Don Gellers, 1936-2014

I've been remiss in posting here this full-length obituary of the Rabbi Tuvia Ben Shmuel Yosef, better known to Mainers as Donald Cotesworth Gellers, who died last month at age 78.

The obituary, which appeared in last week's Maine Sunday Telegram, provides some additional details on Gellers, who was a central figure in the 29-part Press Herald series, "Unsettled," and paid a stiff price for helping Maine's much-oppressed Passamaquoddy tribe in the mid-1960s.

Gellers passed away before he could see his name formally rehabilitated in Maine; a posthumous pardon effort is still underway to clear the former attorney, who was the victim of a state-sponsored conspiracy orchestrated by the state Attorney General's office and involving the police and possibly the courts.

[Update, 1/10/20: Governor Janet Mills, a former Attorney General and career prosecutor, granted Gellers a full pardon and admonished the state's handling of the case.]