Douglas Ann ‘Dougie’ Bohman Remembered For Service To Chatham

CHATHAM – Personally, Douglas Ann Bohman was a friend to many, with a great sense of humor, a passion for golf, and the healing touch of a skilled physical therapist. Politically, she was a force to be reckoned with, with a dozen years on the finance committee,15 on the select board, and a well earned reputation for fair-minded decision making.

 “I don’t think anybody ran against her the entire time she was on the board,” Town Moderator William Litchfield said. The reason was simple. “She was almost universally well regarded and well respected,” he said.

 In a time when issues tend to drive people to become politically involved, Mrs. Bohman’s desire to serve Chatham was simpler, former board member David Whitcomb said.

 “She had no personal agenda, other than to make Chatham better than it was,” he said.

 Mrs. Bohman died last week after a lengthy illness. She was 92.

 Having come to Chatham with her husband, Raynard, in 1966, Mrs. Bohman was appointed to the finance committee in 1978, at a time when that committee played a hands-on role in crafting each year’s town budget. Co-chairing the committee with Ben Goodspeed, Mrs. Bohman was fiscally conservative but took a more global view of town spending, Litchfield said. Together, the two helped the town navigate the financial difficulties presented by a new law, Proposition 2½, and collaborated on the expansion of the town’s water system, the largest municipal project taken on to date.

 When the select board was reconstituted into a five-member part-time board, she campaigned for office and won election in 1993, becoming only the second woman in the town’s history to hold that office. 

 “Dougie was a remarkable woman, extraordinarily dedicated to the town, and with a remarkable degree both of diligence and common sense,” Litchfield said. “She was level-headed, could see both sides, but didn’t have any difficulty in making a decision,” he added.

 Mrs. Bohman’s imprint remains on a number of key town projects, “starting with the Marconi property,” Whitcomb said. She and other board members lobbied for the town to acquire the historic properties in Chathamport and South Chatham. She also pushed for the creation of the summer residents’ advisory committee, which gave a political voice to the town’s seasonal residents. Mrs. Bohman was also instrumental in the construction of the community center and the police station and town hall annex properties.

 Former select board member Eileen Our said Mrs. Bohman was proud to be a female political leader, “but she was gracious about it. She was a lady all the time,” Our said. The two were close friends, and collaborated on “Close Enough Construction,” the group that organized an annual float in the July 4 parade poking fun at town government.

 “She loved doing those things. She just loved Chatham,” Our said. Mostly, she will miss her friend’s companionship, Our said.

 “She was a lot of fun. She always had a positive outlook on life,” she said.

 It was that ability to connect with people that made Mrs. Bohman an effective physical therapist. She worked with industry pioneer Lucy Buckley, helping Lower Cape residents recover from injuries and surgery for many years. “The basic thing with Dougie was, she was a people person,” Our said.

 Politically, she was a moderating influence on the select board, often helping to lower the temperature of discussions. 

 “She was such a joy to work with,” Whitcomb said. Mrs. Bohman was a good listener, and asserted a motherly presence on the board, he said.

 “That’s kind of what it felt like. When you were really wondering what to do, she was there,” he said.

 Mrs. Bohman grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, and was proud of her Canadian heritage. The city hosts a large bridge spanning Lake Ontario, which might have inspired her desire to someday have a bridge named in her honor. In 2016, when the town cut the ribbon on the new Mitchell River drawbridge, it briefly affixed a sign to the railing naming it “Dougie’s Mitchell River Bridge.” 

 “It meant a lot to her, and it meant a lot to those of us who served with her,” Whitcomb said.