Chuck Lakin says that “if it’s not work, it’s the right job.” Throughout his time in Waterville, he has lived by this motto. Much of what he has done and still does would certainly be considered work by some. He’s done a lot—educated, wood-worked, mended books, and so much more. But for Lakin, none of that is work. It’s fun, it’s play, it’s things he’s passionate about and excited to do every day.
Lakin made his living working as a reference librarian at Colby College. His job was “ostensibly… to answer questions; but in reality [his] job was to teach people how to use a library.” For some, it would be easy to view a job like this as nothing more than a means to put food on the table and a roof over his head. But Lakin loved his job; he called it “the perfect job for me.” And though some of the job was dedicated to answering questions—which he “really enjoyed”—and teaching people how to use the library, much of his job was up to him, because, as he explained, “Nobody really told me what my job was, so I basically got to make it up.” Rather than taking that freedom for himself, spending his time in his undescribed job reading or napping, Lakin was proactive. He wandered the library looking for anything that “needed attention.” He found professors and asked them what they needed help with. He learned to repair books. None of this was in his job description; he just did it. And he loved it. Lakin insisted that “it was more like play than work. I always felt like I was overpaid.” Lakin is now retired, but his work at the library certainly enriched the lives of the decades-worth of students and professors he helped, as well as himself. He’s retired, but he repairs books to this day.
Chuck Lakin’s time in retirement has been by no means idle. On top of book mending, he spends much of his time woodworking, a hobby he has enjoyed for decades. His interest in woodworking started when he wanted to frame a wedding gift he had made for friends. It began simply; in his words, “My dad had a table saw and piece of walnut and I said, ‘I can figure this out.’” From that moment on, Lakin was in love with woodworking. For a time, he made anything his friends wanted for free, just as practice. And of all those practice projects, as far as he is aware, “there’s only one that isn’t still around.” Today, with years of experience behind him, Lakin volunteers his woodworking for countless organizations—Waterville Main Street, Waterville Creates!, Hospice Volunteers of the Waterville Area, and the Public Library, just to name a few. Lakin says he actually prefers volunteering to selling his work because he doesn’t like to worry about money. He says volunteering “makes it that much more fun.” Not only does he volunteer his woodworking for others, but he also uses it for himself. Lakin designed his entire house and built it by hand.
If he had kept his time to nothing but woodworking, Lakin would have already led a fulfilling retirement. But he has also dedicated a great deal of time to educating families on something of great importance to him. In 1979, Lakin’s father passed away. He stayed with his father at home for almost six weeks while he was dying, and on the day of his death, his father was in his own bed with his wife and four kids. Lakin appreciated how personal the experience of his father’s passing had been, but everything from that point on—the burial and the funeral—was no longer personal at all. The funeral director handled everything quickly and impersonally, leaving Lakin wishing he could have done more. So, decades later, when he read a pamphlet on home funerals, he decided to advocate for the cause. With a home funeral, a family can prepare everything by themselves and have the funeral in their own home, something Lakin strongly supports. He presents at libraries, hospices, etc. in the hopes of educating people on all of their options, as well as simply planning ahead, and having difficult conversations about death and what each family member wants. Lakin also combines his passions for informing about home funerals and woodworking through making coffins that can double as bookshelves. They can be bought by the people who will one day use them—unrecognizable as coffins unless pointed out. Creating coffins that can be used as bookshelves is one of countless ways Lakin stays in touch with what he loves—be it woodworking or books or promoting awareness and preparedness for the future.