Michael E. Bemis

Michael E. Bemis was born in Salem, Massachusetts—the "Witch City"—and was raised in Boxford, Massachusetts, which is best known as a bedroom town to Boston, where his grandfather served as a Selectmen for 50 years. Bemis attended local schools including the Harry Lee Cole School, an elementary school named after his grandfather.

From as early as he can remember Bemis aspired to be a law enforcement officer. Adam 12 was his favorite television show—he still watches the reruns on MeTV and YouTube—and he had a "real" childhood police uniform that included the leather gear, handcuffs, and a replicable .357 magnum revolver that looked every bit like the real thing.

His year-round youth job—part time during the school year and fulltime during the Summer—from age 12, was at a farm and greenhouses operation. Bemis held that job until he turned 18 and became a full-time municipal public safety dispatcher for his hometown of Boxford while attending college and earning an Associate in Science (AS) degree in Law Enforcement. Despite his desire to be a police officer in Boxford, the selectpersons must have still viewed him as a baby faced kid—no wonder!—because no police officer job was forthcoming, although it was offered several years later. Anxious to be a police officer Bemis easily passed a statewide process in Maine and after several interviews was offered patrol officer positions in both Kennebunk and Waterville. He chose Kennebunk—unbeknownst to him who would become Vice President and President of the United States! 

Bemis graduated at the top of his class from the Municipal/County Basic Police School at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy where he was the sole recipient of the coveted Professionalism Award.

During his service with the Kennebunk Police Department Bemis was quickly promoted to Corporal, Sergeant, and Lieutenant. As Lieutenant he served as Patrol Division Commander. 

In 1990 Bemis ran for the elected position of Sheriff of York County, Maine as a Republican and won. He defeated a Democrat who had previously been York County Sheriff for 15 years from 1962 to 1977 and who was a member of a politically powerful family in Biddeford, Maine. Bemis served a very productive and rewarding four-year term and chose not to seek reelection.

Bemis' second career was in education as primarily a behavior manager at a private special purpose school serving troubled students in grades K-12. Bemis was quickly promoted from Educational Technician I to II and III and to Senior Educational Technician. You might say he traded patrolling the streets for the hallways. 

When not working—which is seldom—Bemis likes to write, and whether fact or fiction, he enjoys doing the exhaustive research necessary that makes it true which seems to be evident in several of his published books, which includes Snow Waste, a work of fiction; Safe & Sound - How to Buy a Safe, Private, Quiet Home, a work of nonfiction; Caleb, a work of fiction; Soft Targets and Crowded Places (ST-CP) - Hotels, Movie Theaters, Nightclubs, School Buses, Shopping Malls, Ski/Ride Resorts, Summer Camps, a work of nonfiction; and Dogs - A Tragic and True Saga of Hoarding and Colossal Government Failure Exacerbated by a Complete Collapse of Governmental Oversight in Downeast Maine, a work of nonfiction. Bemis' mother, Elinor C. Bemis, was also an accomplished writer. Based on her awarding winning York County Coast Star newspaper column, her book, As the Twig Is Bent: The Life of a Child Growing Up in the 1930's, went to a third printing.

Bemis also enjoys building databases, particularly practical job-related ones. 

In addition, Bemis has spent much of his adult life volunteering to worthy causes, namely youth recreation programming, and has volunteered thousands of hours providing meaningful youth programs and projects and taking thousands of middle school age youths on hundreds of recreation trips throughout New England and Canada.

Bemis has always loved what we used to call ski resorts (they're now called ski/ride resorts) and always wanted to live and work at them. One of his novels—Snow Waste—is set at Sunday River Resort in Maine. Bemis was primary caregiver for his mother for many years, and when she passed away in 2012, and with his second career concluded, he was able to relocate and partake of something he'd always wanted to do—live and work at a ski/ride resort. He worked for a contract security company, U. S. Security Associates (USSA), which was acquired by Allied Universal in 2018, at Stratton in Stratton, Vermont from January 2013 to July 2015, first as a security officer and then as assistant manager of security. He also worked for Mount Snow in West Dover, Vermont from November 2015 to December 2016 as security and roads manager. 

For over a year Bemis lived in coastal South Carolina where he worked part time as a technician assistant at Myrtle Beach TV Repair, the biggest and best TV repair business in the Grand Strand, which at the time was located in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Today, Myrtle Beach TV Repair has expanded and is now located in Lexington, South Carolina. Bemis also worked as a logistics associate at Harbor Freight Tools in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Bemis then relocated to Zephyrhills in central interior Florida where he lived at the home of an acquaintance who was the primary storyteller of the saga that led to his eBook titled Dogs - A Tragic and True Saga of Hoarding and Colossal Government Failure Exacerbated by a Complete Collapse of Governmental Oversight in Downeast Maine. The majority of that eBook was researched and written at the home of the acquaintance and storyteller in Zephyrhills, Florida. Bemis also worked part time as a custodian at the Zephyrhills Lions Club in Zephyrhills, Florida.

However, Bemis grew very weary of the weather in the south and longed to return to his native New England which he did in 2018. During the winter season of 2018/2019 Bemis was employed full-time by the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) as a snow plow driver (yes, those big orange trucks) and when asked to return for the 2019/2020 season he did so. Bemis was again invited to return to VTrans for the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 seasons which he did, and he was hired by VTrans again for the 2022/2023 season.

Bemis' passion for writing continues. His sixth book, and fourth eBook, The Hijacking of Alaska’s Magic Bus (Bus 142) - Desecration of a Memorial: Includes McCandless Totally Reimagined and Introducing Vermont’s Magic Bus was released December 10, 2022. Bemis also is in the preliminary stages of outlining a new novel.

Bemis has also developed a Website (https://st-cp.com) related to his eBook Soft Targets and Crowded Places (ST-CP): Hotels, Movie Theaters, Nightclubs, School Buses, Shopping Malls, Ski/Ride Resorts, [and] Summer Camps which he continues to build and maintain.

Bemis currently lives in Vermont and has traveled extensively in recent years.