Page 48 - Newsletter Spring 2021

Jon McLaughlin '73
2005-Present/Fundraising Co-chair/Newsletter Editor

I must admit this interview was very entertaining for me. Jon and I do not have a long
history with each other. In fact, if it were not for HHSAA, I probably would not know
Jon at all. As I did with all my interviews, I sent Jon a list of questions which he could
either answer and send back or use to prepare himself for the interview. Jon always
asks me to keep reminding him when things are due. I emailed him a couple times
before we could get a date and time set, and then a week before emailed him a reminder
along with the list of questions. When we met, I asked how he was feeling about those
questions, he said, “I sent them to you.” I had not received them if he did send them,
but Jon was adamant he did “his homework” early and sent it back. Jon went to his
computer to get his answers and returned with them, but a little deflated. “I found
them. Only after checking my sent emails, I found I had not sent it,” Jon admitted, “but
I did it.” I smiled as I looked at the detailed answers Jon had provided and realized he
probably wrote the article himself.

Jon is a member of HHS class of 1973 who admits he made a lot of friends in high school who have been and still are life-long
friends. Jon admits that in most cases when people graduate, their high school friends are forgotten while new friends are made
in college or work, but his group stayed close probably because the class was close too. With Jon’s personality, I imagine he has
life-long friends from high school, college, and work. Jon has an older brother, Michael ’64, or at least that’s all he admits to.
When asked about special high school memory or teacher, Jon states “all my teachers were great,” though he admits to 2 special
English teachers who pushed him and made him be a good critical thinker. Those teachers were Betty Stone, who I agree
pushed her students, and David Wiggin, not the Wiggin I knew as an English teacher. I knew David Wiggin as high school
principal and his wife, Allison, as the English teacher. Later in life, Jon says he had the honor of being on the committee to hire
David Wiggin as superintendent when Jon chaired the SAD 29 School Board. Jon was also able to work with David for many
years during his time as superintendent. David still remembers HHS via a HHSAA scholarship he has funded in Allison’s name
for the past 2 years.

After HHS, Jon attended and graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1977 with a BA Degree in Business
Administration. He then came home and worked for the family business, Ward Log Homes. Jon was COO at the time the
business was sold. Then Jon started work at the then newly formed local economic development group, Southern Aroostook
Development Corporation (aka SADC) as its first Executive Director. That was 22 years ago!! How time flies, but this is only
Jon’s professional life.

In his personal life, Jon married Susan Clifford in 1981. Susan attended Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor for
Radiology so she could spend most of the past 40 years working at Houlton Regional Hospital. Susan did take a few years off
to be a stay-at home mom for their 2 sons, Josh ’01 and Jason ’02, who are Houlton HS alum. Currently, Susan manages the
Radiology Department at HRH. Josh and Jason both followed in Jon’s footsteps attending and graduating from the University
of Maine at Orono. Josh earned a BA in Construction Management and now owns and operates his own construction
company in Houlton called J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC. Jason earned his BA in Mechanical Engineering Technology
and is Project Manager for Hahnel Brothers Company in Lewiston who manufacture and install commercial HVAC ductwork
for large projects like paper plants.
In his free time, Jon has several seasonal hobbies starting with winter snowmobiler and gardener working on several flower
gardens at his home. Jon describes himself as “an avid, albeit not the most polished gardener.” Jon also mows almost 8 acres of
lawn weekly in the summer keeping his free time full.
Around 2005, Jon was approached by Jerry York ’70 to see if Jon would have an interest in being on the HHSAA fundraising
committee with a goal to reach a one-million-dollar endowment. As most know, that goal was recently reached and the
endowment, at the time of this writing, is quickly closing in on the two-million level. It was around the same time Jon was
asked to become part of the HHSAA board, and Jon did not hesitate. “The board consists of a wonderful group of dedicated
alums from all age groups and different occupational backgrounds,” Jon says. “All are great workers, and we all want the same
thing: to provide for our alums be it funding for grads, news to keep all informed, or reunion help as we are all one family

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