Robert M. Chute

Robert M. Chute who called himself a scientific poet, died on Saturday. May 1, 2021, in Poland, Maine attended by his son, David. 

Chute, a sixth generation descendent of Thomas Chute, first settler of what is now Windham, Maine, was born in Naples, Maine, not far from the Chute River and lived the end of his days on Middle Range Pond in Poland, Maine, not far from Naples.

Robert Chute was born Feb. 13, 1926 in Bridgton, Maine. He attended Bridgton High School and Fryeburg Academy, received a B.A. from the University of Maine (1950), and his Doctor of Science from Johns Hopkins University in 1953. He taught biology at Middlebury College, San Fernando Valley State College, and Lincoln University (PA) and served as director of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, Phippsburg and was Professor Emeritus in Biology from Bates College.

Chute's scientific works focus on human ecology and culture's impact on lake and coastal ecosystems. His poetry was frequently published in the Beloit Poetry Journal. He was the fourth recipient of the journal's Chad Walsh Poetry Prize for his poem “Heat Wave in Concord” which was published in the Spring 1996 issue and focused on Henry D. Thoreau's and a friend's cooling river escape from the heat. Chute's poem “Sweeping the Sky,” won second prize in 1996 for the annual William and Kingman Page Chapbook Award granted by Potato Eyes Foundation, Troy, Maine.

His poetry series, Thirteen Moons, was republished in a triptych edition with translations in French and Passamquoddy. Another edition was made available in softcover in 2018.  He received the Maine State chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” In 2011, he was awarded the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Distinguished Achievement Award.

Chute's published works include the novels Coming Home: A Maine Mystery (2009), Return to Sender: Sequel to Coming Home (2011), and Roadside Rest: Another Maine Mystery from Wyman Falls (2012), and the poetry collections Quiet Thunder: Poems from a Bates College Reading (1973), The Uncle George Poems (1977), Voices Great and Small (1977), Thirteen Moons (1982), When Grandmother Decides to Die (1989), Uncle George: Poems from a Maine Boyhood (1990), Woodshed on the Moon: Thoreau Poems (1991), Androscoggin Too: The Pejepscot Poems (1996), Barely Time to Study Jesus: The Nat 'Turner' Revolt (1996), Constellations: Collected Story Poems (2009), and Excuse for Being Here (2013).