Faith M. Towle

RAYMOND – Faith Towle died on Jan. 18, 2023, nearly 18 years after a successful heart transplant. She died peacefully in her sleep at home surrounded by her family and friends, aged 82.

Faith was born in February 1939, the daughter of Judge Donald and Lucy Webber, in Lewiston Maine. Other than Boston during World War II when her father served in the US Navy, Faith grew up in Auburn Maine where she attended Lake Street School, Washburn and then Edward Little High School. She started dating William “Billy” Towle at the age of 15, joined him in Boston for college, and then were married in 1958. She graduated from Simmons College in 1959 with a degree in Library Science.

Faith’s marriage was grounded in shared values with her husband William. They were fully committed to each other and were married for 59 years before William died in 2017. They shared a passion to explore the world, which started in 1960 in Holland where William studied at Delft and Faith worked at the Shell Corp. They moved to Los Angeles in 1963 where their two sons were born, Andrew and Steven. After a 5-year stint in Andover MA, the whole family moved to New Delhi India. Faith renewed her love of books and libraries, and she was a regular volunteer at the American School. Always an artist, she learned the Indian tradition of batik and illustrated an Indian folk tale for a book, the Magic Cooking Pot, which was published in 1975. It was an honorable mention for the prestigious Caldecott Medal.

After five years in India, Faith and her family returned to the U.S., settling in Bethesda, Md. She was an enthusiastic tennis player and chaired the local team. In 1982, they returned overseas and moved to Geneva Switzerland. Faith and her family renewed their explorative natures and hiked and biked all over Switzerland, France, and Italy. Having stopped work with the birth of her first son, she returned to the workplace in 1985 and had an immensely satisfying career as an editor/writer at IMD, the world renown business school in Lausanne.

Faith retired to Maine in 1996, where she and her husband bought a house in Raymond. They fell in love with the forest around them, and over the first few years, they acquired almost 200 acres. Their adventure travel bug never left them, and they continued to explore the world, returning to Europe many times, plus Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia/Singapore, and China. Here at home, Faith sang for many years with the Androscoggin Choir, volunteered as a poll worker and editor, and tutored recent arrivals in English.

Tragedy struck Faith in several ways over the last 20 years. In 2003 her younger son Steven was killed in a skiing accident. In 2004, she had a heart attack while in surgery for a heart valve replacement. This led to a lengthy stay in Maine Medical and then Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston until a heart transplant arrived in May 2005. Her recovery was remarkable, and she enjoyed almost 18 years of a highly fulfilling life with her new heart. Then in 2017, her husband William died of cancer.

Through it all, Faith had extraordinary resilience and rebounded from setbacks and tragedies to have an amazingly enriching life. She died with no regrets, of sound mind, and calm with her death. She is survived by her son Andrew, daughters-in-law Cora and Anna, and five grandchildren Alexia, Kean, Austin, Addison and Aiden.