Gerald Thompson Littlefield

 

CUMBERLAND - Gerald Thompson Littlefield, an architect, died Monday of cancer at his ancestral home on Chebeague Island.

He was born in Farmington, son of Leslie Leander Littlefield of Chebeague Island and Alice Dunning Littlefield of Portland.

Mr. Littlefield took his first degree in architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and earned his master's degree in architecture from Columbia University in New York.

During World War II he served in the Navy, commanding vessels in the Mediterranean involved in the North Africa and Sicily invasions, as well as in the Pacific.

A descendant of sea captains, shipbuilders, mariners and fishermen, Mr. Littlefield designed buildings, wrote poetry, painted and created dishes that expressed his love for the sea and the hillsides of his island home.

Mr. Littlefield lived in Manhattan for many years and until his retirement, was a member of Harrison and Abramowitz, the firm that designed many American 20th-century landmarks. He designed the award-winning Law School of Columbia University and the professional schools at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Littlefield later settled at Sag Harbor at the tip of Long Island. Mr. Littlefield helped restore and redesign landmarks in Sag Harbor and the Hamptons.

In 1982 he retired to Chebeague Island to live year-round. For the past 15 years Mr. Littlefield had lived on Grasshopper Hill, sharing his elegant simplicity, puckish good humor and exceptional design sense with friends, neighbors and family.

Surviving are four cousins, Edna Hamilton Webber of Yarmouth, Leila Bisharat of Chebeague Island and Cairo, Egypt, Barbara Marshall of Chebeague Island and Springfield, Mass., and George Bates of Chebeague Island and Tallahassee, Fla.; and two nieces.

A gathering will be held later. Burial will be private. Arrangements are by Hay & Peabody Funeral Home, Portland.


(Copied from the Portland Press Herald )