Bradley Carlton Blake, second of four children of Daniel C. Blake and Frances G. Blake, was born Feb. 16, 1951. He lived his life at Blakely in the house he built, where he died Sunday morning, Aug. 26, 2012. Bradley enjoyed applying his encyclopedic knowledge of history, math, physics and music to projects from building boats, airplanes and musical instruments to teaching his nieces and nephews, who learned math from their uncle’s blackjack lessons.

At Easter egg hunts, he dropped candy from one of the two ultralight airplanes that he built and loved to fly. Though he was happiest when he was teaching or devising an invention for someone’s problem, he preferred to live quietly and self-sufficiently in the house that he built, where he could watch his walnut trees grow and enjoy the woods and waterfall behind his house.

He was selfless, took very little, asked for little, but gave so much. Ever humble and succinct, he requested an obituary shorter than two inches in length and wrote an epitaph: “Honking horn and screeching brake/presage the end of Bradley Blake./His chassis does not long survive/but his soul rolls on in overdrive.”

Survivors are brothers, Daniel W. Blake and Henry L. Blake; sister, Frances B. Perkins; nephews, Nicholas Blake, Blake Perkins and Austin Perkins; nieces, Conner Perkins and Myra Blake; and grand-nephews, Patrick and Andrew Blake. He will be buried in the family plot in a private ceremony.

Glenwood Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.