FARMINGTON — Dr. Paul Elliot Floyd passed away quietly after a long and productive life on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Pierce House in Farmington, with his beloved wife of 71 years, Emily, by his side. He was 101.

Paul was born in East Machias on June 19, 1910, the son of the late Dr.Albion and Lena Penney Floyd. His father, a country doctor, (who often accepted short lobsters and the odd chicken as payment for his medical services) had a strong influence on his eventual career path. The family later moved to New Sharon where Paul spent his formative years.

Paul was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Bowdoin College and Harvard Medical School. Summer work during medical school meant working in a TB sanatarium where, as luck would have it, he contracted the disease himself, which interrupted his medical studies on two different occasions and led to his own recuperation in a sanatarium, bed rest and sunlight being the only treatment at the time. The disease also altered his choice of specialities as he was concerned that his health might not tolerate the long hours and rigors of a small town general practice. He was accepted at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, where he started in ENT and finished in ophthalmology. When it came time to start his own practice he elected to return to his roots and settled in Farmington in 1947.

Upon his retirement in 1975, Paul turned to full-time gardening and tinkering. It is unclear when the tinkering began. Perhaps it was when he was an ophthalmology resident and helped conceive the Floyd-Grant Irisophake, a device designed to grab and stabilize a cataract in the process of extraction. Paul would never buy anything new if he could find it used or had the opportunity to recycle cast-off materials to make his own version. Pulley systems and swivels were a recurring tinkering theme, such as the pulleys he used to change the eye chart in his office from twenty feet away and the swivels he put under any camp chair that didn’t already have one. Solar and a variety of other eco-friendly endeavors tickled his imagination. These projects could have their downsides, such as a shoulder injury sustained when climbing the roof to install a homemade solar panel and incurring Emily’s wrath when he painted her favorite bean pot black to use in a solar cooker, also homemade.

Paul was an avid birdwatcher, hiker and fly fisherman. He remained an enthusiastic organic gardener into his mid-nineties. He gave countless hours in service to his community and was an active member of Henderson Memorial Baptist Church and many local organizations, including the Farmington Historical Society and Cutler Memorial Library. He served as the secretary of the Franklin Memorial Hospital Medical Society for many years and was a cofounder of Tri-County United Way. A loyal member of the Farmington Rotary Club, he was named a Paul Harris Fellow after 50 years of service in 1997.

In addition to his wife, Paul is survived by his sons, Carl of East Lyme, Conn., and his companion, Helene Anderson, of West Greenwich, R.I., and his daughters, Lynne and Rebecca, and their respective spouses, Peter Crizer and Brian Perchal; David and wife, Bets Cole, and their children, Nicholas and Mckenzie, of Elmira, Ore.; Brian of Portland, Ore.; daughter, Penney and husband Chuck Lakin of Waterville; his niece, Mary Ann Sparenberg; and several second cousins.

He was predeceased by his sister, Clara; and his brother, Ernest.