Candace Walworth

LEWISTON – Candace Cooper Walworth, M.D., 76, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, after complications during surgery.

The daughter of Elizabeth Wentworth Cooper and Judge Richard Foss Cooper, Candace was born on Oct. 27, 1944 in Rochester, N.H. Her life’s trajectory was set as a junior at Spaulding High School when she was accepted as a summer student at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor; she continued to conduct research at the laboratory during college and medical school. She graduated summa cum laude from Smith College in 1966 and received her MD with honors from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1970, one of 12 women in a class of 120.

At Columbia she met her classmate, Edward Z. Walworth. They were married in December 1969; their honeymoon was a two-month medical student rotation at a hospital in Taiwan. Both interned and did their residencies – she in internal medicine and he in general surgery – at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Hanover, N.H. They lived in Charleston, S.C., from 1975 to 1977, where Ted served at the Naval Regional Medical Center and Candace was a staff physician at the Veterans Administration Hospital.

Wanting to return to New England, they found opportunity in Lewiston, joining the staffs of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Central Maine Medical Center. Over time, Candace, now the mother of Liza and Nancy, expanded her practice from internal medicine to nephrology. In 1984, she opened the Lewiston-Auburn Kidney Center on upper Main Street in Lewiston, bringing out-patient dialysis to central Maine. The nephrology practice subsequently expanded to Auburn, Wilton, and Augusta.

Candace became the first woman to be medical staff president at St. Mary’s and later served for years on its board. She also served for a time as chief of medicine at CMMC. She was also on the courtesy staff at Maine Medical Center and was appointed clinical assistant professor of medicine at UVM. She was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a board member of the Renal Physicians Association, and on the board of directors of the (dialysis) Network of New England from 1994 until 2013. Closer to home, she was a member of the Institutional Review Board at Bates College.

Candace was devoted to the Lewiston-Auburn community. She was a charter member of the board of The Public Theatre and after many production runs, she would host parties for cast and crew. She participated in a women’s book club for nearly 40 years, forming deep bonds with her fellow members. After retiring from clinical practice in 2010, Candace became involved with the Maine Women’s Fund, an organization dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of Maine women and girls. She served on and then chaired its Grants Committee and became secretary of the fund, making many site visits around the state and reviewing innumerable grant requests.

Candace will be remembered as a loving mother, a loyal and empathic friend and a trusted counselor to many, whether old friends or new. She was a terrific, inclusive hostess and an adventurous cook. A devoted and adoring grandmother. Wise, forever kind, unfailingly stubborn, brave, and bold. She had a joyful laugh and radiant smile. She was a skilled conversationalist and listener, mentor, world traveler, enthusiastic gardener, and oenophile. And she loved Volkswagen convertibles.

Candace will be missed by her family, friends, former patients, and colleagues.

She is survived by her husband, Ted; her brother, Randall Cooper; her daughters, Elizabeth “Liza” Walworth and Nancy McBrady and their husbands, Aaron Dries and James McBrady; and five beloved grandchildren, Ava, Fritz, Sydney, Cooper, and Rory, all of whom live in the Lewiston/Auburn-Portland area.

A memorial service will be held at later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the summer student program at the Jackson Laboratory

(jax.org) or the

Maine Women’s Fund

(mainewomensfund.org).

Candace Walworth

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