Ex-Madawaska leader recalled ‘Pee Wee’ Cyr, 86, was active in town affairs long after retiring

MADAWASKA – Louis A. Cyr, a former papermaker, pilot, land surveyor and town manager at Madawaska, was laid to rest Saturday, a week after he died of complications from a fall at his home.

Cyr, 86, retired from leading Madawaska affairs more than a quarter of a century ago, but maintained a role in the community by attending public meetings from time to time.

“Pee Wee,” as he was known in northern Maine, died on Easter Sunday. His funeral was held at Madawaska’s Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish.

It will be different in the northern Maine town to not hear his often-offered advice ranging from his days at Fraser Papers Inc., where he was a finish and coating room superintendent, to public administration from his eight years as town manager of the state’s northernmost town, to everyday things learned through his nearly nine decades of life.

Cyr led Madawaska through some trying years when the town and St. John Valley areas were winging their way through the early days of new public policy on solid waste disposal and using air travel to help an area grow.

He was remembered on the weekend for tenacity and his knowledge by people who worked with him in municipal government and in state affairs.

He was merciless in what he expected from legislators and elected officials, former Democratic state Sen. Judy Paradis said. His brain was always going, and his knowledge of northern Maine was exceptional.

“He always reminded me he was a Republican, yet he admitted that he supported us [she and fellow northern Maine Democrats],” she remembered. “He was one of a kind and I will remember him as a smart man, a very productive one.”

Area municipal officials remember his devotion to local affairs, to the point of helping other towns.

He was heavily involved in the development of the Northern Aroostook Regional Incinerator Facility and the town’s airport, Philip Levesque, town manager in neighboring Frenchville, recalled on the weekend.

Pee Wee always was working on behalf of area towns, Levesque said. “He looked over things for us, being knowledgeable in engineering, and his love of flying.”

Levesque remembered that Cyr was a local pioneer in the development of the Northern Aroostook Regional Airport.

Cyr lived all of his life, except for the time he spent in the military during World War II, in northern Maine.

He grew up on a farm in Madawaska and worked at Fraser for 33 years before becoming the town’s head administrator in 1972. He served on the town’s budget committee prior to starting the town manager job.

Cyr was tenacious as the town’s representative on the airport committee. The Northern Aroostook Regional Airport was built in the early 1970s.

Along with those vocations in his 41 working years after World War II, Cyr was an avid racer of speedboats, a snowmobiler, a licensed pilot, hunter and outdoorsman.

He and Lucille “Trudy” Cyr would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on April 26. They raised a family of seven children in Madawaska.