Lloyd DeWitt Brace Jr., 79, of Waldoboro, died Aug. 21, 2014 at his home. Sheep farmer, rose grower, iconoclast, independent thinker, father and grandfather, he embodied the spirit of his adopted state.
Mr. Brace, the son of the late Helen Rhodes Brace and the late Lloyd DeWitt Brace, attended the Fessenden School of Newton, Mass. and later, Phillips Andover of Andover, Mass. in preparation for his pursuit of the double major of business administration and chemical engineering, receiving his B.S. in business and engineering administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956. While at MIT, Mr. Brace was a member of the Beta Chapter of Chi Phi fraternity, serving as treasurer and vice president, and the boat club. He also rowed crew and during his years as a heavyweight rower, won with his teammates the Thames Challenge Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta in 1955 held on the Thames River in Henley-on-Thames, England.
Upon graduating from MIT, Mr. Brace entered the U.S. Army, gaining the rank of 2nd lieutenant upon graduation from Aberdeen Proving Ground Ordinance School in Maryland on Nov. 9, 1956. Before the hostilities began, he served in Vietnam as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General G.C. Carlson for two years, serving out the rest of his time in the Army Reserves until being honorably discharged in January 1964. He married Marion Brooks Huggins in 1960. His early years working in the private sector included a stint with the United Shoe Corporation in research and project development in which he and his team are credited with invention of the glue gun. He also worked briefly in research and design for the Polaroid Corporation.
After moving to Maine in late 1970s, he worked for the Maine Public Utilities Commission in Bangor while living in Hampden for one year before buying farm property in Readfield with his second wife, Pamela Osborne. Living in the “suburbs” of Augusta, he joined the Augusta marketing firm, the Christie Associates, where he helped small businesses not only get on their feet, but survive and prosper due to his ability to get them to think outside the box.
Mr. Brace was best known around Maine and New England for the Roseraie at Bayfields: Practical Roses for Hard Places he started in 1992 in Waldoboro where he grew and sold species, old garden, modern shrub and climbing hardy rose, but shuttered in 2002 one year after moving it to his current property in Waldoboro where it was known as the Roseraie at Granite Ridge.
A beekeeper, he consistently won blue ribbons for his honey at the Common Ground Fair in Windsor and later, Unity. And in the last few years of his life, Mr. Brace raised sheep for meat and wool, and was halfway through his protocol of breeding Navajo Churro sheep to produce black wool under the name “Granite Ridge Grazier.”
Described by his friends around Waldoboro as a very active volunteer, Mr. Brace gave much of his free time to the Lincoln County Democratic Committee, organizing and running phone banks, working caucuses, volunteering at headquarters, shuttling local candidates between events, and serving as chairman for one term. In town, he always volunteered during Waldoboro Days, for the heating assistance program and the food pantry, cooking at its annual Thanksgiving dinner. He was a dedicated contributor to the Land Institute of Salinas, Ks., attending its annual September Prairie Festival when he could, to the High Mountain Institute of Leadville, Col., and to the Medomak Valley Land Trust.
He was predeceased by his sister, Dr. Ann Brace Barnes.
Mr. Brace leaves his children, Peter B. Brace, Sarah R. Brace Beggs and husband John Beggs, Matthew Brace and wife Rachel Brace, and grandson Rory R. Beggs; brothers, Robert D. Brace and wife Patricia R. Brace, Richard G. Brace and wife Jane G. Brace; and nieces and nephews, Martha B. McEvoy, Robert Brace Jr. and wife Karen S. Brace, Thomas L. Brace and partner William Shaw, Richard G. Brace Jr. and wife Marlayne C. Brace, Lindsay B. Martinez and husband Peter M. Martinez, Christopher Barnes and wife Molly Barnes, Porter Barnes, Jack Barnes, Tyler R. Brace, Alison S. Brace, Nathan D. Brace, Katrina C. Brace, McQuillen B. Martinez and Rhodes M. Martinez.
A celebration of his life will be held in late June at Granite Ridge Farm in Waldoboro.
