ROCKLAND – Bob Gagnon, a former city councilor and Rockland’s favorite grocer, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer.

Gagnon, 55, a native of Fort Kent, served three terms on the Rockland council from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, where he earned the reputation as a keen policy-maker and leveling presence on the often fractious council.

He also spent more than 20 years as store manager at Shop ‘n Save, where he daily regaled patrons with a steady stream of jokes and good cheer. It seemed he knew by first name everyone who walked into the store and always was ready with a handshake and a pat on the back.

“The city of Rockland has really lost a friend,” said former Mayor Thomas Molloy, one of Gagnon’s closest friends. “He was such a role model for everybody. He was one of a kind, and the city is going to miss him.”

Gagnon also was one of the city’s busiest volunteers, never missing a chance to lend a hand to a charitable organization or civic group. Since being diagnosed with cancer three years ago, Gagnon channeled many of his efforts into bringing a radiation treatment center to the midcoast. The Bob Gagnon Cancer Care Fund has raised more than $110,000 toward his dream.

“Will it happen today? Maybe not. But it will happen,” Gagnon pledged at the fund’s kickoff dinner in April 2000. “We need this in the midcoast not because of Bob Gagnon, but for the other people who need treatment like I did.”

Gagnon decided to devote his efforts to bringing a cancer center to the area after encountering many local residents in Bath, the nearest place to receive radiation treatments. The cancer care fund committee’s efforts will continue, Molloy said, including next weekend’s annual golf tournament.

Besides serving on the City Council, Gagnon was a member of the Knights of Columbus Stella Maris House, board member at The Salvation Army and Mid-Coast Human Resources Council, founder of St. Bernard’s Soup Kitchen, director of Camden National Corp., and member of the Coastal Economic Development Committee. He also was a member of the Rockland Lodge of Elks and the Winslow-Holbrook-Merritt American Legion.

“With Bob, it was always helping somebody,” Molloy said. “Whether it was the soup kitchen or giving a donation to some other organization, he was always in the forefront of giving.

“Bob always had a positive attitude. It didn’t matter if you had no money in your pocket or were a multimillionaire. You were always treated the same.”

Gagnon grew up in Fort Kent and was married there on June 28, 1969, to Brenda Monteith Gagnon. He worked in the retail grocery business at First National Stores in the St. John Valley before moving to Rockland in 1975.

He was appointed manager at Shop ‘n Save in 1981 and retired in June 2001.

Gagnon and his family were named Knights of Columbus Family of the Year in 1988; he was named Shop ‘n Save manager of the year in 1990; and Rockland-Thomaston Chamber of Commerce person of the year in 1992. The Rockland City Council pronounced this past Aug. 1 – opening day of the Maine Lobster Festival – as Bob Gagnon Day.

Along with his devotion to his community and family, Gagnon liked nothing better than a round of golf, a good day of fishing, organizing family feeds, landscaping his yard and squaring off in a game of Charlemagne, a popular card game of the St. John Valley.

Besides his wife of Rockland, and his mother, Rena Marie Gagnon of Madawaska, Gagnon is survived by two daughters, Tisha L. Gagnon of Owls Head, Lauria R. O’Connell and her husband, David, of Lincolnville, granddaughter Grace Ann O’Connell, two sisters, one brother and several nieces and nephews.

Family and friends are invited to call at Burpee, Carpenter and Hutchins Funeral Home on Limerock Street in Rockland from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept 12.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Rockland at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 13. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to make donations to the Bob Gagnon Cancer Fund. Envelopes will be available at the funeral home and church.