ONE OF THE GREATEST
At 94, War Veteran Ernie Maynard’s Life Of Service ‘Epitomizes’ His Generation
Ernest “Ernie” Maynard drives down to the Adult Care Center in his lifelong hometown of Enfield regularly — to chat, or to chaperone outings. “You know, older people like someone to visit them,” Maynard says. “They love to talk. ... I just listen to ’em. There’s so much information that you can get from an older person.”
He says this as if he isn’t older than just about all of them.
But Maynard is 94.
He’s still vigorous at an advanced age that he couldn’t have been confident about reaching when he was in his 20s as a U.S. Army sergeant in Europe in World War II (after enlisting in 1943, in his teens, without graduating from high school), and again in Korea, a few years later.
There’s a matter-of-factness to this much-honored veteran’s conversation, whether about his military and community service or his family — and it’s something Maynard has in common with a generation that grew up in the Great Depression with the attitude that you do what needs to be done and never think about life fulfillment.
In his case, however, it’s been fulfilling.
“They talk about the ‘Greatest Generation’ and Ernie epitomizes that,” said Lynn Daniel, the therapeutic recreation director at the Enfield Adult Care Center for 18 years (until she retired July 31, when Maynard insisted on coming down to wish her well in person on her last day of work).
“He’d come in and shoot the breeze with the clients and make them feel important,” Daniel said. “He’s just an inspirational person. He just lives his life as all of us aspire to live. He’s extremely sincere. What you see is what you get; there are no pretenses there.”
Maynard remembers a conversation that he had with his girlfriend, Jacqueline, before he shipped out for Korea. It was about whether they should get married. Didn’t he love her enough to marry her? He said he loved her too much.
“I said, ‘You’ve never seen these guys in the hospital all shot up. How would you like to take care of me all your life, with my leg off or my stomach blown to hell? I don’t want to put you through that.’” And that was that — until he came home unscathed, and he and Jackie embarked in 1951 on a 63-year marriage that lasted until her death in 2014.
They had two sons, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and Maynard momentarily departs from his typical matter-of-fact tone to say unabashedly that his family has been his greatest joy in life.
The young Maynards were just getting started in 1954, with a newly purchased house (the same one he lives in now) and their first baby on the way, when Ernie got laid off from his job at a local machine shop. He had no luck knocking on every employer’s door in the area, and at last he even tried the Monsanto plastics plant in nearby Springfield that he’d never liked driving past because “it smelled awful.”
“But I said, ‘I got to work. I don’t care about the smell.’ I went in and applied the day before New Year’s and the girl said, ‘I got two places left over.’” They were janitors’ jobs. “I’ll take it,” government agencies are often impossible to partner with when trying to offer free dental care, according to Ravin. “We are getting to the point where everybody is afraid that we’re looking for something,” Ravin said. “No ones takes this [gesture] as we are just trying to help.”
Met with resistance in the U.S., Ravin’s enthusiasm for offering his services has blossomed and spilled over into countries like Haiti, Jamaica and Peru, where he often works on the teeth of children who have never been to a dentist. He brings his own supplies and provides the dental work free of charge, he said.
In Jamaica, he removed blackened and rotted teeth from the mouths of children who were in pain because of the decay. “They may not have a beautiful smile, but they are no longer in pain and that’s what Maynard said, but he also asked if the boss was in and said he wanted to talk to him. The boss came out and
Maynard said, “I just want to know how far I can go in this company, now that I’m starting.”
“Well, you’re a janitor,” was the reply. “How far do you want to go?”
“I looked at him and smiled and said, ‘I don’t want your job. I’ll take the one below it.’”
“And he says, ‘That’s the kind of guy I want.’ He just gave me a good smile and said, ‘I’ll keep tabs on you.’”
The boss kept checking how he was doing every few months, and Maynard eventually moved into foreman jobs in which he was responsible for workplace safety and opening new plant operations. He retired after 32 years there.
Maynard was asked if there’s a key to a long life, and he responded by reading from one of the poems that he writes. Among the lines were: “Believe in yourself, remember you are as good as anyone but no better than anyone. Live your life so you never have to look back and say I’m sorry… Forgive yourself, think positive, plan for a better tomorrow. Every day, make it a point to thank your higher power for what you have today, not what you want. Learn how to love, it’s the secret of living...
