08/29/2026
In Gratitude: Remembering Archie W. “Bill” Berry Jr.
I hope you are all so lucky in life as to happen upon people who believe in you, and who understand that right relations matter more than riches.
Bill Berry was one of those people in my life. His belief in Maine Grains, and in the values behind it, came at a pivotal moment in our story and helped us grow into the business and community of relationships we are today.
Archie W. “Bill” Berry Jr., former owner of Saddleback Ski Area and a retired geology professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, passed away July 31, 2026, at the age of 94, joining his beloved wife, Irene.
Bill and Irene were deeply woven into the life of Western Maine. They supported numerous organizations and institutions, including the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad, Titcomb Mountain, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the Western Mountains Fund of the Maine Community Foundation. Together, they also founded the Sandy River Charitable Foundation. Their generosity was expressed not only through giving, but through a deep understanding of what rural communities need to thrive.
I first met Bill as he was finishing his service and I was beginning mine on a volunteer grantmaking committee serving Somerset and Franklin counties. Our job was to steward resources and relationships and make grants to small Western Maine nonprofits working to build capacity and leadership.
At the time, our grant guidelines did not allow funds to be spent on capital improvements. In Bill’s parting advice to me, he challenged that thinking. I remember the spirit of his words something like this: Sometimes the food pantry just needs to fix the leaky roof so it can keep doing good work for the community.
That was Bill. Practical. Generous. Grounded in an understanding that institutions, and people, sometimes need someone willing to believe in what they are building and give them the tools to keep going.
When Bill and Irene purchased Saddleback Ski Area in 2003, it felt like a dream come true for our family. Here were people who cared deeply about Western Maine investing in a ski mountain with a family feel, helping ensure that this extraordinary place would endure for another generation.
Our family has been building memories in Rangeley for years. Whether nannying, waitressing, honeymooning, camping, doctoring, cross-country skiing, or seeking the solace of the woods and waters while grieving the loss of a friend after 9/11, we have always felt the pull of the Rangeley woods and waters.
When our children came along, we chose Saddleback as the place to teach them how to dress for, and delight in, the Maine outdoors in winter, even if that delight occasionally required “emergency chocolate” tucked into our packs or the promise of a lollipop ski race. We would often bump into Bill and Irene at the lodge they built and the mountain they loved.
Now grown, my children are learning to serve the Saddleback community themselves, training with the volunteer Saddleback Ski Patrol and giving their own time and energy to a place Bill, Irene, and their family poured so much of their hearts and resources into.
And then, Bill became part of the Maine Grains story.
In 2016, just four years after launching Maine Grains, we reached a critical juncture. We needed additional capital to solve production bottlenecks, invest in equipment, and right-size the business so it could become sustainable.
What we needed, however, was more than money.
We were searching for that rare kind of investor: someone with the resources to help, but also the wisdom to understand that money is only one ingredient in whether a business and the community around it succeeds.
Bill understood that.
He understood that Maine Grains could best serve its community by building a business rooted in respect, reciprocity, balance, good leadership, and long-term relationships. He trusted us to do the work. He believed that financial capital could be used in service to something larger rather than becoming the thing that controlled it. At a critical moment, Bill invested in Maine Grains. But in doing so, he invested in much more than a milling company.
He invested in farmers willing to put grains back into their rotations. He invested in bakers, brewers, chefs, and makers creating markets for Maine-grown grain. He invested in jobs, infrastructure, rural entrepreneurship, and the possibility that a regional grain economy, once largely lost, could take root again.
He invested in an idea that was still becoming.
And because he did, he helped catalyze the resurgence of grain growing and grain-based businesses in Maine.
Some people leave behind buildings, institutions, foundations, businesses, and mountains. Bill certainly did. But perhaps an even greater legacy is left by those who use their resources to help other people build things that will outlive them.
We honor Bill Berry's extraordinary legacy and extend our love and gratitude to the entire Berry family for sharing him with Western Maine, and with us.
May we carry forward something of the way Bill moved through the world: believing in people, investing in community, thinking beyond ourselves, and remembering that the quality of our relationships are ultimately worth more than the riches we accumulate.
Forever grateful to you, Bill.
—Amber
