SAMUEL PENNINGTON III, 78
Began 'Maine Antique Digest'
Samuel Pennington III, a Baltimore native who launched Maine Antique Digest from his kitchen table and built it into a national publication, died Saturday at Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta, Maine.
Mr. Pennington was the driving force behind the magazine's success, his wife, Sally, said.
In 1973, Mr. Pennington and his wife wrote the 28-page first issue on a typewriter and distributed it to five people. It now averages more than 250 pages and is distributed nationally to about 20,000 subscribers.
Mr. Pennington was born in Baltimore and joined the Air Force after graduating from the Johns Hopkins University. While stationed at Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine, in the 1960s, he and his wife ran an antiques shop on the side but grew frustrated when they couldn't find reliable information about the early-American furniture pieces they were buying and selling.
After he retired from the military, they published the Waldoboro Weekly for a short time before launching Maine Antique Digest.