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SOUTHPORT, ME. — For those who grew up with him in Norwood, Harold “Skip” Rideout’s latest career milestone comes as no surprise—he has loved and lived with boats his entire life. Skip recently purchased a 42-foot towboat named the Hi-M and a 60-foot barge, significantly expanding his marine construction business in Southport, Maine. Long-time family friend Thelma Jaruk of Jefferson Drive praised his warm character, noting, “He is a nice, warm person and everybody likes him.”
A 1967 graduate of Norwood High School and a 1969 welding alumnus of the Blue Hills Regional Technical Institute, Skip served three years in the U.S. Navy with the SeaBees, building a drydock in Vietnam before relocating to Maine. His late father, Harold Rideout, worked as a caretaker for a Norwood estate, while his mother, former Norwood High home economics teacher Mary (Atwood) Rideout, has retired to Boothbay, Maine. Skip married the former Pamela Baldwin of Concord three years ago, and the couple lives in an impressive log cabin that Skip built entirely by himself. Operating his own machine shop, working as a welder and machinist, and diving as a professional scuba diver to inspect boat bottoms and dock pilings, Skip has realized his lifelong dream of living along the Maine coast. The newly acquired barge and towboat previously belonged to the late Mason C. Carter, who serviced mid-coastal Maine for over 40 years, allowing Skip to proudly continue a rich regional maritime tradition.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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