Services Services for Colonel Allan Weeks will be held in the spring.

One of Wiscasset's most beloved and respected citizens, Allan Weeks, died at home on Friday, February 8, after a lifetime of service to the state police and a 65-year marriage to his wife, Jennie. Since 1957, Allan and Jennie Weeks lived in one of Wiscasset's loveliest sea captain's homes, the Nickels Sortwell House on Main Street, owned and preserved by Historic New England.

Those who knew Allan Weeks describe him as "a gentleman," "comfortable in his own skin," "no nonsense," and "very direct - something that's missing in our society today."

Allan Weeks served in the state police for 37 years, enlisting in January of 1950 as a trooper, eventually being promoted to Colonel, Commissioner of Public Safety and Chief of the State Police in July of 1976.

"Colonel Weeks set the highest standard for the state police," Governor John Baldacci said in a press release. "He embodied the state police core values: integrity, fairness, compassion and excellence."

"Colonel Weeks was a decisive, no-nonsense administrator who had deep loyalty from the hundreds of trooper who served under him," said State Police Colonel Patrick Fleming. Among the improvements Weeks is credited with during his time as colonel were the establishments of a tactical team, canine program, hostage negotiator team, internal affairs unit and the crime laboratory.

Wiscasset resident and former selectman Karl Tarbox grew up in a house on Federal Street, just a few houses away from the Nickels Sortwell House. He remembers a time years ago when he was talking to Colonel Weeks on his front lawn, a car went whizzing by, obviously exceeding the speed limit, and the Colonel jumped into his cruiser and caught up with him at the stop sign at the end of the street, only a short distance away.

If Weeks arrested someone who was talking his ear off, he would say, "There's plenty of time for conversation where you're going."

He says Weeks used to tell him that when a motorist he stopped for speeding complained that the car in front of him was going just as fast, Weeks would say, "Oh, and are you hitched to him?"

He was known for his wit and his ability to capture the essence of any situation with a few choice words - such as, "Don't shoot the horse until you find out if the tractor's working."

Weeks grew up on an old farm on the Birch Point Road, a child of the depression. He went to Wiscasset Academy. He loved his hometown of Wiscasset, as Tarbox says, but he wasn't always enamored with what the town officials were doing.

Augusta Attorney Severin Beliveau, who grew up in Rumford, remembers a time when he was 9 or 10 years old that Trooper Weeks came to his house to see his father, a superior court judge.

"I had had a little disagreement with my father over some issue, so my father said, `Allan, why don't you take him to trial justice court in Dixfield.' " So Weeks hustled Beliveau into his cruiser, and off they went to Dixfield, where the young Beliveau watched court proceedings for the rest of the day. For years afterwards the two maintained a great friendship as Believeau went from being a district attorney and on to the State Senate.

In an interview with Wiscasset Newspaper reporter Charlotte Boynton in August of 2001, Weeks said he took a job in Rockland after serving for three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He passed the Thomaston State Police Barracks every day.

"The more I passed it, the more I liked the looks of it," he told her. He called his first patrol assignment in the Dixfield area as "a little kingdom of my own" which included Wilson Mills, Oquossoc, Upton, Rumford, Canton, Bethel, Newry, East Dixfield and Peru.

He described radio service during the 1950s as "pretty primitive."

"You could receive, but you had to go a high point to send," he told her.

He said one of his proudest accomplishments was taking tons of marijuana off the streets during the 1970s and 1980s, including bails of marijuana seized from a yacht in Boothbay Harbor.

He met many interesting people in his lifetime, including George and Barbara Bush, who he provided protection for when the president was at his home in Kennebunkport. Every summer that the state police were providing security for the president, he and his wife, Jennie were invited to a picnic at Walker's Point.

In the year 2000, Weeks received a letter asking him to write a letter that would be included in the Maine State Police 2000 Yearbook.

He wrote, in part, "Members of this profession have a very unique opportunity to observe and be a witness to all of the wonderful, the horrible and the humorous things that happen to human beings. I'm sincerely grateful that I had that opportunity. Maine State Troopers are in daily contact with people from all walks of life and they consider troopers to be their source of help and protection. It is imperative that each of them be treated justly and equally and professionally - SEMPER AEQUUS (always just).

Jennie Weeks said Tuesday the family, including their son Floyston, are planning to have a memorial graveside service at Greenlawn Cemetery in the spring. The service is open to anyone who would like to attend. Those who would like to remember Colonel Weeks may do so by making a donation to the Maine State Police Memorial Scholarship fund, 45 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0042