Nathaniel Brackett Jr.

Nathaniel Parker Brackett, Jr., 91, of Bath and Limerick, Maine and Waltham, Mass., died at home in Bath on January 4, 2015. He leaves five daughters: Deborah Carmel of Sandwich, Mass., Elizabeth Brackett of Minneapolis, Minn., Binney Brackett of Limerick, Maine, Margaret Bailey of Waltham, Mass., and Rebecca Brackett of Waldoboro, Maine; and eight grandchildren, Ira Carmel, Mary Carmel, Chandra Brackett-Rozinsky, Nevin Brackett-Rozinsky, Andrew Brackett, Ashley Bailey, Kelvin Bailey, and Nathaniel DeBery. He was predeceased by his wife of 66 years, Anne (Johnson) Brackett. Nat was born on July 7, 1923, son of Dr. Nathaniel P. and Sarah Conant Brackett in Waltham, Mass.. He is survived by his brother, James D. Brackett, of Hanover, NH. His sister, Sarah Bryant, died in 2005. Than, as he was known in his youth, attended Waltham City schools and there met his future wife, Anne Johnson. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in1941, attended Harvard College, Class of 1945, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1947. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps briefly at the end of WW II, and later as Captain of a MASH unit in Korea in the early 1950s. Nat joined his father, Dr. Brackett, Sr., to practice medicine in Waltham, serving the community as a general practitioner. His duties ranged from emergency medicine and surgery to childbirth, family counseling, and what we now call hospice care. Late in his career he served as an Assistant Medical Examiner for Middlesex County. His practice was busy, with daily rounds at the Waltham Hospital, a full schedule of office appointments often followed by house calls and funeral home visits. His wife anticipated his arrival home by serving up the family supper, at which point he would come through the door with his medical bag in hand, hang up his overcoat, join the table and pronounce the meal, Delicious, especially when it was followed by a nice pie or pudding. When he retired after many years of family practice, a patient wrote, Dr. Brackett has kept our family well over [33] years with the latest technical expertise, down home style storytelling, and a great sense of humor. He has selected, when appropriate, as part of his professional team, the best state of the art specialist, and has made the patient part of the team. He has treated the total individual holistically, rather than view the individual as a group of working parts. It was the exposure to a wide variety of people that stimulated him. He loved hearing their stories, learning about their interests and special knowledge, visiting them in their homes and places of work, and tapping their expertise to expand his own store of knowledge and forward his own projects. Nat loved tools and had an affinity for heavy things. He found satisfaction in the practical application of the laws of physics. On his rounds of the city he could recognize the impending availability of a fine maple or oak log due to a homeowner removing an overlarge tree. He would hitch up his low-slung, homemade trailer to his trusty Subaru, throw a few appropriate tools in the back, and single-handedly relieve the homeowner of the troublesome giant, hauling it to his friendly sawyer, and then assist in the sawing. If he learned of a surplus of granite curbstones cast off by the city, hed load up his trailer and apply his skill and an ancient backhoe to create a backyard skating rink. He was a hands-on, life-long learner. A favorite family outing was the Boston Museum of Science. Reference materials formed an extensive library. The family dictionary was never far from the dinner table and was often pulled out to settle a disagreement about a definition or derivation. USGS maps were perused before, during, and after expeditions near and far. On house calls accompanied by one or more daughters, he would drive confidently through myriad neighborhoods, then say, How do we get home? Give me directions. Morning to night, the car was filled with classical music, on WCRB and, later, MPBN. He loved to explore, observe, and report back what he learned. He could disappear for hours and return with the newspaper, a bottle of milk, and a story. He loved his ancestral home in Limerick; the quiet of the woods, the buzz of the chainsaw, the wood fire in the morning, the next project. He loved, and was loved by his family. Though not always present, his presence was always felt, as it will be. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, 2015 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, One Middle St., Brunswick, ME, 04011 Donations in his memory may be sent to The American Chestnut Foundation 50 North Merrimon Ave., Suite 115 Asheville, NC 28804 www.acf.org