MADAWASKA – A former Madawaska school superintendent and lifelong educator was remembered Friday by friends as a hard-working man, dedicated to his family and the education of children.

Danny R.P. Michaud, 53, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on July 4 at the Maine Medical Center in Portland. He was a teacher, principal and superintendent in eight schools, including in Madawaska and Eastport, after graduating from the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

He also earned a master’s degree from the University of Maine in Orono and went on to a doctoral degree.

James Lavertu, a Madawaska attorney, was chairman of the Madawaska superintending school committee that brought Michaud to Madawaska during some tumultuous times.

“He was a hard-working individual and that was one of the reasons we hired him,” Lavertu said Friday.

“He passed away at a very young age,” Lavertu said. “I was not aware of his illness until a couple of weeks before he died.”

Michaud was superintendent at Madawaska for 15 months, before becoming co-curriculum director for one year.

“He was very proud of his daughters, three of them, and dedicated to his family,” Lavertu remembered.

Ginette Albert of Madawaska was curriculum director for the Madawaska School Department when Michaud became superintendent. She also worked with him for one year as co-director of curriculum.

“He was a very educated man, a very fair man,” she said. “He was hired to do a job and many unfair things, untrue things, were said about him when he was here.

“He had the answers on educational topics and policies,” she said. “{But] some had it out for him from the get-go.”

Albert and Michaud both attended UMFK, in different classes. She said she had good memories of Michaud and his mind and manner.

Both Lavertu and Albert remembered that everything in Michaud’s life revolved around his family and the education of children.

Michaud began his career in education as a social studies teacher in Van Buren. He later became assistant principal and principal of the Van Buren District Secondary School.

Later, the St. Agatha native went on to be principal at Mountain Valley High School, SAD 43, and Schenck High School. He was also superintendent at Eastport and SAD 43 in Mexico.

Michaud was a member of the Maine School Superintendents Association, the Aroostook County Superintendents Association, the New England Association of Superintendents, the Maine Development Foundation and the National Association of Partners in Education Inc.

His funeral was held at Fort Kent on July 6.