PEPPERELL - John Alden Palmer III, 48, of Pepperell, an avid outdoorsman who founded and operated his own adventure company in Maine, died yesterday morning, July 30, at his home after a battle with cancer. He was the husband of Susan (Campbell) Palmer. He was born in Exeter, N.H., on Nov. 24, 1954, a son of J. Alden Jr. and Ruth (Reynolds) Palmer of Plaistow, N.H. He was raised in Plaistow, where he attended the Pollard School and graduated from Timberlane Regional High School in 1972. He received a degree in education from Keene State College in 1976.Following his graduation, he became a teacher of Industrial Arts at Greenfield High School in Greenfield for a year. He then relocated to Lake Tahoe, Nev. where he served as director of special programs for the Juvenile Probation Office of Douglas County. His job duties included planning outdoor trips for juvenile probationers that involved canoeing, backpacking and whitewater rafting.Mr. Palmer then returned to New England and joined his father in the family contracting firm, John A. Palmer & Son until 1983. He then founded John Palmer's All Outdoors Adventure Co. at Lake Moxie in The Forks, Maine. The company specialized in camping and whitewater rafting in the summer and crosscountry skiing and hiking in the winter.He later served as the director of the Bounders Outdoor Education Program for the Carroll School in Lincoln, from 1986 until 1993 and was presently serving as the director of technology at the school since 1993. Known mostly as "JP" by many rafting and skiing enthusiasts, he was a member of and certified by the Professional Ski Instructors Association and was a ski development coach at Attitash-Bear Peak ski area. He was also certified in cold-weather survival techniques. Besides his wife and parents, survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth Anne Palmer of Pepperell; three sisters, Jayne McPherson and her husband Brian of Topsham, Maine, Janice Palmer and her partner Pasquale Spino of Waterbury, Conn., and Joanne Durfee and her husband Robert of Laconia, N.H. He also leaves several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.