John Lacy, of New Harbor, died while receiving cancer treatment in Florida. He was just recently diagnosed with leukemia. He fought hard against the cancer until it finally took him peacefully on Feb. 17.
In June of 2012, he and his son, John Eben, relocated to Wilson, N.C. to live near his youngest daughter following the death of his wife of 55 years, Alice Blades Lacy, in May 2012.
John was born in Redbank, N.J. in 1921. He had two daughters and one son with his first wife whom he lost to illness when his children were very young. He met and married Alice in 1958 in Washington, D.C. where he went to work as an attorney for the federal government. With the addition of Alice’s daughter, Anne, his new family consisted of four children.
John and Alice lived in the Midcoast of Maine for a quarter century. They settled in Bath until they designed and built their dream home on the Pemaquid cliffs in New Harbor in 1993.
John received his BA degree from Harvard University. In 1948 he went on to earn his law degree from The University of Virginia following a tour with the Navy as a pilot in WWII. The couple left Washington, D.C. to live in Cocoa Beach, Fla. when John was promoted to Chief Counsel at Cape Kennedy for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In 1969 he was awarded the Superior Achievement Award by the John F. Kennedy Space Center for his “contribution to the team that successfully accomplished the preparation and launch of the Apollo Saturn Space Vehicles enabling the United States to achieve the first Apollo manned lunar landing.” A Florida newspaper headlined an article calling him the “Perry Mason” of Cape Kennedy.
In 1980 they both retired from their professional careers and ‘went to sea.’ Following a lifelong love of sailing, they qualified to captain their own 41-foot ketch, the Outrageous. For four years they lived on and sailed the Outrageous in the Caribbean Sea, often providing charter tours.
After sailing the Caribbean, John became the business manager for Alice Lacy, LTD. His wife designed and sold miniatures that provided them with the opportunity to travel the world attending trade shows and visiting their manufacturer.
When he finally really retired, he found that he loved sculpture.
All of his family spent their lives frequently visiting his parents and each other in the Adirondacks in Keene, N.Y. where his father left property in trust for generations of Lacys to enjoy for many years to come.
John was a member of the Midcoast Friends Meeting in Maine, devoted to the spiritual practice of the Friends community.
John was a devoted husband and father.
He was predeceased by his daughter, Mary Jill Lacy; sisters, Katherine Tuttle and Barbara Smith; and brother, Benjamin Lacy.
John is survived by his brother, Burritt Samuel Lacy; children, Anne Luzzatto of New York, Nina Robin Lacy of North Carolina, and John Eben Lacy of Bangkok, Thailand; five grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and extended family.
A memorial is being planned for a future a date.
He will be laid to rest, side by side with his wife, in Redbank, N.J. next to his siblings and his parents, Burritt Samuel Lacy, Senior and Kate Bradley Lacy.
