David A. Francis
Honorary Degree Recipient

Passamaquoddy Tribe elder David Francis is the language coordinator at the Waponahki Museum at Pleasant Point, Maine, which he co-founded in 1987. Mr. Francis is active in the development of a written form of the Passamaquoddy language, which up until 1970 was only spoken. Mr. Francis was born at Pleasant Point in 1917 and graduated from Shead High School in Eastport, Maine. In 1940, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After World War II, he returned to Pleasant Point and married the love of his life, Marion (Neptune) Francis. Mr. and Mrs. Francis proudly raised 10 children. Mr. Francis worked seasonal jobs and was employed in Eastport at the Riviera Fish Factory. He also worked as a carpenter for Dr. James Bates, a well-known Eastport physician, with whom he became a very close friend. In 1975, he met Professor Robert Leavitt of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, who offered a course at Pleasant Point on reading and writing the Passamaquoddy language. For Mr. Francis, the course solidified his commitment to preserving the language. He collaborated with Dr. Leavitt and Margaret Apt, Passamaquoddy language teacher at Shead High School, to produce a Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary. After almost 40 years of hard work and dedication, the dictionary was published last year by University of Maine Press.

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