Ardis Phi Conner, D.O., of Falmouth, died at home with her family on October 14, 2022. Her path was unconventional, her curiosity limitless, and her intelligence extraordinary.
She was born to Rev. Edward J. and Grace Souder Ardis on December 5, 1933, and grew up at Silver Spring in Mechanicsburg, PA. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Ardis went off to college, to find within two years that she wasn’t ready for it, being sent home for hitchhiking to visit her brother, Don, at Princeton University—twice. Contemplating her options, she enlisted in the Navy in 1952 where she achieved the rate of E4 as a Personnelman. After four years of service and ready now for college, she enrolled at the University of Miami where she earned B.A in English and Philosophy as a double major, and then set her sights on becoming a doctor. She attended the University of Tampa for the many required prerequisite science courses, and then attended Kansas City University of Osteopathic Medicine. Graduating in 1972, she chose Portland, ME, for her first-year internship, ultimately settling in Freeport, ME, where she and her husband raised their daughter on Casco Bay.
The waters and islands of the area were her playground. Leaving off from Lower Flying Point, she paddled her 10-foot open canoe, Pectoralis Minor, out of sight from shore to spend the afternoon on an empty island beach, collecting mussels from below the high-water mark, building a fire to cook and eat them, and write poetry. In the winter, in the years when the Bay froze over, she would ice skate almost as far across the bay and around the Point toward Winslow Park.
Dr. Conner was an Emergency Room physician at Sanford, Maine’s Goodall Hospital until 1987, then at one of the regions’ first walk-in clinics, and at the Westbrook Community Hospital ER until 1998. Feigning retirement, she spent a few years working as a medical examiner and as nursing home rotation physician, but found a second career and specialty in addiction medicine when she opened a private practice at her home in North Yarmouth, ME. Heretofore preferring to manage acute crises than to establish relationships with patients, Dr. Conner surprised herself when she immediately found the utmost satisfaction in getting to know her patients who were in various stages of recovery from addiction to opioids. For over 15 years, Dr. Conner connected with, advised and treated hundreds of patients while they forged their new paths. After retiring from her practice in Gray, ME at the age of 87, she regularly said, “I miss my patients, they were fun to talk to, and I learned so much from them.”
Dr. Conner is predeceased by her husband of many years, her soulmate, Clyde Arthur Conner; and by her brother, Donald E. Ardis. She leaves behind her daughter, Carissa April, son-in-law Ron, and grandchildren, Max and Reese of Woods Hole, MA; also a nephew, Jeffrey Ardis and his family of Sturbridge, MA, and a brother, Edward J. Ardis, Jr. and his wife, Lori and their family of Media, PA.
A funeral gathering was held at her home.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Wellstrong, a fitness and wellness community in Falmouth for people in recovery from substance use disorder, or The Falmouth Community Veterans Center.
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