Donna Mary (Dean) McCluskey, born April 15, 1951, passed away on October 31, 2023 from advanced lung cancer, surrounded by her family and other loved ones. Her passage was peaceful.

Donna grew up in Freeport, Maine and attended the Freeport school system, graduating from 

Freeport High School in 1969. Donna had worked for her parents at the Village Shoemaker for 

much of her teen years. She went on to work at the Bowdoin College Library for 2 years before 

leaving to work at L.L.Bean in 1973. She continued her employment there until 1978 when she 

was hired by Bath Iron Works in data entry. She left her job at BIW in 1981 and began day 

caring for many of her former co-workers children, as well as others. 

Donna continued her day caring for several years until she accepted a position at the Issac 

Umberhine Library, in Richmond, Maine, a position that she would hold for for over 34 years. 

While at the Umberhine Library she undertook several programs designed to introduce literacy 

to children in the form of weekly "Story Hours", at which she would personally read to the 

children, and other various projects. Every year, she would work tirelessly to create floats for 

the "Richmond Days" and organize and judge a "Children's Parade". Along with several other 

engaged townspeople, her voice and fundraising efforts helped to fund the new Richmond 

Library at its present location on main street in Richmond.

Donna's, efforts to promote childhood literacy had a tremendous impact on the children of the 

community. Some of her favorite moments as librarian were when now grown adults came in 

and expressed their joyful recollections of their days at the library and how they loved her 

kindness, warmth and interest in their welfare. She also loved her adult patrons with many of 

them becoming close friends who shared their lives with her in conversation. Her impact on the 

overall community is impossible to quantify, but if the testimonials pouring in after her passing 

are any indication, she has touched, and enhanced, many people in our small town, and 

beyond. She was powerfully, and widely, loved.

Donna, (or Rosie as her husband Rick and others often referred to her) loved to dabble in crafts 

and over the years joined forces with her daughter, Becky, her granddaughter, Hannah, and 

most recently, her great granddaughter, Maeve. She created individual cookbooks based on 

her mother-in-law's recipes and filled them with pictures of the nieces and granddaughters, 

with their grandmother to personalize them. She possessed an incredible knack for creating 

the items that warmed the heart and soul of those fortunate to receive them such as quilts, 

cookbooks, ornaments and many other items designed to lift the spirit. 

Donna was predeceased by her parents, Donald and Jacqueline (Condon) Dean as well as a 

son, Richard McCluskey 2nd, and a sister Linan (Dean) Simpson. Survivors include her 

husband of 53 years, Richard McCluskey, daughter Rebecca (McCluskey) Dubeau of Norway, 

and a son Daniel McCluskey of Raymond, Maine. Also surviving are grandchildren Hannah 

McCluskey, Joseph McCluskey, and great-granddaughter Maeve McCluskey. She is also 

survived by brothers David Dean of Leeds and Gregory Dean of Richmond, Maine. 

A celebration of life will be held at the Richmond/Dresden Methodist church on Pleasant street 

in Richmond at 2:00 P.M on Saturday, November 11th, to be followed by a reception at the