ELLSWORTH
Benjamin Dodge Adams, age 81, of Ellsworth, left us peacefully on the 15th of January, 2016, after a long, hard-fought battle with diabetes and dementia. Ben was the son of John Quincy Adams and Lucy Dodge Adams of Lincoln, Mass. He is survived by his three sisters: Elizabeth “Lee” Ogden Adams Weaver of Natick, Mass.; Susanna “Sanna” Boylston Adams, of Berthoud, Colo.; and Lydia Staniford Adams of Englewood, Fla., as well as his four nephews and niece: Davis Weaver of Falmouth, Mass.; Marian Weaver Ide of Natick, Mass.; Timothy Weaver of Bolton, Mass.; and Jeremiah Adams, also of Berthoud, Colo. Ben also had 12 grand-nephews and nieces.
Benjamin was the father to three children. He was predeceased by two children: Lisa Ann Adams and Ben “Dodge” Adams of Brooksville/Blue Hill. He is survived by his son Troy A. H. Adams of Ellsworth, and his grandson Jackson R. Hawkins of Kensington, Md.; as well as his daughter-in-law Denise Dow Webster of Jeffersonville, Vt.
Benjamin D. Adams was born in Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Wellesley, Mass., on June 23, 1934. He grew up on his family’s “Red Rail Farm” on Old Concord Road in Lincoln, Mass., and as a boy he summered on the Sheepscot River near Damariscotta, where he took up sailing and grew to love it as a lifelong passion.
Ben’s father “Quincy” was a direct descendent of the second and sixth presidents of the United States and during WWII, while working in the Boston Navy Yard, Quincy was the last Adams family member to reside at Peacefield, the home of John and Abigail Adams, which is today a national park in Quincy, Mass.
Ben’s father Quincy and his young wife, Lucy, pooled their resources together and purchased the Red Rail Farm, known as the Adams/Burnham estate in Lincoln, Mass., from Quincy’s grandfather Charles Francis Adams in 1938. Charles Francis Adams moved the Adams family to Lincoln, Mass., from Quincy, Mass., in 1893.
Ben and his sisters grew up in the heritage of one of our nation’s most famous political dynasties. He attended the Fenn School in Concord, Mass., the Holderness Preparatory School in Holderness, N.H., and the University of Maine in Orono. His athletic prowess on the football field and hockey rink is still mentioned at Holderness alumni events and through the rushing records he set and broke. Ben was once burned in effigy by fans at rival Proctor Academy before football games for the protest of his great talents as a running back. He was an avid skier, good tennis player and a wonderful musician who had a gift to play piano by ear. He was in many Gilbert and Sullivan productions in high school because of his musical talents. He is mostly remembered by classmates and siblings to have starred as the singing pirate in “Pirates of Penzance.”
Upon leaving the University of Maine, he joined the U.S. Navy and served two full years traveling the world on the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, Midway. He married his first wife Serita Babson of Brooksville, and they had two children, Lisa Ann and Ben “Dodge” Adams, both of whom were taken far too early from cystic fibrosis. During these years, Ben played in various local bands and performed solo at various Hancock County venues. He sailed, played lots of tennis, and owned and operated the Adams Apple woman’s clothing store located in the now J.T. Rosborough building on Main Street in Ellsworth.
In 1970, Benjamin began a new chapter in his life when he met and married Nancy J. Tilden of Ellsworth and became father to Troy A. H. Adams. In the years of 1970 to 1978, Benjamin was a manager for Value House/Service Merchandise in Bangor, and also Burlington, Mass. In 1978, he and his wife Nancy took over her family business and ran Jasper's Restaurant and Motel in Ellsworth together from 1978 to 1995. In these years Ben was well known as a keyboard master of the local band, Castle of Dreams. The band was a highlight for Ben and where he met his fellow band member and lifelong friend, Frank Pierson of Ellsworth. Many people have fond memories of a Castle of Dreams show in the mid-’70s. He was a past president of the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce, once a member of Rotary, and a charter member and ex-commodore emeritus of the Mount Desert Island Yacht Club.
Benjamin retired from Jaspers in 1995. In 1996, he married Barbarann Foster of Ellsworth, who was the mother to Mathew Foster and Michael Foster. Ben and Barbarann spent wonderful summers boating on his boat Pemaquid. In 2001, Ben was sadly made widower to Barbarann.
He spent his remaining years in the happy company of his lady-friend Brigitte “Briggy” Altenhofen of Hamburg, Germany, and Sargentville. The two resided at the Altenhofen Inn in Sargentville with her daughter Claire Altenhofen and Briggy’s grandson Adrian. Ben spent most of his remaining summers on his boat Lucy on the Benjamin River, and in the company of his best friends Frank and Bette Pierson, while he spent his winters near Hilton Head, S.C.
An informal get-together for those who wish to pay their respects to Ben will take place at Jaspers Restaurant in Ellsworth on Saturday Jan. 23, from 3 to 6 p.m. A formal memorial service will be held on his birthday, June 23, this coming summer so that his wishes may be carried out. In lieu of flowers, please send any donations to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the name of Ben Adams, 6931 Arlington Road, Room 2, Bethesda, MD 20814.
Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 113 Franklin St. Ellsworth
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com