Tim Ellis, Visionary Leader in Outdoor Education, Dies at 87

We are sad to share that former Chewonki Executive Director, Harwood Ellis, Jr., known as Tim, died on May 18, 2025, in Missoula, Montana. Tim was an innovative educator who influenced thousands of people through his leadership and love of the natural world. He believed individuals grow fully in community, living, learning, and working in simple settings close to, or in, the outdoors.

“He recognized people’s gifts, often before they did,” said his daughter, Jennifer Ellis. “He challenged them to become their best selves, and nurtured them as they developed. And he always emphasized ethics and service to the greater good.”

Ellis’s charisma amplified his teaching. He was tall and strong, with a wide smile, a resounding baritone singing voice, and a lively touch on the banjo. His formula of challenge (and second chances), authentic work, and engagement with the natural world empowered young people and colleagues alike. Many became his lifelong friends, crediting him for personal and professional transformation. He was prescient in his commitment to environmental sustainability, women leaders, and a more inclusive audience for outdoor learning.

Ellis spent much of his career and his life at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine, where he arrived in a bassinet in 1938, during his father’s tenure as assistant head of Camp Chewonki, a boys summer camp established in 1918. In 1966, Ellis became camp director. He then proceeded, with a relentless sense of mission and Yankee thriftiness, to transform Chewonki into a multi-faceted, year-round environmental education organization offering an array of programs in addition to the camp. Among his initiatives were a co-educational academic semester for high school juniors from across the country; co-educational wilderness trips; as well as outdoor experiences and classroom programs for school groups. He also began restoration of a working organic farm on Chewonki’s saltwater peninsula.

“He had the vision to see that Chewonki could offer endless possibilities for teaching people about community and the natural world, and encouraging personal growth,” says Scott Andrews, a colleague for nearly 35 years. “And then he had the energy and will to make it all happen.”

After retiring as executive director in 1991, Ellis turned his attention overseas. In Thailand, he helped start what is now Prem International School and an environmental education program on the Chao Phraya River. He then founded Global Quest, one of the first gap-year programs of its kind. Each endeavor reflected his philosophy and spirit.

Born on October 1, 1937, in Boston, Mass., Ellis was the son of Harwood “Hardy” Ellis, a teacher at the Rivers School, and Gertrude Marean Ellis, who had familial ties to Maine. He graduated from the Rivers School and Bowdoin College, received a master’s degree in education from Tufts University, and served as an officer in Army intelligence in Korea.

Ellis met his future wife, the late Margaret McGregor-Petrie, in 1964, while teaching in Switzerland. Their marriage was a dynamic partnership until Margaret’s death in 2011. They raised their family in Woolwich, Maine, and later traveled the world, enjoying van life in Australia, Canada, and the United States; long-distance walking in the United Kingdom and the Himalayas; and many adventures closer to home, including at their camp on Maine’s Umbagog Lake.

A devoted father and grandfather, Ellis began spending more time in Montana, where his daughter lives, after his wife died. There he met Nancy Deskins, who became his life partner, a fellow educator who shared his appreciation for nature. They returned every spring to the house in Woolwich, site of countless music nights, card games, shared meals, and storytelling, just across a tidal creek from Chewonki. He never lost his interest in what was going on there, sometimes offering advice, more often asking, “How can I help?”

He is survived by his partner; his daughter, Jenny Ellis, her husband, Seth Wilson, and their children, Zoë, Simon, and Reid; his son, Benjamin Ellis, daughter-in-law, Shannon Shuptrine, and their son, Flynn, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and his sister, Suzie Stoyer, of Pensacola, Florida.