A Bucksport lawyer, town councilor and fixture on Main Street who worked for decades to help people recover from alcoholism has died.
David Kee, 86, was a founding partner of what’s now the Bucksport-based general practice law firm Fellows, Kee, Tymoczko & Lewis, a three-term town councilor, a four-decade member of Alcoholics Anonymous and a familiar sight on walks through town enjoying his daily cigar.
Family and community members remember him as a funny, generous and lively character who was well-liked by generations of Bucksport residents and worked to help others in his profession recover from substance abuse.
“He was a great guy. He was not a judgmental person, and he enjoyed people,” said Bill Tymoczko, a partner who joined Kee’s law firm out of school in 1982 and stayed until retiring last year. “You really have to enjoy people if you’re going to practice in a small town.”
During his career, Kee was elected president of the Maine State Bar Association’s board — later receiving the association’s John W. Ballou Award, its most prestigious — and appointed to three terms on the Maine Human Rights Commission. Kee also served on the Governor’s Substance Abuse Services Commission.
Kee died on June 17 after being injured in a car crash at the intersection of School House Road, Upper Falls Road and Route 1 in Orland days earlier. That intersection at the crest of a hill has been the site of numerous crashes for years and prompted the state to start planning traffic changes there.
His wife, Paula Kee, said the outpouring of support she has received in recent weeks is a testimony to his impact on the community.
“He was just a real positive soul. Very optimistic, very upbeat,” she said.
David Kee was born and raised in West Virginia, where he graduated from West Virginia University College of Law in 1966.
He was a captain and special agent in the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps — “not a spy,” notes the humorous obituary he wrote in advance and had himself photographed with a cigar to accompany.
Kee then worked at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, where he later became a professor of admiralty law. He was a founding partner in 1970 of the firm then called Fellows, Kee & Nesbitt, and was twice elected as Hancock County’s prosecutor, today the role of district attorney.
Kee focused on divorce cases, criminal defense work and real estate. He was laid back as an attorney but very good at his work and able to deal with any situation, according to Tymoczko.
“He was one of the best attorneys I’ve ever seen on his feet in front of a jury,” he said. “He could connect with people.”
Kee was also family-oriented. When he once found Tymoczko — then a new father — in the office after hours, Kee told him to go to work for a Portland firm if he wanted to stay late instead of being with his family.
But Kee was also a “riot” and fun to practice with, he said.
If a client shared something funny, Kee wanted to tell Tymoczko immediately — so he’d say he had a phone call and go next door to relay the story.
After he retired, Kee would stop by on his cigar-smoking walks to shoot the breeze and tell some of the same stories they’d shared for 40 years, laughing just as hard, Tymoczko said.
Kee and early partner Sam Nesbitt were also among the first attorneys in the country to advertise their services, according to Tymoczko, taking out ads in the local paper and the phone book following a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that legalized lawyers advertising.
Kee was also irreverent and unafraid to speak his mind, Tymoczko said. For example, the head of the state overseers of the bar used to review ads before publication. He once said one wasn’t a violation, but he didn’t think it was very tasteful, either — to which Kee replied they weren’t trying to get him as a client.
“Most people wouldn’t say that to the head of the overseers,” Tymoczko said with a laugh.
Everybody seemed to like him, said Paula Kee, even when he raised some hell in the years before getting sober in 1982. They married that year, his fourth marriage, after meeting while she was in town selling legal directories.
“David was a funny guy,” she said. “He always liked to laugh. We laughed for about 44 years.”
A longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he connected people to recovery resources and encouraged attending meetings to see the road to recovery.
He was part of an informal network of attorneys and judges helping peers with alcoholism in a field with high instances of substance abuse. After retiring from the firm in 1998, he became the first director of the formal Maine Assistance Program for Lawyers and Judges. That was created by the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine to respond to mental health and substance abuse issues in the profession.
Later, he became a private interventionist for people dealing with alcohol issues, his wife said. He arranged for people to go to rehab facilities around the country, and his connections were a “wonderful gift” that benefitted everyone in the community.
Tymoczko said Kee saved several lives and changed many for the better.
Running a general practice firm in a small town also means knowing generations of local families, creating an arc of connection to the community, his wife said.
Kee served three consecutive terms on the Bucksport Town Council, from 2009 to 2019. Last week, the town’s current mayor, Paul Bissonnette, remembered Kee as a wonderful neighbor and one of the most colorful figures in the town’s history.
Kee is survived by three children, four grandchildren and his wife. A celebration of life will be held in September.
