also enjoyed being a handyman and helping to remodel Merry Meeting Farm, a residential adolescent home in Parsonsfield for his friends, John and Sharon Hays and Joe Dalton. In his spare time Wayne helped several friends complete their post and beam houses.
In 1987, Wayne started a second chapter in his life after meeting Melissa Dunnan, a special education teacher at South Hiram Elementary School, on a blind date set up by their mutual friend and fellow teacher, Janet Carper. They were married in 1989 with a simple ceremony among immediate friends and family in the backyard of what would become their shared home together in Cornish, Maine. Helping to raise Melissa’s 3 children was not always easy, but Wayne became a much loved and appreciated step-father to Jenny, Michael, and Eliza Floyd. He took delight in telling stories around the dinner table, playing harmonica while they put up the Christmas tree, and was always available to drive them to school functions in his much beloved El Camino or “cruck,” much to their teenage horror and embarrassment. Wayne never said no when Eliza asked him to play catch on summer evenings in the backyard, and he had a great time coaching Jenny and Michael’s Odyssey of the Mind teams with Melissa as they won first place in the state competition and participated in the nationals in Maryland.
Wayne was always a hard worker, holding several jobs while still teaching. He did everything from driving propane to working at Walker Chevrolet to planting trees with road crews. He was talented artistically and expressed that by being a wedding photographer, a drawer, and a wood carver.
When Wayne left teaching, he began several new careers. He was a property manager with York Cumberland housing, managing numerous apartment buildings in Maine and New Hampshire. He also enjoyed working with his brother Billy who started a new company, FS Express, which provided repair services on radiography equipment in hospitals in the Northeast and California. For his last “retirement” job, he started a new company, Country Hills Sharpening, where he sharpened everything from scissors to ice skates to huge woodcutting saws. He loved traveling around to local towns to drop off and pick up at hardware stores where he could stop and chat.
Wayne was a man of many hobbies and talents and particularly loved being in nature to hike, canoe, and marvel at wildlife. He loved adventure, going on a wilderness rafting trip in Idaho with Melissa or taking his students on a hiking trip out West with Dan Hester. In his later years, he was a reluctant participant in international travel, but did it for Melissa, and spent time exploring Ireland and looking at castles in Northern Wales. He could find the best ice cream shop wherever he was, even in Wales, and that almost always made the travel worth it. He was an enthusiastic volunteer for Willowbrook Historic Village demonstrating blacksmithing and cider-making to countless children on school trips. In later life, Wayne was a volunteer for Hospice of Southern Maine and visited with elderly people to provide company.
Wayne was always happiest in his garden holding a shovel in his hands. He worked for years digging in dirt, clearing the never-ending rocks which magically appeared every spring and of course weeding. His special crops included sunflowers and gladioli of every color, but he did enjoy raising turnips. He gave away pounds of veggies to neighbors and friends as well as gladiola bulbs and rhubarb. The students at Sacopee and the Middle School received huge buckets of flowers when school started which were included in the fall art and drawing curriculum. Over the years he waged what was called "The Woodchuck War" digging fencing deep into the ground, playing loud music and sitting near the garden with his rifle. The woodchucks always won, but he remained optimistic.
Wayne is survived by his wife, Melissa, his four children and three step-children, his sister Janice Gillette LaCorte (Fred) of New Jersey, his brother Willard Gillette (MaryLou) of California, first cousin Sandra Stiffel (Todd) of Florida, one nephew, two nieces, and sixteen grandchildren.
He will always be remembered for his eternal optimism, the twinkle in his eyes while telling a story, his smile and quick sense of humor, his intelligence, and his quiet kindness to others as well as his ability to fix practically anything. In his final days, he wanted to be sure to express thanks to his longtime friends including Sherry Watson, Bill Briggs, John and Sharon Hays, Donna and Joe Dalton, and Russell White as well as his family and Hospice team for all their support and care during the last many years he has been battling cancer. He would like to give a special thank you to his son David for all his help in making it possible for him to stay at home. He and Melissa could not have done it without him. Wayne remains certain that he will see his friends and family again in another life, maybe while sitting in the woods whittling or while playing his harmonica.
Wayne’s burial will be private. The family is planning a late spring Celebration of Life for everyone who knew and loved Wayne. There will, of course, be ice cream.
Online condolence messages can be submitted at the Poitras, Neal & York Funeral Home website, www.mainefuneral.com