LENOX, Mass. – Ellwood F. DeCoster, who was raised on a Maine farm and throughout his life embraced traditional values such as honesty, devotion to family and hard work, died peacefully in his sleep Sunday, July 16, at the Kimball Farms Nursing Care Center. He was 94.

He was born Sept. 5, 1911, the son of Stanley E. and Lucy Foss DeCoster at his parents’ farmhouse in Buckfield, Maine. He graduated from Buckfield High School. He had two sisters, Nettie and Naomi, both of whom died before him.

He eventually migrated south and was employed by the International Harvester Motor Truck Division for 21 years, traveling to various coastal locations in New England, and worked for several eastern Massachusetts automotive dealerships after that. He typically put in 50- and 60-hour work weeks, and employers valued his service.

He was an outstanding baseball player during his youth, and for most of his life was an avid pheasant hunter and fisherman. He had a knack of catching large brook trout and plenty of them, because he would go to areas that were seldom fished, where the briars, brambles and mosquitoes were the thickest.

He had been a Mason since 1934 and since 1952 a member of the Pilgrim Lodge of Masons AF & AM of Harwich, Mass., where he lived for four years during the 1950s.

He had great mechanical ability and could fix almost anything. He was innovative and enjoyed working with wood – making cabinets, bookshelves and picture frames, among many other things. Wherever he lived, he groomed the greenest, most weed-free lawn in the neighborhood, and also maintained a highly productive vegetable garden.

He had a quick mind and dry wit and would come out with memorable lines on a daily basis. Once, while gazing at his grave marker in Buckfield, he remarked: “I thought I’d look down at it one more time before I’m looking up at it.”

For 41 years, he was married to his first wife, Elizabeth Hollis DeCoster, known as Betty, who died in 1976.

Subsequently, he married the former Catherine Creran, who is mother to his son’s wife, and their marriage lasted 29 years, until his death. His widow is mother of Kathleen DeCoster of Salem, Conn., and Mary Jane Alibozek of Pittsfield.

He is survived by his wife, Catherine Creran DeCoster; two grown children in Connecticut, Virginia Lougee and her husband, Robert Lougee, of Windsor, and Stanley T. DeCoster and his wife, Kathleen DeCoster, of Salem; four grandchildren in Connecticut, Martha Pinckney of Windsor, Rebecca Rahilly of Middletown, Keri DeCoster of Willimantic and Paul DeCoster of Montville; and five great-grandchildren.

He lived in Pittsfield for nearly three decades. His last home was at Devonshire Estates in Lenox.