Brooksville
David Patrick Trowbridge, 68, died July 24, 2021, after a long challenge with Parkinson’s disease. He was born in Gainesville, Fla., to Clinton W. and Lucile (Reeves) Trowbridge who, with their four children and family pets, made the trek to Maine every summer to join extended family on Hancock Point.
After graduating from The Putney School in Vermont, Patrick was asked what he had liked most about his four years there: “Everything!” This included cross-country skiing, maple sugaring, madrigal singing, “Long Spring” adventures, farm chores, contra and square dancing and making lifelong friends. He received his B.A. from Colorado College, where his thesis was on Cochiti Pueblo figurine pottery. Patrick’s formal studies led to his taking delight in discovering hidden historical details during many home restorations.
A keen observer of the natural world, Patrick loved the outdoors. As a young adult, he was a Hurricane Island Outward Bound School student and later, an instructor. He reveled in running barefoot through the island’s woods before diving into the cold ocean water … before breakfast. His adventurous spirit led him to hop freight trains around the country, fish for king crab in Alaska, crew on the schooner Victory Chimes, rebuild a wooden peapod and row it 10 miles across a choppy Blue Hill Bay to Swan’s Island and swim unattended in frigid Jericho Bay from Sunshine on Deer Isle to Crow Island.
Patrick was a sought-after builder and renovator of homes in Maine as well as in the Boston area and Washington, D.C., before that. He was an avid beekeeper, maple syrup producer, gardener and woodsman who took great satisfaction in cutting his own firewood and splitting it by hand. He restored his West Brooksville farmhouse and dairy barn over his three decades in Brooksville. Patrick’s numerous building projects leave a lasting legacy that speak of his appreciation for quality craftsmanship and eye for detail.
Patrick wasn’t much of a “joiner,” but he made exceptions for the Peter’s Cove Men’s Chorus in Blue Hill, and for the Christian Science Society in Sargentville.
Survivors include his wife, Patricia J. Lown; their children Samuel and Anna; brother Paul (Jennifer) Trowbridge; sisters Teisseire (Charles) Bowden and Michele (Thomas) Parsons; stepdaughters Jessica Creighton (Brian Whitfield) and Emma Creighton; aunts, nieces, nephews and many cousins.
A memorial gathering will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, at David’s Folly Farm, 1390 Coastal Road, Brooksville. Masks will be required.
The family requests that charitable donations in Patrick’s memory be made to Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary (Birdsacre), P.O. Box 485, Ellsworth, ME 04605, or Friends of Holbrook Island Sanctuary, P.O. Box 244, Brooksville, ME 04617.