A Tribute to Vincent L. McKusick, 1921—2014

I. INTRODUCTION They say that people in rural Maine live closer to the earth and closer to each other; that the demands of rural life require of them a certain self-reliance and purpose to task; and that their isolation instills in them a deeper sense of place and community. All of that is true of life in the Town of Parkman, which was organized in the middle of the state just two years after the District of Maine separated from Massachusetts and the new state appointed its first chief justice. Today, Parkman occupies less than forty-seven square miles, counts little more than 800 residents, and has one main road. This is farming country, dairy and crop, where fields of fertile soil yield to forested tracts and expansive views of mountains to the west. It is also the birthplace and final resting place of Vincent Lee McKusick "The Chief," as he was known here in his home state, died on December 3, 2014, at age 93. Most of what one needs to know about his professional accomplishments can be told without reference to Parkman. But everything that defined his humility and kindness is best understood with some insight into his roots in this small town. II. BEFORE COLLEGE: 1921-1940 (1) Vincent L. McKusick was bom on October 21, 1921, on The Lone Elm Farm to Carroll and Ethel McKusick, former educators who returned to Parkman from Vermont to raise the young family that eventually included twins Vincent and Victor. Although "my twin brother was ... born on the same day, ... I always make clear that I was born first" because "there are certain perks that go with that," Vincent once recounted. (2) The twins "did everything together." (3) Along with their three older siblings, they shared in the daily demands of the farm: chopping wood, tending the cows, and delivering milk along a local route. This rural upbringing was, Vincent recalled, "just about as near perfect as it really could be. We got a whole lot of work ethic pounded into us. We were expected to work hard on the farm. The habit of work was very important." (4) The twins were home-schooled by their mother until they entered a one-room, one-teacher school for grades two through nine. Later, in the local high school, Vincent was inspired by public speaking and Victor by biology. In 1940, they graduated as co-valedictorians of the largest class--twenty-eight--that their small high school had ever known. (5) III. COLLEGE AND THE ARMY: 1940-1946 To maximize their access to college scholarships, including the aid that would enable Vincent to afford his $250 tuition, the twins went separate ways for college: Victor to Tufts University for its medical school, and Vincent to Bates College for its debating program. (6) While at Bates, Vincent carried forward his farming work ethic. He took summer classes and worked at the local hospital, serving as its overnight telephone operator. (7) As a debater, he followed in the footsteps of Edmund Muskie and Frank Coffin, two Bates men who were accomplished collegiate debaters, (8) learning the importance and necessity of research and careful preparation. He graduated from Bates in 1943 after only three years, and promptly joined the Army, which assigned him to basic training, two specialized engineering programs, and, finally, a small research group headquartered out west. The essential task of that group was to figure out how to develop thirty-two glass-fuse detonators that could fire simultaneously. Extraordinary secrecy prevented Vincent from knowing at the time why simultaneous detonation was required. Only later would he learn that he was working on the explosives side of a device that also had a nuclear side; that a staggered detonation on the explosives side would prevent the required ignition and reaction on the nuclear side; that this was the Manhattan Project; and that the two bombs that resulted from this work in Los Alamos, New Mexico, would be used to end World War II. …