Ib Barfod, born in Frederiksberg, Denmark, Sept. 26, 1921, and died in Rockland, Maine at 105 years old on Oct. 30, 2026.

Ib was an endlessly curious, intelligent man, who believed in hard work, self-reliance and community service. He was interested in nature, people and how things work. He had a strong ethical compass and never backed away from a challenge. While growing up in Denmark, he was always on the go, and throughout his life, he stayed very active in sports, including ice climbing and century bicycle rides. An avid hiker, he was one of the first of the Hard Core Hiking Club to ascend any White Mountain peak. He spoke several languages (but swore only in Danish) and thoroughly enjoyed traveling and meeting new people.

An experience of unity and solidarity that he never forgot occurred during the German occupation of Denmark. Ib would listen to the BBC using a finicky crystal radio. On May 4,1945 at 7 pm, he heard that the Germans would capitulate the next day. He joined the throngs of people pouring out of their houses to hurry to the City Hall square of Copenhagen. Along the route, the hated blackout curtains were torn down and candles were lit in the windows. At the square, strangers hugged, kissed and joined in song.

Ib was the last of five children born to Anna Elisabeth and Paul David Tang Barfod. In 1944 he received a degree in chemical engineering, specializing in food processing, and worked at Otto Mønsted in Copenhagen. In 1948, he began a job at Blue Plate Foods in New Orleans, LA. After an interim job in Atlanta, GA, in 1955 he began work at Monsanto in its research department in Dayton, Ohio. Over the next 13 years he moved within the company: to St. Louis, MO, Augusta, GA, and Everett, MA. In 1968, he accepted a job with Marine Colloids in Rockland, ME. For the next 16 years, he held various positions, including a Vice Presidency, before he started his own consultancy firm in 1984.

In New Orleans, his courtly European manners charmed artist, Emily Ruth Xanten, whom he married in1952. They had three children: Elisabeth, Hans Peter, and Kirsten. In 1976, Ib and Emily bought a farm of 40 acres in Warren ME and named it Meadowsweet Farm. There they learned to grow their own food and raised animals, including sheep. After Emily’s death in 1995, he married flautist, Lee Humphreys, and expanded the farm to 116 acres. In his free time, Ib remained involved with the community, including Rotary and the Warren solid waste committee. He designed the transfer station and recycling in Warren rose 40 percent.

In the last years before his death, Ib and his daughters, and son when available, enjoyed weekly Zoom sessions, over which they talked and laughed together. He was predeceased by his parents and siblings (Ove, Marie Elisabeth, an unnamed son, and Agnete), and by his first wife, Emily. He is survived by his second wife Lee, and her child Ellie (Joe) and grandchildren, Josie and Preston. He lives on in his children: Elisabeth (Steve); Peter (Gail), and Kirsten (Jim); his five grandchildren: Jonathan (Grace), Erik (Sarah), Benjamin, Anna, and Christopher; and his two great-grandsons, Jude and Owen.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the George’s River Land Trust.