“Don’t be afraid to shed a tear, compassion is not a sign of weakness… We as humans are the only animals on earth that can shed tears, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Learn how to share, expect nothing in return, try it, you’ll like it, the rewards are great for a peaceful and sincere mind. From an old man, Ernie A. Maynard.”
Recent years have brought a bounty of recognition for Maynard’s military service; there are Courant stories of his receiving the Belgian Fourragere last year for his World War II service in the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion with the 2nd United States Armored Division, and, in 2015, his being awarded the Korean Ambassador for Peace Medal.
“This town is lucky to have you, this state is lucky to have you, and, as a member of the U.S. Congress, I can say our nation is lucky to have you,” U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, told him at the Fourragere ceremony last year.
Maynard has enjoyed the plaudits, but they are not why he’s always been active in veterans’ organizations, still wears his original uniform in local parades, and makes special holiday visits to veterans in nursing homes.
“I want to keep veterans who served honorably remembered,” he says, but his service to others goes beyond his fellow vets. He spent more than three decades as a volunteer firefighter for the Hazardville Fire Department and has volunteered not only for the Enfield Adult Day Center, but also the local senior center. He’s an usher at the Catholic church he attends.
He remembers how his father got him started in volunteering when he was 12, taking him on a walk up a hill to tend to the sheep of a woman in her late 70s who could no longer do it herself. Later, when the woman needed more help, a school teacher asked Maynard, “Can you bring your little red wagon up to the grocery store and bring the food up to Mrs. Simpson?”
It became a regular thing, and a blueprint for later life.
“Him giving of himself is something he doesn’t even think twice about. It’s second-nature
to him.”
Sherrie Gioia
they are most concerned about,” Ravin said as he scrolled through photos of himself and his patients smiling together in the makeshift huts where he worked.
Ravin’s efforts don’t end with caring for people. While working in Peru, he came across stray dogs whose skin had become mangy and burnt by the hot sun. “They seem to be able to find food, but they can’t find shelter from the sun,” Ravin said, noting that temperatures in the remote areas he visits can climb past 120 degrees.
Ravin now packs steroids and empty syringes on his trips to Peru to treat any dogs he comes across. Within 30 hours of receiving the shot, he said, the dogs’ wounds are healed.
Ravin has seven dogs of his own he has adopted into his Litchfield home, where he lives with his wife and their three children. The canines — some with a missing paw or leg — are all rescues. One of the dogs, “Curly” was adopted from a non-profit Connecticut-based organization after he was hit by a car. Ravin adopted the dog and became a financial supporter of “For the Love of Jack,” according to the organization’s president, Sherrie Gioia.
“[Ravin] is a godsend to animals everywhere,” Gioia said. She’s become a partner with the dentist as they both work to fund the organization, which aims to provide lower-income residents with money to keep their pets healthy and fed.
“Humble doesn’t even begin to describe him,” Gioia said. “Him giving of himself is something he doesn’t even think twice about. It’s second-nature to him.”
While discussing one of his trips to work
in Peru, Ravin came across a series of photos depicting a welcome reception organized by town locals. Row after row of children greeted him, waving flags and clapping. “Oh, I hated this,” he said with a hint of embarrassment as he looked at the pictures. “I can’t do this. I get sweaty and I just have to get out of there.”
While Ravin’s trips come at a hefty price to him, they also come with great rewards. “It’s all about getting people help,” Ravin said. “That’s what I enjoy on a trip.”
In interactions with Ravin, patients here find the same warmth he brings abroad. “He’s like an extended family member,” said Myra Rivera, who has traveled from Farmington to see the dentist for over 10 years.
“You just feel comfortable when you’re sitting in his chair and he’s such an inviting person,” Rivera said.
As Ravin talked at length in the coffee shop about his various patients, he placed his keys on the table. A knuckle-sized toy gorilla was attached to his key ring. The small token had been a gift from one of his patients during his most recent trip to Rwanda earlier this summer. Usually he receives “nothing but a ‘thank you,’ and a kiss.”
But for Ravin, the small gesture meant a lot. “I didn’t grow up poor,” he said. “It’s so nice to just give to people and not ask for anything back.”