FARMINGTON — Sten Anders Jespersen, 69, beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend to many, died peacefully April 7, after a brief illness. His wife, Betty and his faithful dog, Saxo, were by his side.

He was born March 28, 1943, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sten became a self-taught cabinet maker and carpenter. He started a construction company in East Hampton, N.Y.,  and when the family relocated to Maine in 1986, he had a small carpentry and cabinetry business in Farmington. His craftsmanship and attention to detail can be seen in the Farmington Library lobby, the Farmington Town Office, the Kingfield Town Office and in many private homes in the Farmington area.

Sten had a passion for the forest and after retiring in 2011, enthusiastically started managing the family woodlot for sustainable growth. His great pleasure was to head out in the morning on his Kubota tractor on the new logging trail he cleared and had built with a Natural Resource Conservation District grant and to come home hauling in a load of logs.

His long relationship with the Farmington Library and its staff started with the building renovation in 2000 and continued until he became ill last fall. He was the library’s volunteer go-to guy when the staff needed advice or help with everything from leaks to changing light bulbs in the elevator. They looked forward to his upbeat, optimistic presence and constant smile.

He was also a volunteer with the Literacy Volunteers of Franklin County and maintained the organization’s book swap project behind the former Howard’s Drug Store on Main Street. And each year in May, he volunteered at the annual used book sale.

Sten grew up on a farm in Naestved, Denmark, near the army base where his father, a colonel in the Danish army, was stationed. The family boarded and trained horses, which led to Sten becoming an accomplished competitive horseman. He also did track as a youth and competed in races across Europe. After high school, he attended officer training school and graduated top in his class. He was promoted to sergeant and also trained to be a paratrooper, leading to his pursuit of skydiving as a hobby that continued when he moved to the United States at the age of 24.

At that time, he was living in the Lower East Side in New York City, working in construction and driving a cab at night.

Always a staunch believer in peoples’ rights, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sten became active in grassroots political organizations that advocated for racial equality and social justice for workers, women, veterans and oppressed minorities. It was through his work at a community food co-op he met the love of his life, Betty, in 1971.

In 1973, their son, Bo, was born in the Bronx, where they had moved to work with White Lighting, a community organization. The following year, they moved out of their fifth-floor walk-up tenement apartment and to East Hampton on Long Island, where there was a demand for high-end carpenters. Two years later, Sten started his construction business.

Their daughter, Sonia, was born in 1976. The next year, Sten completed building their home, where they lived for 10 years. The family gardened and raised goats, with Sten milking twice a day and Betty making fresh goat cheese for sale to the summer residents. They moved to Farmington in 1986 to start a new life in a small, uninsulated house without plumbing that Sten renovated into a cozy home.

His hobbies were collecting LP records, especially vintage jazz and blues, books, reading and making beer and wine.

Sten is survived by his wife of 40 years, Betty; son, Bo of Mount Vernon, his wife, Jennifer and their daughter, Mya Mae; daughter, Sonia McGrath of Yarmouth, her husband, Matthew and their children, Chelsea Rose and Ignatius James; daughter, Nina Pontou of Angers, France, and her husband, Jean-Eric and their children, Astrid, Pierre and Clara; and niece, Knirke deTusch-Lec of Copenhagen, Denmark, her husband, Simon and daughter, Rebecca.

The family would like to thank Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice for making it possible for Sten to be at home for his last days, Dr. Jeff Fuson and Wilson Stream Family Practice and Dr. Thomas Marshall for their compassion and neurologist Dr. Brad Dickinson at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for his kindness, knowledge and professionalism.

Tributes and condolences may be shared on his memorial wall at www.wilesrc.com.