With spoons and the piano, he entertained; with compassion and surgical instruments, he saved lives.

The former chief of surgery at Eastern Maine Medical Center, Dr. Maynard Beach, had a penchant for music and the arts. He died early Thursday morning at the age of 71.

He is survived by his wife, Deborah, three children, other family members, friends and memories of a man with many abilities.

Strong-willed and big-hearted, Beach was known to pace the hallways of the hospital late into the night and early morning, keeping watch and making sure he was available when patients needed him. Keenly aware that illness can affect anyone, Beach didn’t turn away patients because they couldn’t afford the operation. Instead, many times he performed operations at his own expense.

Dr. Paul LaMarche, a former medical director at EMMC, said he referred quite a few patients to Beach knowing they were financially strapped. He was never turned down.

“He was a very good surgeon, a very good human being,” LaMarche said.

During his 17 years as chief of surgery at the Bangor hospital, Beach helped create a surgical department that included specialties like plastic and reconstructive surgery, said longtime friend and colleague Dr. Don Maunz, who met Beach while they were both residents at Dartmouth Medical School in the 1960s.

Beach approached life as he did medicine, with discipline, dedication and precision.

Long after he had retired, Beach continued on at the hospital in emeritus status and kept up with the latest medical procedures by attending medical conferences.

But he also had a zest for life outside the surgical gown.

A pianist who didn’t read music but played by ear, Beach delved into jazz and ragtime, including Gershwin, taking his talents to local bars and restaurants, where he sometimes could be seen playing for hours.

Sometimes he traded the piano keys for something more mundane, yet still musical, the spoons.

He took up playing the spoons in the 1960s to teach his three children rhythm and kept up with it himself. In 1994 he played the spoons in a ragtime band featured at the Bangor Grange. When he wasn’t playing music, he was dancing to it, from ballroom to tap dance.

“One minute he was a surgeon, the next he was Gene Kelly,” Maunz said.

A memorial Mass for Beach will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 25, at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor with the Rev. Richard McLaughlin celebrating.