Meet Gary Priest

Gary Priest grew up in Rangeley, graduating from Rangeley High School and the University of Maine. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and then traveled extensively through Europe, Egypt and the Middle East. He spent 31 years in the accounting department at New England Life Insurance Company in Boston, rising to vice president, by his retirement in 1994. In 1965 he married Barbra Evans of Des Moines, Iowa, whom he had met several times during his travels in Europe. They have three children and three grandchildren.

During his childhood he became familiar with many of the camps mentioned in this book and during high school and college worked at four different resorts in Rangeley. In 1971 he purchased three of the Mingo Springs Hotel Camps and since his retirement has been a summer resident there. He has been on the board of the Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society since 2000 and is the author of two other books: History of Rangeley Hotels and Camps (2003) and Mingo Springs Hotel, the Early Days (2005).