Posted on 12/03/2019
ANSEL CLINTON BRASETH (May 3, 1922 - December 3, 2019)
Ansel C. Braseth, (97), of New Castle, passed away on December 3, 2019 at Exeter Hospital with family.
He was born on May 3, 1922 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the youngest of three children to Claus and Anna (Hanson) Braseth, Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded to the plains of North Dakota where they met and married at the turn of the century. Ansel attended the University of North Dakota for two years before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy as the class of 1946. Graduating a year early because of the war, Ansel saw action in Okinawa before witnessing the signing of the peace treaty with Japan in Tokyo Harbor while serving aboard the USS Mississippi. Following the war, Ansel entered the submarine service, serving in the Pacific through the Korean War on the USS Grouper, the USS Sterlet and the USS Hardhead, resigning from the Navy in 1954 as a full Lieutenant. He taught celestial navigation at Princeton University and the Hayden Planetarium and navigated sailing yachts in the Bermuda races while founding a fuel oil delivery business on Long Island, New York that eventually became Mollineaux Associates. A successful entrepreneur, Ansel founded and ran several related businesses and sold Mollineaux in 1984 to Petroleum Heat & Power Company (Petro), now Star Goup, the nation’s largest distributor of home heating oil.
While stationed at the submarine base in New London, Connecticut in 1947, Ansel arranged for a blind date with a girl he first saw in the church choir, Martha Rachel Hall of Montgomery Center, Vermont and New London. They would marry a year later on September 11, 1948 and raise three children in Garden City, New York. Ansel and Martha retired to New Castle in 1999, following their son Peter who had established a periodontal practice in the area after his own career on nuclear submarines.
In addition to sailing, Ansel’s passions included golf, tennis, water and snow skiing, and enjoying a lakeside cabin he hand-built for his family in Meredith, NH.
Ansel was preceded in death by his wife, Martha (Hall) Braseth and his son, Dr. Peter Clinton Braseth (Janet) in 2015.
Survivors include, a daughter, Tina Diane Reinhardt (Charles) of Bedford, MA; and son, Timothy Hall Braseth of Los Angeles, CA; four grandchildren, Chad Reinhardt of Bedford, MA, Dr. James Reinhardt (Anne) of Columbus, OH, Scott Braseth (Kait) of Portsmouth, and Kali Sink (Adam) of Kittery, ME; one great grandson, Peter John Braseth of Portsmouth; and several close nieces and nephews on both sides of the family.
A celebration of life service will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: The ALS Association, Gift Processing Center. PO Box 37022, Boone, IA 50037-0022, Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601, and or The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Donor Services, PO Box 98018, Washington DC 20090-8018.
J. VERNE WOOD FUNERAL HOME
84 Broad Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
(603) 436-1702
https://www.jvwoodfuneralhome.com/obituary/ansel-braseth