BREAKING NEWS: legendary boat builder Ralph Stanley is dead

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Dec. 7, 2021 - A Down East legend and Maine treasure, Ralph Stanley, died early this morning, according to Erich Reed, director of the SWH public library, where Stanley was a trustee. He was 92.

In 2018, the library celebrated his life as a boat builder, storyteller, genealogist, historian, musician, library trustee, author and more. The gathering included music by another local legend Ruth Grierson, Skip Fraley, and Ralph himself.

Google “Ralph Stanley Southwest Harbor” to find numerous stories about him. My favorite was this video profile produced by Jeff Dobbs of Bar Harbor.

Several generations of sailors are still sailing beautiful Friendship sloops crafted by Stanley, who descended from his 4x great grandfather, Sans Standley, brother to John Standley, who is buried on Islesford. Sans’ son Thomas Cobb Standley was the first permanent settler on Great Cranberry in 1788. The Stanleys dropped the letter “D” over time.

The Stanleys, along with the Gilleys, Gotts, Lunts, Hadlocks, Norwoods and others are families with expansive lineages in these parts.

In 1999, Ralph Stanley was named a Heritage Fellow by the Nation Endowment for the Arts. Read about it here in an article published by National Endowment for the Arts.

Bangor Daily News wrote this article on Stanley passing of his boat building business to his son in 2009.

Soundings Magazine profiled Ralph in 2017, “Down East stories from a Down East Builder.”

QSJ and Stanley exchanged emails just two days before Thanksgiving on how I might help him with his latest book project.

He wrote:

“I write as the spirit moves and as I think of things. Sometimes if I set it aside for a
while, then go back over it, I find something more to add. Consequently,
my writing might not be in a very readable order.”

Those are words from a true craftsman and gifted storyteller.

If you have stories about Ralph you’d like to share, reply to this email and QSJ will compiled them.