MADAWASKA – Elmo Albert, Madawaska farmer, businessman and civil servant left a legacy of community service, hard work and friendship when he passed away Wednesday, 81 years to the day he was born in the town he called home all his life.

Albert, 81, was a former selectman, member of the Madawaska School Committee and member of the town’s budget committee for years in the ’70s and ’80s.

An avid outdoorsman, he made many friends, some decades his junior.

“He was a funny guy, very intelligent and a conservative, but not in a malicious way,” Robert Bellefleur, a Madawaska lawyer and hunting partner, said of Albert. “He gave the impression he was a hard man, but he had a soft side to him, and he was as loyal a friend as anyone could expect.

“He could also be a tough enemy, but he was a man who did not leave you wondering how he felt about you,” he said of the man he hunted with in the northwestern Maine woods. “He was not a demeaning person, but he let you know he disagreed.”

Bellefleur remembered his friend Thursday as a man who never complained about anything, a man who took life the way it came.

Romeo Daigle, a brother-in-law and fellow selectman of Albert’s in the ’80s, remembered him Thursday.

“He was a very practical man, very frugal and full of common sense,” Daigle said. “He was frank, and not a politician. He told the truth, and often some people didn’t like that.

“He knew and understood public affairs, public works, the costs of projects, and machinery better than any one of us,” he said. “He knew the cost of those kinds of things, and was instrumental in many ways while he was a selectman.”

Albert started business life a potato grower on a family farm in St. David Village, a part of Madawaska. Through the years potatoes went by the wayside, and he established Albert Farms Trucking, a business now operated by his son, Jeff Albert.

Albert remained active in the business to his last days, arriving at the office before 7 a.m. each day.

Albert is survived by Juliet Daigle Albert, his wife of 60 years, two daughters, Louise Gendreau and Frances Gendreau, both of Madawaska, his son, Jeffrey, four sisters and one brother, and their respective families.

Albert’s wake will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, at the Daigle Funeral Home in Madawaska.

His funeral is at 11 a.m. Saturday at the St. David Church in Madawaska.