RAYMOND, Maine - Candace Elizabeth Wills Woolston, beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, teacher and mentor, died peacefully in her Raymond home on Tuesday, December 25, 2012.
She was born on August 28, 1963 in Dunkirk, New York, the fourth of six children born to Barbara Stafford Johnson Wills and William Harman Wills Jr.
Candace graduated from Dunkirk High School in 1981. She was also a graduate of Culver Summer School and Camps where she received the coveted Tuxis Award for individual achievement in 1980. She then matriculated to Denison University where she received her BA in Economics in 1985. Candace also studied for a year at the University of Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany.
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Candace E. Wills Woolston
Candace began her career as an analyst for Analysis and Inference in Boston, Massachusetts. Her analytic skills were keen and she eventually moved on to a career in commercial banking where she worked at Old Stone Bank in Providence, Rhode Island and at Peoples Heritage Bank in Portland, Maine as a credit analyst and commercial lender.
Although Candace led a highly successful career in private business, she was drawn to teaching from an early age. In 1997, the same year she was married, Candace departed the corporate world to pursue the ETEP program at the University of Southern Maine. She completed the program and went on to be-come a teacher in the Gorham and then Windham public schools. Most recently Candace was a third grade teacher at the Windham Primary School.
Education, mentoring, and volunteerism were important to Candace. She was involved in the Raymond school mentoring program and helped operate the organization. Candace was a particularly generous and giving person. She was an active parent volunteer, including passing on her athletic skills to her son's teams as a youth soccer coach.
Candace was an exceptional mother and wife. She was extremely devoted to her two sons, Tyler and Will, teaching them about life's important lessons and bestowing much love upon them. She was intricately woven into their lives serving as teacher, mentor, parent and coach. Candace was never happier than when she was boating with her family on Sebago Lake or skiing the slopes of Sugarloaf chasing Tyler and Will. She thoroughly enjoyed and was very proud watching her children excel in the many soccer and lacrosse games, along with ski races via SCVA.
Candace offered ongoing support to her extended family in many different ways. Her calm demeanor, sharp intellect, and stead-fast guidance had a significant impact on the lives of others in a quiet and purposeful way. Candace will be forever missed by her family, friends, and many others whose lives she touched in such meaningful ways.
Candace is survived by her husband, Jack Woolston; her two sons, Tyler and William; her parents, William and Barbara Wills; her brothers, W. David Wills, Robert Wills (Martin Crouch), Peter (Rebecca) Wills; her sisters, Patricia (Ben) Weigel, and Katherine Wills. Candace is also survived by nephews Ben Weigel, Austin Myers, Bill Herman, and Zach Woolston, along with nieces Sarah Weigel, Emma, Maggie, Caroline, and Lucy Wills, Kelly Duell, Jenny Mayer, Katie Swope, Lauren and Ashley Tedeschi, and Emily, Michaela and Sarah Grace Woolston.
Candace's family would like to express their deep appreciation to Dr. Dugan and the wonderful staff at Maine Center for Cancer Medicine as well as the kind nurses from Hospice of Southern Maine. A special thanks to all the families in Raymond and Windham along with Candace's friends at RSU 14 who helped in so many ways during the last year.
A celebration of her life will be held on Thursday, January 3rd at 4:30 p.m. at Casco Village Church in Casco, Maine, followed by a private internment the next morning in Raymond, Maine.
