Roy Daigle, first Bangor Mall chief, dies at 69

Roy C. Daigle, the first general manager of the Bangor Mall and an active member of the local business community, died suddenly Tuesday near his home in North Carolina. He was 69.

Daigle died in Charlotte, N.C., said his son Jeremy Daigle of Bucksport. Roy Daigle was driving to meet a friend for lunch when his car struck a tree. He also suffered a heart attack, but it is not clear whether the heart attack caused or resulted from the accident, Jeremy Daigle said Wednesday.

“He will be missed by his family, and we love him and look forward to seeing him again someday,” Jeremy Daigle said. “He was very passionate about business, very much about economic development.”

Roy Daigle, who lived in Charlotte, N.C., and Ellsworth, managed the Bangor Mall from its construction in 1977 until his retirement in 2000. He served as president of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce in 1988. In 2000, he ran for a seat in the state House of Representatives but lost to incumbent Joseph Perry.

“He was a great guy and will be sorely missed,” Gov. John Baldacci said Wednesday. “He was a big promoter of the St. John Valley, where he was originally from, as well as Bangor. He did a wonderful job as the leader of Bangor Mall and was always a part of Chamber and community activities.”

Under Daigle’s management, the Bangor Mall prospered and attracted other businesses along Stillwater Avenue and Hogan Road, said the mall’s current general manager, James Gerety.

“From the time that this property was developed in a cow pasture to when the buildings sprung up, the mall has meant literally thousands of jobs and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales,” Gerety said. “He [Roy Daigle] was very much a part of that process.”

Daigle was born July 27, 1937, in Fort Kent but grew up in Patten and, later, Hartford, Conn. After graduating from Buckley High School in Hartford, he served in the Marines for six years and attended the University of Maryland and American International College in Springfield, Mass. He also studied property management at Notre Dame.

In 1977, after working as a mall manager in New York, Maryland and Virginia, Daigle was asked by mall development firm Kravco Inc. to return to Maine and manage the Bangor Mall, Jeremy Daigle said.

After his retirement, Daigle pursued his passion for golf and became an instructor in Lakewood, Ohio, where he moved with his second wife, Pam, in 1999. The couple relocated to Charlotte in 2003.

Daigle return frequently to Maine, often to a camp he built in Ellsworth in 2005. On his most recent visit in April, he enthusiastically organized an Easter egg hunt for his grandchildren, Jeremy Daigle said.

Daigle is survived by his wife, Pam; his three children, Richard Daigle of Dixmont, Jeremy Daigle of Bucksport and Melanie Hileman of Orland; two brothers, Ron Daigle of Mesa, Ariz., and Rock Daigle of Ellington, Conn.; and nine grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later, Jeremy Daigle said.