Charlie Durfee

Charles Durfee has figured out the secret to staying young: teaching kids. Forty years in the shop hasn’t been enough for him, as these days he teaches woodworking to middle schoolers. The students meet Charlie one full day a week at the Maine Maritime Museum’s boat shop. The yearlong program culminates in taking the vessels they’ve made onto the water. The work brings Charlie full circle, since his woodworking career started with boats before moving to, as he calls it, “square stuff.”