OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Jerome A. LePelletier, 84, died on July 23, 2014 at his residence from complications with cancer and heart problems.

Born Jan. 17, 1930, he was the only child of Alexander LePelletier and Pearl Bridges LePelletier.

Until age 5, he spent winters with his parents in Florida, where they had a gift shop. There, Jerome attended a nursery school where music was taught to very young children. Thus began his early interest in music. In 1935, his parents gave up the Florida store and the family moved back to Old Orchard Beach full time, where he attended public schools and graduated with the Class of 1947.

Growing up, he mastered a number of interests, a favorite being classical music. He became an accomplished pianist and violinist. As an adult, he also tuned and restored pianos. As a teenager, Jerome had hoped to be a concert pianist, and, in 1949, he signed up for the Rachmaninoff piano concert. However, his father reminded him that things were very bad between Russia and the United States then. His father thought it would be better for him to keep music as a hobby and to attend law school. Jerome enrolled in pre-law at Portland Junior College, then Portland University Law School, where he received the bachelor’s degree in law. That summer he placed third on the Maine State Bar exam. Soon thereafter he was drafted into the Army, serving in the Army Intelligence Group in Washington, D.C. until his father died suddenly, and Jerome was discharged from the Army to return home to settle the estate.

He then decided to enter teaching and attended the University of New Hampshire, and received a master’s degree in English literature, with concentration in 19th-century literature. He received a position almost immediately at Old Orchard Beach High School teaching English. He remained there for the next 25 years, serving as teaching principal for the last 17 years of his tenure, and he retired from teaching in 1980.

Jerome was married for 63 years to Marie Stella Gagne of Quebec City, Canada, from 1947 until her death after suffering from Parkinson’s disease. They had no children.

After retirement, he and Stella spent several years wintering in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Summers in Maine were spent doing some restoration of old buildings in southern Maine and dealing in antiques.

Mr. LePelletier requested specifically that there be no funeral, no visiting hours, no wake, no eulogy and no flowers. His friends can remember him in their hearts. Funeral directions are with the Old Orchard Beach Funeral Home.

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