Catherine and Tom Wilbur are best known for Wilbur’s of Maine, a chocolate candy store located on Bow Street, Freeport. They opened up the store in 1983 and ran it until they sold the company to their son, Andy and his wife in 2016.
In 1969 Catherine and Tom met in Okinawa when Tom’s Marine Corp Helicopter squadron was redeployed there from Vietnam and she was teaching on Kadena Air Force Base. They were married in 1970. After traveling around the U.S., they finally settled in Maine in 1979, where they both taught in the local area. Five years later, they decided to open up the candy store, which became Wilbur’s of Maine.
Tom joined the Freeport Rotary Club in 1988 and while new to being a Rotarian, was asked to chair their exchange student program….followed by a stint on the District exchange student committee as the outbound chair. He’s been working with the Rotary Youth Exchange program for about 12 years.
Besides supporting her husband’s Rotary efforts, Catherine has worked on projects with the Brunswick Chamber and the New England Retail Confectioners, among others.
In March/April of 2018 they both applied and were accepted to be members of the District team headed to Kakamega, Kenya…..as his Freeport Club has supported the Kakamega Orphanage for many years.
Though they are pretty much retired, they still travel and plan to go to Argentina in September to visit two of their past exchange students.
Tom is going to be speaking about the Kakamega Children’s Center in Kenya….their needs and accomplishments.
(Photo L-R: Betty (from Kenya), Catherine and Tom Wilbur in Kenya.)