06/11/2026
If you have been to "Scholarship & Awards Night" over the course of the last 20 years, you have likely heard several students each year receive a "Sylvester Family Scholarship." Last summer, my mission was to learn as much as I could about the origin of this incredible scholarship opportunity for Old Town High School students. My journey took me to the Old Town Library digital archives, a local cemetary, and the Old Town Museum. It is an amazing story of kindness, which truly embodies what we see over and over again from the people of Old Town.
Effie Jane Bussell was an OT graduate from the class of 1904. The Bussell family owned a lot of land in the Bangor area, and they had a logging business which was prospering at that time. Effie became a prominent stenographer on her own. She married Fred Sylvester from Bridgton who, along with his brother Maurice, ran "Sylvester Brothers Garage" at the current site of "Little Angels Daycare & Preschool" on Center Street. They had no children during their marriage, but when Effie Jane passed in 1972, she left a sizable sum of money to the City of Old Town for an Old Town High School scholarship that has now grown to over $2,000,000.
Each June, we have the honor of awarding several scholarships from merely the interest of the Sylvester Family Scholarship Fund. We are tremendously grateful for Fred & Effie Jane Sylvester and the act of kindness which has helped so many of our graduates get started in the post-secondary world.
From here forward, when you attend "Scholarship & Awards Night" and you hear "Sylvester Family Scholarship," you will know - the rest of the story.
Go OT.
