In the Driver’s Seat Joseph Cyr

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Part 5 of a 6-part series

Squinting beneath the brim of his fraying baseball cap, Joseph Cyr leans in to take a careful look at the elaborate decal work on his newest tour bus.

From a few steps back, the blue and green swirling loops on the side of the massive, white coach are impressive.

It’s that attention to detail that has best served the 61-year-old bus magnate during his three decades at the helm of his family business and at the table of the dozen or so community boards on which he has served over the years.

“I’ve never been much of a forward thinker,” the casually dressed Cyr matter-of-factly said in his small, windowless office in Old Town at the Cyr Bus Lines corporate headquarters on the Gilman Falls Road. “I concentrate on the day-to-day stuff.”

A number of days have come and gone since his grandfather John T. Cyr started the company in 1912 with 32 horse-drawn buggies that served as everything from mail delivery coaches to hearses.

Cyr’s mustachioed grandfather wouldn’t recognize his company today, as his oval portrait on the wall looks down upon a bursting roll-top desk.

“I keep it messy to make people think I’m busy,” Cyr said.

Well, somebody’s been busy.

When Cyr took over the business from his father in 1967, it had just 13 buses, two trucks, six or seven employees and a $20,000 debt.

Today, the 180-vehicle fleet includes 26 coaches that travel up and down the East Coast and 112 school buses that deliver area kids to and from school in seven districts, including Bangor.

“Luck, I guess,” Cyr said of the reasons behind the continued expansion of the business, which now has 160 employees and has recently expanded into southern Maine with a station in Auburn. “[It’s] just being in the right place at the right time.”

While Cyr could indeed be lucky, it’s his business sense that has cemented his presence on the boards of several area organizations, including St. Joseph Hospital, Merrill Merchants Bank and the Old Town-Orono YMCA.

Though the modest and affable Cyr might consider himself less than visionary, those who served with him, especially on the YMCA board, on which he played a role for 30 years, would suggest otherwise.

It was Cyr, they said, who was one of the first and most ardent supporters of then-director Douglas Springer’s idea for a new field house – which now bears the Cyr family name – at the Stillwater Avenue facility.

“Joe was absolutely in the thick of all of that,” said Alan Commeau, the board’s past president.

He estimated that membership at the YMCA has doubled since the Cyr Family Field House’s opening about a year ago. “He was up there as much as anybody else to make sure everything went right and we saved money.”

But just as saving money is not always about cutting corners, leadership isn’t all about making decisions. And Cyr is happy to get his hands dirty.

In fact, when estimates for the new YMCA facility crept up to $1.4 million, Cyr and a group of volunteers, including some construction professionals, grabbed their tools and finished the interior themselves to save labor costs. When all was done, the project cost around $800,000, with much of that coming from Cyr and best-selling authors Stephen and Tabitha King, the latter of whom grew up in Old Town.

Cyr also grew up in Old Town, on French Island, one of the bastions of Franco-Americans in central Maine. And although he had just returned from Florida at the time of this interview, where he visited longtime friend and mentor Herb Sargent of Old Town-based H.E. Sargent Inc., Cyr said he has no intention of retiring.

“I haven’t been far and I don’t want to go far,” said Cyr, who has lived on only two streets – Bosworth and Brunswick – in his entire life.

Though he may not be the most jet-set oriented or best educated of the 20 leaders interviewed for this series, Cyr, the only one who did not earn a college degree, said his practical understanding of the business world has given him a sense of the region’s challenges and the brand of leadership needed to solve them.

Cyr said the next generation of leaders would be wise to hire dynamic administrators who can act without constant board direction.

“You need a leader, but instead you hire a puppet,” Cyr said of a disturbing trend he’s seen on some school boards and town councils. “You might have to put your thumb on some people from time to time, but you shouldn’t hire an administrator who looks to you for direction at every turn.”

At board meetings, Cyr is deliberate and measured with his words, but not hesitant to share his point of view.

“I only say something when I think it’s relevant and important,” Cyr said. “Other people might not think so, but I do.”

Cyr’s watchful leadership style has won him the respect of those with whom he has served.

“He has a lot of common sense and he listens,” said Sister Mary Norberta, the chief executive officer of Bangor’s St. Joseph Hospital, where Cyr has served on various boards for about 15 years. “Whatever he suggests is well thought out.”

While his quiet demeanor makes him come across as somewhat reserved, Cyr loosens up when the subject turns to his family. The newest addition is grandson John, whose picture hangs within easy reach.

“He already likes his buses,” Cyr said of the 2-year-old namesake of the company’s founder, his great-grandfather.

Two of Cyr’s children work within the company – and he said he’s looking to gradually give more and more responsibility for the Old Town operation to 35-year-old Mike, who sits in the next office giving instructions to a driver over the phone.

But doing business in Maine -one of the highest taxed states in the nation – is not always easy, said Cyr, setting aside a $1 million contract he had been working on.

“Nobody wants you to make money,” Cyr said. “And if you do, somebody bigger comes in right next to you and does the same thing.”

Looking to slow down as he nears retirement age, Cyr considers himself fortunate that family members are poised to take over. And the father of four doesn’t think the “brain drain” phenomenon – the problem of young people leaving the state for higher paying jobs – is as dire as some have suggested.

“How far back do you have to go before that isn’t the case?” he asked. “Young folks have to go and broaden their horizons. It’s more that than it is a necessity.”

Far more pressing for the state, Cyr said, is the decline he has seen in Maine’s forest products industry. He said he was unsure if the decline was due more to the shrinking market or the good-intentioned efforts of environmentalists to buy up land.

As for a North Woods National Park, Cyr is “deathly opposed,” although he would consider supporting “a 20-acre park” in the region.

But Cyr, who until February hadn’t taken a vacation lasting more than 10 days, would probably have little use for such a park.

Although he plans to spend less time at work and more on vacation with his wife, Sue, he said he has no plans to retire or spend less time on the civic boards on which he serves.

“I guess I always believed you get more out of these things than you put in. At some point it’s almost selfish.”

Tomorrow: “Bangor is a community where individuals can make a difference.”