BANGOR - Adjusting her glasses, Clara Swan bent down to examinemore closely the curious-looking contraption before her.
'Hmmm ... what do you do on this, I wonder?' she said.
Swan may not be familiar with the latest weight-training equipmentin Husson College's new recreation center. But that doesn't diminishin the least her excitement that the building is to be named for herSunday, her 90th birthday.
'This is tremendous. I am really honored,' Swan said earlier thisweek during a tour of the soon-to-be-opened facility.
Vice president of Husson until she retired in 1973, Swan alsoserved as business education teacher, academic dean and dean ofwomen, as well as girls basketball coach.
Attached to the Newman Gymnasium, the $1 million Clara Swan Centeris divided into two areas named for the project's major donors,Richard Trott of Brewer, who graduated from Husson in 1965, and HildaHutchins McCollum of Bangor. Both serve on the school's board oftrustees.
The 4,000-square-foot Richard and Alice Trott Fitness Centerfeatures cardiovascular, aerobic and weightlifting equipment.
Across the hall is The Kenduskeag Institute, which contains aclinical and research facility. McCollum named the institute afterthe stream that flows by her home, Husson President William Beardsleysaid.
Although she has been taking snapshots of the constructionprogress since groundbreaking last fall, Swan said this was her firstchance to tour the inside of the building. She beamed as she lookedaround the huge, mirror-lined exercise room filled with treadmills,Stairmasters and other apparatus.
'This means that kids don't have to go downtown to pay to useequipment like this,' she said.
With Swan, it's always the kids.
That's why naming the center after her seemed entirely natural,said Julie Green, director of public affairs.
'She had a tremendous impact on 30 years of alumni. She kneweverybody and she was famous for going that extra mile,' Green said.
If she heard through the grapevine that a student was consideringdropping out, Swan would encourage him or her to stay, even loanmoney for tuition, Green said. No matter their problem, students knewthe teacher, adviser and mentor was there for them.
'Go to Clara and she'll clarify it,' Swan said kids would chant.
'I loved them all,' she said. 'If a kid's in trouble, it seems tome you've got to help them out.'
With her trim, upright figure, close-cropped gray hair and blueeyes bright behind gold-rimmed glasses, Swan looks nowhere near herage. Born in Princeton in 1912, Swan was valedictorian at Brewer HighSchool in 1930 and at Husson College, then known as the Maine Schoolof Commerce, in 1933.
In 1939, after teaching business classes at Mexico High School andFoxcroft Academy, she returned to Husson where she worked for 34years.
Swan, whose duties at Husson included teaching physical educationtwo mornings a week at the YMCA in downtown Bangor, saidcalisthenics, balance beam exercises, tumbling, basketball andsoftball comprised most of the activities.
'There was nothing like this,' she said, looking around the roomin wonderment. 'We never heard of this.'
Swan still is promoting physical fitness. Twice a week she leadsexercise classes at the Ross Home in Bangor. 'You've got to keepthese older people moving,' she says, according to Richard Trottwhose idea it was to name the center after Swan.
Swan has been inducted into the Bangor Daily News Sports Hall ofFame, the Husson College Sports Hall of Fame and Maine Sports LegendsHall of Honors. She received the Maine High School CoachingAssociation Award in 1992 and was named outstanding businesseducation teacher in the state by the University of Maine.
Down the road, it is hoped that the fitness room will be open tothe public, Green said.
Also rejoicing in the new building on Tuesday was physical therapyprofessor Ben Sidaway, who proudly showed off the KenduskeagInstitute's human performance lab.
The facility contains state-of-the-art equipment so health andphysical education students and faculty can study the effects ofrehabilitation techniques, measure movement and cardiovascularfunction, and analyze athletic skills.
One piece of equipment can be used to help people withneurological damage, such as a stroke or a spinal cord injury, torelearn to walk.
The patient is supported in an upright position by a harness andthen is lowered onto a treadmill. Recent research has shown thatsensations of the moving treadmill can help the nervous systemrelearn the coordination necessary for walking, Sidaway said.
Future plans will allow for movement and cardiopulmonaryassessment of patients in local hospitals and clinics, Sidaway said.
'There's nothing like this in northern New England,' he said.Currently, area patients must travel to Boston or Connecticut forsuch advanced assessment techniques.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Clara Swan Center will be heldat 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28.
