Former B&A head dies at 90

BANGOR – The world never ceased to amaze W. Gordon Robertson.

Endowed with an adventurous spirit and a yearning to connect with people, the former president of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad bought his first computer when he was 86 so he could e-mail relatives in Europe.

“He was always fascinated with gadgets and technology,” said his son, Bob, who wasn’t surprised that his father didn’t let on about his plans.

“That was part of his character,” said Bob Robertson during a telephone interview Monday from Boca Raton, Fla., where his father died Jan. 16 at age 90.

“He’d get excited about something and then he’d just go ahead and do it,” said the son.

Friends remembered Robertson on Monday as extremely intelligent man with a wry sense of humor – a hardworking, self-made man who was a voracious reader, “erudite in the way some college-trained people are not.”

Active in the Aroostook County potato industry before moving to Bangor to head B&A, Robertson was director of the Dead River Co. of Bangor, Guilford Industries and the Penobscot Shoe Co. of Old Town. He served on the board of trustees at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and the University of Maine.

Even at the end, when his sight was failing, Robertson refused to be held back. Vowing to revisit Normandy where he had been wounded during World War II, Robertson commissioned a plane to fly over the area while his brother described the sights.

“His handicap didn’t slow him down a bit,” said his friend, Allison Briggs of Brewer.

The Scottish born entrepreneur was game for anything, people said Monday.

“He loved taking on new challenges,” said Lucille Brimmer, his secretary for a number of years.

Learning to sail in his 40s, Robertson may have wished he got an earlier start. “But he was determined to do it,” said the Brewer woman, recalling the excitement in his voice when he talked about the sailboat he had moored in Northeast Harbor.

Robertson was no less audacious when it came to business, according to Richard Sprague of Bangor, who worked for Robertson at the railroad during the 1960s.

“He was one of the sharpest executives I knew – he was decisive and had a clear idea of where he wanted to go and where he wanted the company to go,” said Sprague, who watched as Robertson diversified the railroad and created the internationally known Bangor & Aroostook Corp.

“It was a bold step,” Sprague said. “But he was very adventurous, always willing to try new things. He wasn’t impulsive, but he was open, he listened to [different] ideas.”

A philanthropist from the word go, Robertson helped finance the expansions at EMMC and the Bangor Public Library.

“As a fund-raiser, he was phenomenal,” said Sprague. “He was one heck of a salesman, and he never lost that touch. When he believed in a cause he got people to donate big dollars.”

A neighbor for more than 35 years, George Carlisle said he would have “high tea” with Robertson now and then.

“We’d talk about everything, what we were doing, the family, the economic situation,” Carlisle recalled.

Other times, he’d see Robertson sitting in the backyard pool, religiously doing his exercises and listening intently to the books on tape that he loved so much.

“He liked to keep up on things,” said Carlisle.

A memorial service will be held this summer in Maine.