BROOKLIN — Given his typical humility, Jim Steele was likely thinking of other local boatbuilders when he posted a sign at the head of his driveway declaring Brooklin the boatbuilding capital of the world.

Steele died March 1 at his winter home in Brooksville, Fla., at the age of 70.

He might have assigned himself only a minor role in making Brooklin a boatbuilding capital, but his contribution to the town’s rich tradition of building boats clearly landed him a leading role.

The boats and houses he built provide a lasting legacy, and the contribution he made to the community will be remembered for generations.

“He was just a great, great man, extremely generous,” WoodenBoat Publisher Jon Wilson said of his longtime friend. “It’s a great loss to the community.”

Steele first applied his woodworking skills to building cottages and houses, and many homeowners in the Brooklin area are grateful that he had a hand in producing the solidly built structures they now call home.

When the town decided to build a new school, Steele steered the project as chairman of the Building Committee.

“He was a real force on that committee,” said Jim Cummins, a member of the Building Committee. “He oversaw the construction and made sure it went right.”

The project was completed in 1995.

When residents wanted the modern school to have a structural connection to the historic school it would replace, Steele designed, built and donated a replica of the old school’s cupola.

Cummins recalls how Steele measured the old cupola, then built the new one that would give the contemporarily designed school a lasting connection to the town’s history.

Many visitors to Brooklin will fail to notice the cupola atop the school that sits at the end of a long driveway, and only a few are lucky enough to live in a house that Steele helped build.

For those who turn their attention to the sea, however, it’s only a matter of time before they discover another aspect of Steele’s legacy: the peapod.

In 1964, Steele began building peapods. He built 178 of the rowing boats that the Coast Guard identifies as DPS (Downeast Peapod Steele).

While Steele’s brilliant workmanship is evident in each peapod he built, his bigger contribution to boatbuilding lies in the innovative production techniques he developed over the years.

“He employed traditional values,” Wilson said, “but he was constantly looking at ways to improve the way he thought about things, the way he did things and the way the world appreciated things.

“He was an inventor as much as he was a craftsman.”

Steve White, owner of Brooklin Boat Yard, owns a peapod that his father, Joel White, commissioned Steele to build.

“I believe the model comes from Budsy Hawkins,” White said, “but Jimmy improved on the building techniques considerably. He developed jigs, patterns and techniques that allowed him to build them very efficiently.

“He was a really smart guy, and he was incredibly talented with his hands and his mind. He enjoyed solving problems. That’s part of the beauty of those boats.”

White recalls how Steele would jump at an opportunity to do something out of the ordinary, especially if it involved building.

He recalls the extremely cold winter of 1976 when Eggemoggin Reach froze over.

“Jimmy and my father built an ice boat,” White said, adding that they used four-by-sixes and the rig from a Beetle Cat to build the boat. “They took an office chair and nailed it to the four-by-sixes.

“In a day, they built an ice boat and sailed it round the reach. That was the type of opportunity Jim loved.”

Wilson’s friendship with Steele dates to 1974 when Wilson started WoodenBoat magazine. Wilson had set up a small exhibit at a small craft workshop in Mystic Seaport, Conn.

He was hoping to sign up subscribers for the magazine that existed only as an idea.

“Jimmy was the first one to sign up,” he said. “That is a great example of the kind of guy he was. He was always, always, always looking at what was out there that was new and interesting. He was interested in just a ton of different things.”

Throughout his life, Steele pursued interests in boats, old cars, clocks, tools, machines and more.

“He loved stuff,” Wilson said, “but he loved it for its ingenuity. He was just an extraordinary gifted man with an extremely keen eye.”

When the WoodenBoat offices were lost to fire in Brooksville, Steele served as vice president of an organization that allowed the magazine to move into its present location in Brooklin.

That was 1977, and the organization Steele served acquired the Mountain Ash Inn property in Brooklin with the intention of dividing the property into affordable plots.

“He was the inventor of affordable housing in Brooklin,” Wilson said of Steele’s vision for the property.

Wilson had Steele build two peapods for him. The second was a gift to his son, which turned out to be the 100th peapod Steele built.

“Jimmy always called it the centennial edition,” said Wilson.

The peapods he built will give Steele a permanent rank in boat building circles. His friends will remember him as a quiet achiever with a great sense of humor who would always put others first.

“We’d talk about doing a story about him, and he’d always suggest others, like Junior and Arno Day,” Wilson said. “He was quick to suggest that those who came before him got credit first.

“He was very, very funny and was always making up phrases: ‘It’s right there in black and writing.’ It was always just hilarious.”