Brian D. Rittershaus, 70 years old, of Barters Island, Boothbay, Maine, died in his home after a six-year battle with prostate cancer.

He was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1955 to William E. and Edna M. Rittershaus, a principal and special education teacher respectively, who bought a summer home on Barters Island in 1960. Brian attended Malden public schools before studying at Berklee School of Music in Boston in 1973. In 1974 he attended Nick Apollonio’s guitar building school in Camden, Maine.

Growing up in the summers on Barters Island—boating on the Sheepscot with his brother, Charlie, and local friends and picking blueberries on top of the island—set forth a lifelong love of Maine that led him to move here permanently in 1978, at 23.

He was a builder at ease with framing a house as he was carefully setting abalone inlay into the guitars he crafted at home. He was an artist who could tend a fire and then sketch with the charcoal scraped from the woodstove. He was a homebody who stood in awe of the beauty out the kitchen window and loved traveling the yard on his lawnmower. He was funny, a reader with a sharp wit, and a kind, quiet, beautiful soul.

He made, and loved, music, even in the last weeks of his life. Brian was lucky upon moving to Boothbay to be embraced by the local musicians of the area despite the fact that he was a “PFA," person from away. Over the years, he played with too many bands to count, including The Walking Wounded, Thunder Bay, Hendrix Head, and the Hole in the Wall bands together with Bill Sherman, Chris Coppock, Mark Stover, Brian Howe, Glenn Burnham, Dean Berry, Jenny Berry, Scott Rittall, Nate Campbell, Liz and Chris Lannon, Skip Morgan, Danny Beal, Bill Barrett, Jeff Frasier, Frank Marston, Jeff Ramsdell, Jeff Rojo, Jerry Watson, Brian Carbonaro, Laurie Sibley Brewer, Linda Sibley Clark, Jeff Stoebe, Ken Trickett, and many more. In his younger teenage years, he was in many bands in the Boston area, with musicians John Manning, Michael Trickett, Robert Lambright, Stuart Campbell, Tommy Coyne, Gary Arena, and Rick Sweeney.

He will be missed by a family that adores him, lifelong friends and lifelong musicians. 

Brian was preceded in death by his mother and father, Edna and William; his brothers Jeffrey and John; his brother William and his wife Doris; his nephew William, Jr.; and his brother-in-law wife, Marcia Gillette.

He is survived by his wife Katie; his son Ethan, of Boston, Massachusetts; his daughter, Alison and her husband Adam Bryant, of Ithaca, New York; his sister Gretchen, of East Falmouth, Massachusetts; and his brother Charles and his wife Elaine of Malden, Massachusetts and Sprucewold, Boothbay Harbor; his McGuirk in-laws: Donald Curry and his wife Diane of Kansas City, Missouri; Michael and his wife Joanne of Cotuit, Massachusetts; Sean of Warwick, Rhode Island; Stuart and his wife Jane of Duxbury, Massachusetts; and many beloved nieces and nephews and their families: Ahren and Katie; Annaliese and Dan Neff; Claire and Ben Waters; Emily and Ben Haggett; Ashley and her mom Kris Thorenson; Eric and Sharla; Kiera Giordan; Erin and Joel Riker; Jolene; Michael Jr.; Brendan; Katie and Hunter Dunbar; Caroline; and his loyal buddy cat, Crassus.

A time of visitation will be held on Wednesday, May 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Hall’s of Boothbay, 975 Wiscasset Road, Boothbay. Musicians are warmly welcome to bring an instrument and play during the visitation. A Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, May 7, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, 82 Atlantic Avenue, Boothbay Harbor.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Brian’s memory to The Boothbay Region Community Center for their generosity P.O. Box 335 Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538, The Snell Foundation through New England Cancer Specialists for their exceptional care 100 Campus Drive, Suite 108 Scarborough, ME 04074, or The Center for Teaching and Learning, where his children received an enriching and loving education, 119 Cross Point Road, Edgecomb, ME 04556. 

Hall’s of Boothbay has care of arrangements. To extend online condolences for the Rittershaus Family, please visit hallfuneralhomes.com.