By Heather Lende

Maynard Hopkins "Lucky" Metcalf Jr. died at home Nov. 17 "of old age," said his wife of 43 years, Patty Dare Metcalf. He was 83 and had been ill several years.

The Metcalfs moved to Haines 13 years ago after Lucky’s declining health prevented them from remaining at the Tenakee Springs homestead where they lived 15 years. He was a member of the American Legion and the Elks.

Family and friends described Metcalf as vibrant, energetic and capable. Patty Metcalf said her husband fished, hunted, raised animals, and carved out a nice life for himself and his large family in rural Alaska. "Lucky put all his energy into doing things," she said.

Much of his can-do spirit came from spending teen-age years in the Pacific theater in WorldWar II. He earned a Silver Star as well as more than one Purple Heart, family members said.

Metcalf was born in Cambridge, Mass. on March 31, 1924 to Edith Benson and Maynard H. Metcalf. He was raised in Rockland, Maine and was just 13 years old when a barnstorming pilot who was a WWI veteran taught him how to fly.

Family legend has it that Metcalf tricked his French speaking father into signing papers that lied about his age, and that he fooled recruiters because he was 5’9" and weighed 170.

Metcalf told a reporter with the Eagle Eye Journal that he was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed the base. By his own account, he also saw action at the battles of Midway and Coral Sea. Ironically, his gravest injury came as he was sitting in the cafeteria on Makin Island when it was bombed. He lost an arm to shrapnel.

Metcalf claimed that Admiral William "Bull" Halsey nicknamed him "Lucky" in a ceremony aboard the USS Lexington afterward.

After the war, Metcalf married Ivy Wright in New York, returned to Maine, studied electronics and then headed for Alaska in 1951, taking a job with the Civil Aviation Administration in Nome. He also lived in Galena, Woody Island, and Sunset Cove.

In 1965, he married Patty Dare of Juneau, and they took off on the Buccaneer, his 38-foot schooner, for a year-long sail around the world. They didn’t get that far, but enjoyed adventures up and down the West Coast.

They settled in Baranof Warm Springs, trolled commercially, and built a second sailboat. The Arctic Tern was a 48-foot faro cement schooner that is now part of an artificial reef in Auke Bay.

Metcalf built the boat near Friday Harbor, Wash and sailed it north, landing in Tenakee Springs, where he and Patty lived aboard and kept over a dozen goats on a floating log raft, rowing them to shore to graze each morning.

Later, Metcalf built a self-sufficient home and outbuildings powered by solar panels that moved with the sun. They added chickens and a turkey and it became the favorite place for grandchildren and great grandchildren to visit.

"He built the place from absolutely nothing to a huge complex," son Patrick Metcalf said. "He lived an amazing life." Patty Metcalf said her husband gathered friends wherever he lived, and kept those friends until he died.

In addition to his wife, Metcalf is survived by children Frank Metcalf, Lynn Pratt, Diana Medley, Brad Metcalf, Joy Hammett, and Patrick Metcalf and grandchildren Adam, Zack, and Nathan Metcalf, Tommy and Victor Perry, Randy Burbridge, Christina Dick, Renee Maleeski, StephanieMetcalf, Danae Metcalf and Tammie Kent; numerous great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, and three great-great-great grandchildren.

No funeral services are planned.