Denis Rogers Dignan, 87, died peacefully on September 19th, 2024 at home in Port Townsend, Washington with family and friends at his bedside.
Denis was born on August 31st, 1937 in New York City and was raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Before attending Brown University, he attended Princeton Country Day School and graduated from the Lawrenceville School. In 1957 he joined the US Army and was stationed in Germany for three years, after which he attended Stanford University as a French Literature major, graduating in 1964.
Denis spent all his summers in Cape Porpoise, Maine, as had his mother, Helen Ward Leach. In the 1920s she met Denis’s father, Thomas Dignan, in nearby Kennebunkport while Tom was visiting as an amateur baseball player. Denis had many childhood adventures in Cape Porpoise, usually with his cousins, jumping off the pier or messing about in boats in the harbor, around the islands, and sometimes out at sea in much too small of vessels, and of course without lifejackets. On one occasion, out in a small dinghy, he and a cousin accidentally rode a breaking wave right over the top of the “Old Prince,” a large rock to be avoided at the entrance to Cape Porpoise Harbor.
Denis lived in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and the Bay Area, and was especially drawn to the wooden boat scene in Sausalito, California. But by 1976 he found Marin County had grown “too crowded,” and moved to Port Townsend, Washington, another wooden boat building mecca. He bought a boatyard on the beach, named it Hadlock Boatworks, and taught himself to build wooden boats.
In 1984, after having built and launched a classic sloop, Tern, Denis sailed to Hawaii with friends aboard and then single-handed the 2,500 miles back to Port Townsend. Over his life, many of Denis’s boats were featured in boating magazines for their beauty and fine craftsmanship, as well as showcased in the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. His boats can still be spotted sailing up and down the East and West Coasts. Denis launched his last boat in 2019, the Ellie J, named after his grandchildren, which will continue to ply the waters off Port Townsend.
Denis was the happiest when he was building boats, exploring natural wonders above and below the water, playing Irish tunes on his fiddle, shooting and printing photographs, sharing a lobster dinner and a glass of wine with friends and family, spending time on the tidal waters and mudflats of Cape Porpoise, and cruising the inlets of the Pacific Northwest.
He is survived by his daughter, Danielle Dignan, of Cape Porpoise, son-in-law, Dan Zuiches, grandchildren, Eleanor and Jameson Zuiches, stepchildren, Geoffrey Heynen and Emily Seru, loving companion Ilana Smith, and many other close family and friends, including Eric Moulton, and the kind caregivers who tended to him through the end of his life. In addition to his parents, Denis is predeceased by his wife Carol Jane Bangs, brothers Thomas and David Dignan, sister Nancy Dignan King, and beloved cousins, Tony Viehmann, Rinda Verroust, and Camille Pargellis.
Denis will be remembered in casting ceremonies off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Should friends choose, memorial donations can be made to the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust (kporttrust.org) or Northwest Maritime (nwmaritime.org).
Friends and family can share memories of Denis and sign the online guestbook at www.bradley-kosec.com.
