Meredith, NH---Edward Wirt Carpenter, 78, of Meredith, NH died on Dec 5, 2006 after a long illness. He was the son of F. Scott and Hazel (Wirt) Carpenter. Ed grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts and graduated from Chauncy Hall Prep School and Tufts University where he earned a BSME in Engineering and was a member of Theta Delta Chi. During college he met his future wife, Fay Klafstad on a blind date, and they married in 1951.
Ed’s career started out with a drafting job at Stone and Webster in Boston, followed by a move to Wisconsin to work for AC Sparkplug, and then a sales position at Industrial Nucleonics in Ohio. In 1959, he moved to Glastonbury, Connecticut to the wonderful neighborhood of Apple Hill and the family made lifelong friends with the other young families in the neighborhood.
Ed’s next sales position was with IBM, and resulted in the family moving to Cape Elizabeth, Maine where the family took up skiing in the winters. This led to his next career – innkeeper. Ed, looking for his favorite job perk, a short afternoon nap, decided to buy and manage an old inn in Rangeley, Maine. As a result of their restoration, the Rangeley Inn became well known throughout the region. Ed also gained fame for his television ad for Portland Glass, proudly showing the inn and its 157 replacement windows.
Ed and Fay ran the inn for 23 years, working diligently to make the inn a viable business, and both became fully engaged in the community, being active members of Rangeley Chamber of Commerce, and Presidents of the Maine Innkeepers Association. Ed thoroughly enjoyed innkeeping in the mountains of Maine, and his favorite part, not counting those afternoon naps, was to make sure his guests had a good time and felt welcomed and entertained by the splendor and history of the area. He’d wake them at 5 am for a sunrise canoe trip to take in the wonders of Maine’s varied wildlife feeding at the river banks, followed by a hearty breakfast back at the inn. In the evening, he would take the guests out “moosin”, looking for moose at dusk, all delightfully accompanied with his Maine stories, jokes and Rangeley history.
He and Fay retired to Meredith, NH to be near family. With their daughter Janet, they bought an 1897 Victorian house, a former doctor’s home and office, and renovated it into an elegant B&B, operating since 1997 as the Meredith Inn under Janet’s management.
Ed was predeceased earlier this year by his wife Ragnhild Fay, and is survived by his brother Scott Carpenter and his wife Mary, of Alexandria, VA; his five children, Carol and her husband, Michael Johnston, of Hershey PA, Nancy and her husband Bryan Kirkpatrick, of Chatham, NJ, Janet Carpenter of Meredith, NH, Scott Carpenter of Meredith, NH, and Susan and her husband Tor Brunvand of Waterville Valley, NH, and four grandchildren, Julie and Eric Johnston, and Molly and Hannah Kirkpatrick.
There will be no calling hours. A memorial service will be held at Wilkinson-Beane Funeral Home, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, NH on Sunday, December 17th at 1pm.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: The Ed and Fay Carpenter Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o The Maine Innkeeper’s Association, MEIA Education Foundation, 304 Route US 1, Freeport, ME 04032, or to the FMH-Rangeley Ambulance Crew Fund c/o Rangeley Chamber of Commerce, Box 317, Rangeley, ME 04970.
Wilkinson-Beane Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH is in charge of the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial go to www.wilkinsonbeane.com.
