Obituary of Stan Griskivich

Stan Griskivich Stan was born at Maine Medical Center in Portland on February 16, 1950 and grew up in Falmouth, Maine. He died August 21, 2017 at his home in Sunshine, Deer Isle, from the effects of Alzheimer’s. Stan graduated from Falmouth High School and was proud of the drafting award he acquired there. Stan acquired an Associate Degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography at the then Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute in South Portland. While in attendance, Stan participated in the U.S. Department of the Interior and NASA’s TechTite II project in the Virgin Islands. Stan achieved a B.S. Degree in Education from the University of Southern Maine, with a major in Industrial Arts. He taught at Lewiston Junior High School for one year. During that year he started a Model Rocket Club for the students, which was featured in the Lewiston Sun Journal. Stan enjoyed woodworking at an early age, doing projects with his father John, including building dinghies and sailboats. When he was a teenager, Stan built his first set of kitchen cabinets for his aunt Bernice’s cottage on Long Island in Casco Bay with materials he found at the dump. Upon leaving the teaching profession, Stan became a cabinetmaker full time, working at Town and Country Cabinets in Portland for several years before going off on his own in 1978. Stan also attended the Owner-Builder school, Cornerstones, an offshoot of Shelter Institute. He became Charlie Wing’s favorite student and Stan’s passive solar house in Yarmouth, Maine, was a favorite on Cornerstone’s student house tours with guests from 32 states, 4 Canadian provinces, Germany and the Netherlands. The passive solar house was also featured in Fine Homebuilding and New Shelter magazines and the Maine Sunday Telegram as well as on Maine Public Television’s ‘Upcountry’ and the WCSH TV evening news. Stan assisted graduates of Cornerstones in becoming their own contractors and was the primary carpenter/cabinetmaker in the construction of many of their homes. Many of his clients became lifelong friends. Stan’s drafting talents came in handy in designing many pieces of furniture and whole houses. Other projects included working with his friend, David Wallace in the design, construction and repair of pipe organs, including work on the Kotzschmar organ in Portland City Hall. Stan was an avid navigator and island explorer. He introduced his college sweetheart Toni to the islands of Casco Bay. Their honeymoon in 1973 was aboard the Camden schooner Mercantile. They retraced their trip in their own lobster yacht 10 years later. Stan and Toni cruised the Maine coast from Cape Elizabeth on up into Canada as far as Gagetown in New Brunswick. Stan and Toni gained many friends along the Maine Coast who enriched their many adventures. When Stan ‘swallowed the anchor’, he designed and built a summer house in Sunshine, Deer Isle, in 1990. Their lives were again enriched with all the friends they gained in this island community. From this vantage, they could fully explore the Downeast islands and for many years were volunteers for the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, clearing trails with their dog Hattie. Other islands that Stan and Toni visited were in the Bahamas. They explored islands off the beaten path, including Compass Cay, what Toni called “Gilligan’s Island with a generator”. Because Stan’s mother died of early onset Alzheimer’s, which is hereditary, Stan and Toni planned ahead for an early retirement. Stan designed and built a retirement addition to their Deer Isle cottage to be ready and paid for by 2007. Stan and Toni then started motor camping for a month every winter so that they could find places to hike when ice cleat season came around. Stan was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009. In 2010 Stan and Toni travelled to New Mexico, the Exumas, Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick and Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. In 2013 they made their last trip to Newfoundland and Labrador and had their last boating trips from Sunshine. In 2014 Stan had a debilitating stroke. Stan worked hard, trying to regain abilities on the right side of his body. He was able to maintain his sense of humor most days and adored his dog, Hattie Jean. Though his memory faded, he still maintained an attachment to Toni which continued to give their lives meaning.