Richard Stetson Ellis, 84, died in his sleep at home on June 2, 2010. Son of the late Leslie C. Ellis and the late Ruth S. (Bryant) Ellis, Mr. Ellis was born in Braintree and raised in Rockland. A member of the Rockland High School Class of 1944, Mr. Ellis left school before graduation to enlist in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served in the Pacific as a signalman on the USS LCI(L)-969. Upon his return from the war, he worked at Arnold’s Machine Shop on Liberty Street in Rockland. He ran a side business from home, refinishing antique furniture. He attended classes at Wentworth Institute in Boston.

Mr. Ellis met and married Barbara M. (Atkinson) Ellis of Rockland in the late 1940’s. They designed and built a house on Washington Street in Pembroke and settled there in the early 1950’s. They raised two daughters, Linda and Jane.  It was during this time that Mr. Ellis started his electrical contracting business. When his marriage ended in divorce in 1977, Mr. Ellis moved to Duxbury. He continued in the electrical trade, operating out of his home on Church Street. Famous for the quality of his work, he was still working at the time of his death, doing smaller jobs and repairing lamps while referring larger jobs to his grandson, also a master electrician. Mr. Ellis was in business for himself for sixty years.

Mr. Ellis leaves his daughters, Linda M. Ellis of Rockland and Jane Ellis of Duxbury; a grandson, Christopher J. Ellis of Pembroke; and two great-grandchildren, Kingston E. and Lucia M. Ellis of Pembroke.

Friends and family are invited to a memorial service on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 7 p.m. at First Church in Pembroke, 105 Center St.  Burial at Marshfield Hills Cemetery will be private.  In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the Richard S. Ellis Scholarship Fund, South Shore Vocational Technical High School, 476 Webster St., Hanover MA 02339. .