Tracy Kane Hastings

YARMOUTH – Tracy K. Hastings, 99, passed away peacefully at Bay Square Assisted Living on March 6th, 2026 following a bout of pneumonia. He was born on August 4, 1926 in Detroit Michigan, son to Harold M and Gertrude (Kane) Hastings.

Though his body was in decline, Tracy always kept his “Hastings sense of humor” He was a master story teller and great punster, excelling in groan worthy punning matches at the dinner table with family and guests.

Tracy attended high school in Detroit, Michigan, where he was a member of the school’s competitive swim team as well as at the Detroit Boat Club. Following high school he served in the US Navy during WWII. He was based at Great Lakes Naval Station until mid-1946. After the war, he got a business degree at Miami University and later was enrolled in the Thunderbird School of Global Management obtaining a Masters in International Business hence starting his interest in Latin America. During college years he met his wife to be Leslie (aka Lee) Hulbert from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The young couple married in a beautiful home garden ceremony in August 1948 and thus began a long life journey together.

Tracy and Lee’s first 3 years started in Akron, Ohio. With Tracy’s international business specialty, life took them abroad, first working for Firestone for 3 years In Panama, where their 1st two children, Andrea and Ken were born, followed by 17 years in Venezuela as Venezuelan manager and later as South and Central America area director of the multinational American company of S.C. Johnson & Sons, where they had their 3rd child, Celeste. During those years, which started and ended in Caracas, Tracy built a factory in Maracay where also in 1960 the Hastings also co-founded Escuela International, a bi-lingual grammar school. He was a member of and served as president of the Rotary Club and contributed to Fey Alegria a children’s charity. Swimming remained his sport of choice.

Tracy designed and built a beautiful first house, Quinta Jasmin, for the family and as an avid train afficionado, he loved designing and creating intricate H-scale, then tiny N-scale model railroad panoramas landscapes, replete with miniature trees and people. He was a long-time member of The National Model Railroad Association for most of his life and was a founding member of the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum in Portland, ME. He also became a lifetime member of the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington (WW&F) Railway Museum.

With an S.C. Johnson transfer back to the USA, the next 11 years were spent in Racine, WI although he continued to travel extensively in Latin America for work. Two of his children married during this period and Tracy continued contributing as president of the local Rotary Club. Tracy and Lee moved back to the tropics to Puerto Rico for their last 2 years at S.C. Johnson.

Followed were Tracy and Lee’s many years of retirement in Maine. They were drawn to the state by the beautiful scenery and the special character and humor of Mainers. They started retirement in 1981 by building a house in Jefferson on 25 acres of land where Tracy so enjoyed building walls, creating trails and a garden with a solar greenhouse while Lee also immersed herself in fine cooking. He was very active in the Jefferson Historical Society and rebuilt their town’s historical bandstand. With an interest in the British Isles, they began almost yearly trips to England enjoying many a canal boat trip together.

After the ice storm of 1998 they made the choice to move to a retirement community in Belfast ME starting their “Second Retirement” at Penobscot Shores spending many pleasant years there where Tracy also enjoyed delving into classical and jazz music and piano playing. Sadly Lee passed away in February 2013.

A few years later, Nancy O’Brien (Nan) came into Tracy’s life, becoming his second love. They spent nine years together, at Penobscot Shore and later to an assisted living facility Stroudwater Lodge in Westbrook, ME. Nan passed in July of 2024. Later Tracy needing more health assistance was moved to Bay Square Assisted Living in Yarmouth where he spent his last 2 years being well taken care of until his passing.

Tracy is survived by his children, Andrea L. Solomon and husband Jim of St Louis, MO; Kenneth T. Hastings and wife Ninda of Lake St Louis, MO; Celeste Hastings of New York City; grandchildren Alex Hastings, Chris Solomon and Bryan Solomon; greatgrandchildren Eric Solomon and Oliver Hastings; several cousins and close friends Lori Donovan, Mark Hall and Rob Hall.

Tracy’s family held a private memorial at Lindquist Funeral Home and plans for cremation and final burial together with his wife Lee at Bond Cemetery near Jefferson, ME. This completes their retirement journey. Our deepest love and “goodbye for now” as Tracy used to say, to this wonderful person who was blessed to enjoy a rich full life, our beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather, and friend.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Conservation Law Foundation, 62 Summer St, Boston, MA 02110, or any other charity of choice.

Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to leave condolences for the Hastings family and share a memory of tracy.