- Date Of Birth: April 3, 1914
- Date Of Death: August 27, 2014
- State: Maine
Leverett Brainard Davis Sr., 100, passed away peacefully on the morning of August 27th at the Lincoln Health – Miles Campus in Damariscotta, ME. He was born on April 3rd, 1914, the second son and third child of Edith Brainard and J.H. Kelso Davis of Hartford, CT. He graduated from Kent School in 1932, and from Williams College in 1936. After graduation, Lev sailed around the world in the Schooner Yankee ‘36-’38 (see Sailing to See, Irving & Exy Johnson, W.W. Norton 1939) and was an employee of Connecticut Printers, Inc. before teaching Math and Science at the Harvery School in Hawthorne, NY. After graduating from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1942, he married Caroline Johnston Chandler of Montchanin, Delaware and became a curate at St. John’s Church in Waterbury, CT. He was rector of Christ Church in Exeter, NH from 1944 to 1951. After he separated from his wife in 1951, he became an English teacher and Chaplain at Holderness School, Plymouth, NH. In 1953 Lev received a teaching certificate from the University of Maine, Orono. After his divorce, he married Eugenie Stearns Carhartt. They moved to Newcastle, ME and Lev taught English at Lincoln Academy. He earned a Masters Degree in guidance in 1964 at Harvard University Graduate School of Education and continued as an English teacher and then as a Guidance Counselor at Lincoln Academy until he retired in 1971. While teaching at Lincoln, he made a difference in the lives of many of his students over the years. He was a very kind and unique man. Many have said that they considered him a true gentleman. His hard work, integrity, thoughtfulness and compassion for others set an example for us all. In Maine he served on a number of boards including the Bath-Brunswick Mental Health Association, Skidompha Library, Miles Memorial Hospital, Damariscotta River Association, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Lincoln Academy, and on the vestry and as a senior warden of the St. Andrew’s Church, Newcastle, ME. Lev’s sailing career began in a Barnegat Bay Sneakbox in 1932 at Fenwick, CT where the family spent the summers, and continued as he and his brothers, Jack, Franck, Newton and sometimes his sister Martha and his father raced “Nutmeg”, a Sakonnet Knockabout. Lev also cruised and raced with friends on Long Island Sound and to Block Island, the Vineyard, and on New York Yacht Club cruises. He was elected to the Cruising Club of America in 1939. Cruising with a friend in 1946, he fell in love with Harbor Island, Friendship, ME. The old stone house was in need of much repair. Purchased in 1950, the repairs were started and he and his family have summered there ever since. (See “Own The Whole Island”, Country Journal, Nov. ‘74). In the 1970’s Lev and Eugenie put conservation easements on the island, limiting development to the existing stone house and dock. They gave the northern tip of the island to the National Audubon Society. It is now dedicated as the Duryea Morton Audubon Sanctuary. In the late 1970’s, the Harbor Island Trust was created giving title of the island to their nine children. Lev was predeceased by his older brother, Jack (John M.K. Davis); older sister, Jill (Edith Taylor); and his two younger brothers, F. Kelso and Newton; Eugenie in 1993; and two of her children, David Whitney and Denise Whitney. In 1995 Lev moved to Schooner Cove where he happily lived the balance of his years. He is survived by his sister, Martha Soper; his five children, Caroline Janover, Alexander (Sandy) Davis, Ann Kelso MacLaughlin, Quita Davis, and Leverett B. Davis Jr.; and Eugenie’s daughters, Judith C. Gardner and Suzanne Phillips. Between Lev and Eugenie, they had twenty grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.
