BANGOR – He was loved, respected and admired.

The loss of John Silsby Bacon took many by surprise when he died Sunday afternoon at age 71 after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease for more than a year.

The well-known businessman, who owned Bacon Printing Co., had been diagnosed with the disease just under two weeks ago, when he was hospitalized after having difficulty breathing. Bacon was held at the hospital for a week before he was allowed to return home. Ten days after being admitted to Eastern Maine Medical Center, he passed away.

“We knew that he probably didn’t have long to live after we learned that he had Lou Gehrig’s disease,” said close friend Richard J. Warren, publisher of the Bangor Daily News. “The fact that it happened in a week was a surprise.”

Born in 1930, Bacon began working for his father, Henry Irving Bacon, at Bacon Printing Co. immediately after high school graduation at age 18. He began as a bookkeeper and delivery boy and proceeded to move up the company ladder from there. He took over Bacon Printing Co. when his father died in 1986.

“His father made him learn all the aspects of the business,” said son-in-law and current manager of Bacon Printing, Carlton A. Strout Jr. “It was just like how John started me, in shipping.”

Bacon had plenty of opportunities to learn the family business, as it encompassed his childhood. His grandfather John Hopkins Bacon founded the company in 1848. While his knowledge of the business and his community was learned over time, the way he participated in both was natural.

“He loved being around the people at the plant,” said Warren. “He had a great appreciation for what they did.”

“He did business through friends, word of mouth and a handshake,” added Strout. “He was a very happy-go-lucky kind of guy who didn’t like confrontation. He worked, played and had a good time all the time.”

Bacon oversaw some of Bacon Printing Co.’s most daunting tasks as he helped to bring the company into the 21st century – the transition from lead plates, to aluminum plates, to computers and larger presses.

William Bullock Jr., chairman of Merrill Merchants Bank and a close friend of Bacon for more than 30 years, remembers him as a good businessman, an avid outdoorsman, a loving father and husband, and “a very wonderful person.”

Bullock recalled one trip where Bacon, Bullock, Warren and Bullock’s son, William Bullock III, were in Russia on the Kola Peninsula for a salmon-fishing trip in 1991.

At the time, the balding Bacon bore a striking resemblance to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet premier. “One night after a little vodka, John put shoe polish on his head to resemble the birthmark Gorbachev had,” recalled Bullock with a laugh. “Everyone in the camp broke out laughing and wanted a picture with him.”

Among Bacon’s many friends was the late University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh.

“John hadn’t been feeling well for a while and, last summer, Shawn called John from Boston, where he was having his stem cell surgery,” said Bullock. “Shawn called to see how he was doing and to cheer him up. That gives you an idea. That’s how well he was liked.”

Bacon supported countless organizations without hesitation, Bullock said.

“He was a real community star. He was very active in the community and a man of high integrity,” said Bangor Mayor John Rohman. “The way he went about supporting children and their causes, he was very approachable. Just his smile and manner. … He was the kind of guy that when you walked into a room, the first thing you would see was his smile.”