The world lost a bright light earlier this month, and we at Maine AllCare lost a treasured colleague and friend. Lynn Cheney died on February 11 after being diagnosed last fall with ALS.
Lynn joined the Maine AllCare board in 2018 and served as our treasurer and on the Legislative and Policy, Communications, and Executive committees. She co-founded and led the Down East chapter, and was instrumental in many initiatives including economic studies, our 2019 canvassing survey, tabling at elections and events, and just this past summer, helping to pass a referendum in Penobscot. We could always count on her intelligence, clarity of thought and expression, humor, camaraderie, and dedication.
Lynn grew up in a Navy family, living all over the world. After leaving Wellesley College, she remained in Massachusetts, marrying and raising two daughters.
She was a business owner and executive who spent 33 years at Comrex Corporation, a broadcast equipment manufacturer. “Running a business, it was increasingly difficult and costly to find adequate health coverage for my employees,” Lynn wrote. “The small businesses as well as the hundreds of self-employed Mainers I worked with as an ACA Navigator confirm that the situation has only worsened. It is time for publicly funded, universal health care to allow us to control costs while covering everyone.”
After retiring in 2006, Lynn moved to Blue Hill and quickly began giving her time and energy to her community, including serving on the boards of the Blue Hill Public Library and Native Gardens of Blue Hill, and on the town’s Finance Committee. She became one of the state’s first certified ACA Navigators in 2014 and was a founding member of Peninsula Free Health Services.
Sometimes in the life of an organization there comes along a person with a special energy and commitment. That was Lynn. We are thankful for all she gave us and for her unwavering belief in the quest to create a health care system that serves all of us. We will miss her dearly.
Learn more about Lynn’s life and work at the Ellsworth American and Radio World. A memorial concert will be held in Blue Hill in the spring.