Dale Duncan at the Hilltop Coffee Shop Last Week

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 667)

Comng out of a ten year retirement in North Carolina appears to have been a fairly easy decision for Karen and Dale Duncan – he was offered the CEO position at the ‘Kennebec Journal,’ the ‘Morning Sentinel,’ and the ‘Coastal Journal,” for his former boss,  Richard Connor.  They worked together in Pennsylvania.

It’ll be two weeks this weekend since the gracious couple made the Hill their permanent residence.  “I said that I’d only come to Maine if I can live on Munjoy Hill,” said Karen.  “We’ve been to every restaurant and theatre in the area.  I love it here.”  The two were enjoying coffee and other local papers when MHN.com spotted them at the Hilltop Coffee Shop last week.

The couple got to know the Hill well last fall when Dale spent ten weeks in the state supervising coverage of the Maine political elections; including the Governor’s race, the Pingree and Michaud races.  “I hadn’t lived here before so I could be very objective about the races,” he said. He  didn’t know anything about the candidates.  “I was amazed at the interest in politics here.  It’s a good place to be in the news business ’cause people take great interest in politics and their government.  Much more so than in other places I’ve been,” he said.

About the future of newspapers, Dale said as long as there are news gathering organizations able to distribute the news, there will be newspapers around.  “Newspapers will be different.  They’ll be limited by your imagination.”  He was president & publisher for the “Indianpolis Star  Gazette. ”

For the meantime, he’s doing a lot of commuting from the Hill to Waterville, Augusta and Bath.  In time, he expects to get an apartment in Waterville to make his weekly commute less demanding, in addition to their home on the Hill.

You may run in to Dale and Karen if you hang out at the Hilltop, sipping coffee and reading the local news on weekends.  A delightful couple to chat with.