CALAIS – Praised by those who knew him as a man of grace and integrity, longtime city solicitor Francis Brown, 81, died Sunday at the Maine Veterans Home in Bangor after a long illness.

“All of the older lawyers still practicing in Calais were, to some extent, his proteges,” said longtime friend and former law partner John Churchill. “Most of us practiced with him, and those who didn’t knew they could call Francis with any thorny legal problem and be given the full benefit of Francis’ wisdom and experience.”

Churchill, who partnered with Brown in the law firm of Brown, Tibbetts, Churchill and Lacasse for 17 years, described Brown as a “patient and brilliant teacher who combined many years of trial experience with an extraordinary legal mind.”

Another of Brown’s partners, Dan Lacasse, called Brown the consummate mediator who always looked out for the best interests of his clients. Lacasse recalled the lunches he and Brown shared sitting at the counter at the former Newberry’s on Main Street, where they would talk law over hot dogs.

“He used to always say he wasn’t doing his clients a lot of good if he cost them a lot of money going to court,” Lacasse said.

His longtime secretary and friend, Betty Garriott, described him as an “extraordinary” person who loved Calais and the surrounding area.

Baileyville businessman Vince Tammaro recalled Brown’s interest in the history of the area. “He was a very interesting person to talk to and had a great memory of our area,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a longtime friend, described Brown as a “magnificent individual.”

“As I said three years ago, when I had the honor of entering a statement of tribute to him in the U.S. Senate,” Snowe said, “Francis exemplified the kind of values and ideas we frequently associate with those small towns throughout the country where neighbors still help neighbors, and where service to others is the standard by which a man or woman is measured. By that measure, Francis Brown was one of the most successful people I have known.”

Brown was admitted to the Maine State Bar in 1950 and to the bar of the U.S. District Court in 1953. He started his private law practice in 1950 and began his career as a city solicitor in 1951.

Throughout his successful law career, Brown gave generously of his time to serve the people of Maine. He was a member of the University of Maine System board of trustees and the University of Maine Foundation.

Amos Orcutt, president of the University of Maine Foundation, described Brown as a man of vision who encouraged the foundation, along with the Alumni Association, to build the Buchanan Alumni House on the Orono campus.

“Architecturally, it is the most attractive building on the campus – and the most popular,” he said.

Former University of Maine President Fred Hutchinson said Brown spent hours commuting between Calais and Orono to attend university meetings. “He was very passionate about the things he worked for and the things he believed in,” he said.

He was a longtime trustee of the United Methodist Church in Calais.

Brown also had a distinguished military career that began with four years in the ROTC at the University of Maine. During World War II, he served in the Asiatic-Pacific theater as a radar officer in an anti-aircraft gun battalion. He was an Army reservist with the Maine Army National Guard from 1946 until 1967, when he retired with the rank of major.

His second wife, Laurel, and his two daughters, Catherine Lemin and Barbara Dalton, survive him.