WHEREAS, Chester Greenwood was born on December 4, 1858 to Zina and Emily Greenwood, who raised their six children on a farm in Farmington, Maine; and

WHEREAS, Chester Greenwood was an avid ice-skater on local, frozen ponds, and struggled as a teenager to keep his ears warm in the winter; and

WHEREAS, that struggle inspired Greenwood to ask his grandmother to sew cloth pads onto a wire ring that he could wrap around his head, thereby inventing modern earmuffs and keeping countless ears warm throughout history; and

WHEREAS, Greenwood’s patented “Improvement in Ear-Mufflers” were merely the first of his inventions, and he would continue to create innovative products like self-priming spark plugs, an advertising matchbox, the spring-tooth steel rake, a conical bearing for automobiles and a fluid shock absorber; and

WHEREAS, by the time World War I broke out, Greenwood’s factory was providing earmuffs to thousands of overseas troops and by the time he died in 1937, the plant was producing 400,000 pairs of earmuffs per year; and

WHEREAS, Greenwood’s creations pale only in comparison to his other contributions to the Farmington community, which include his service as a member of the local Rotary Club and his donations to public works projects, which paved streets and established the first telephone system in Farmington; and

WHEREAS, Greenwood was also a dedicated father of four and supportive husband to his wife, Isabel, a leader of the suffrage movement in Maine to bring equal rights to women and girls; and

WHEREAS, today, the town of Farmington continues to celebrate Chester Greenwood’s life and legacy on the first Saturday of each December; and

WHEREAS, in accordance with 1 M.R.S. § 117, December 21 of each year is designated as Chester Greenwood Day to honor a man whose inventions enriched lives and the enjoyment of Maine's winter season and whose civic contributions made him one of Maine's most outstanding citizens;

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the great State of Maine, do hereby proclaim December 21, 2023 as

Chester Greenwood Day

throughout the State of Maine, and I urge all citizens to observe this day with appropriate ceremony and activity.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this twenty ninth day of November Two Thousand Twenty-Three