NORWALK, Conn. — Great Northern Nekoosa Corp. Chairman William R. Laidig, who was defeated as he tried to thwart Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s hostile takeover, left the company Friday with a “golden parachute” severance package worth millions of dollars.

Laidig’s departure from the paper giant came roughly a month before Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific hopes to complete its merger.

“He put out a letter to employees saying that he agreed to help during the transition and had done that to the point it was most productive,” Great Northern spokesman Stephen M. Hill said.

Hill referred questions on Laidig’s plans to Laidig, who was said to be busy in a meeting early Friday and unavailable for comment. Laidig did not immediately return reporters’ phone calls.

Georgia-Pacific issued a statement that said Laidig probably will be replaced by Ronald P. Hogan, Great Northern vice chairman and Georgia-Pacific president and chief operating officer.

After Georgia-Pacific initiated its unsolicited takeover attempt last fall, the Great Northern board approved a sweetened package that calls for Laidig to get three times his base salary plus his highest annual bonus of the last three years.

The company’s 1989 proxy statement listed Laidig’s salary at $707,000 a year.

Laidig had been chairman, chief executive officer and president of Great Northern since 1984.

News of Laidig’s departure had slipped out earlier this year in a news conference held in Portland, Maine, by Georgia-Pacific Executive Vice President A.D. “Pete” Correll.