Bill Nemitz

Columnist

Bill Nemitz has worked as a journalist in Maine since 1977, when he became a reporter for the Morning Sentinel in Waterville after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
He moved to Portland in 1983, working first as a reporter for the Evening Express and later as a city editor and assistant managing editor/sports for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He began writing his column in 1995. While focusing on Maine people and issues, his work has taken him three times to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, where he was embedded with members of the Maine Army National Guard and the Army Reserve; to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the 1998 referendum on the Good Friday Peace Accord; to Manhattan for the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; to the Gulf Coast for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Nemitz is a past president of the Maine Press Association and for many years taught journalism part-time at St. Joseph's College of Maine in Standish. He also served for eight years, including three as chairman, on the board of trustees for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland. In 2004, the Maine Press Association named Nemitz Maine Journalist of the Year for his reporting on the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion in Iraq. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the New England Newspaper Association. In 2015, Nemitz was inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. Nemitz lives in Buxton with his wife, Andrea. They have five children and four grandchildren.
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Posted inNews

Maine shipmaster says aye to Sea Hunter mission

by Bill Nemitz

ABOARD THE SEA HUNTER – A volunteer shipmaster, after inspecting conditions aboard the Sea Hunter, agreed Sunday to complete the Maine relief ship’s humanitarian mission to Haiti. ”If you’ll have me, I’d be proud to join you,” Kevin Garthwaite, 57, of Wells told an elated crew. A 1976 graduate of the Maine Maritime Academy, Garthwaite […]

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As cynics feast, hopeful crew won’t give up the ship

by Bill Nemitz

ABOARD THE SEA HUNTER – Early Friday morning, as the crew of the Maine ship Sea Hunter settled in for breakfast around the galley’s long dining table, chief engineer Brian Ryder slipped a disc into the DVD player. ”Have you guys seen this?” Ryder asked, hitting the play button. The 52-inch flat-screen television flashed on […]

Posted inNews

Sea Hunter’s feline mascot has seen it all

by Bill Nemitz

Last week’s commotion aboard the Sea Hunter did little to faze Nine, the Sea Hunter’s feline mascot. The cat has been aboard the ship since 2008, when the crew found him abandoned at a gas station near where the ship was undergoing renovations in New Orleans. It seems a squabbling family had stopped at the […]

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