ORONO – The owner of this university town’s landmark restaurant died Thursday afternoon at home surrounded by his family.

Pat Farnsworth was 93.

Farnsworth bought the business that became Pat’s Pizza in 1931 for $150. It evolved from an ice cream parlor to a lunch counter to a hamburger joint, and finally, in the early 1950s, into a pizza parlor frequented by locals and college students alike. Today, 13 franchise restaurants in Maine bear the name Pat’s Pizza.

The Mill Street business survived the Great Depression, World War II and conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Bosnia. Farnsworth fended off downtown revitalization in 1985 and would-be robbers 10 years later. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, until his 90th birthday.

Pat Farnsworth’s son Bruce, 55, was at the restaurant working Thursday night. He is the youngest of Farnsworth’s four children and now runs the family business.

“I told my sister, ‘I’ve got to go in. That’s what he’d do,'” he said.

Pat Farnsworth’s daughters Pam Savoy and Ann Rosebush also work at the restaurant. All of his 12 grandchildren have worked as waitresses or pizza makers, said Bruce Farnsworth, and the fourth generation is poised to take over.

“My 9-year-old granddaughter Taylor Harper was here last week running the pizza cash register for a few hours,” he said, sitting in the basement office at his father’s desk. “She reminds me so much of Dad. She loves the cash register.”

Reaction to Pat Farnsworth’s death was swift and personal. He was a familiar figure to the state’s top elected officials. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a graduate of the University of Maine, and her husband former Maine Gov. John “Jock” McKernan called Farnsworth “a Maine institution” in a statement issued by her office Thursday evening.

“From the time he opened his first restaurant more than seven decades ago, Pat Farnsworth’s name has been inseparable from Orono,” Snowe said. “Those of us who were students at the University of Maine were already familiar with Pat’s outstanding pizza – so it’s no wonder it became a statewide success as well. Although his legacy endures at all the restaurants throughout Maine that bear his name, we will miss Pat’s good humor and attention to detail with which he greeted his customers.”

Pat’s was simply “the” place to be, said former University of Maine star basketball player and coach Thomas “Skip” Chappelle. Players went there to relax and socialize, and many teams used the restaurant for their end-of-season breakup gatherings. They would return to Pat’s long after they graduated, rekindling memories.

“He was an icon, to say the least,” said Chappelle, who fondly remembered his family’s ritual Sunday night gatherings at Pat’s. It’s a tradition that began when he was in high school and continues today with Chappelle and his wife, Carolyn, 40 years later.

Lianne Harris, chairwoman of the Orono Town Council, called Farnsworth “a force to be reckoned with in a variety of ways” but added that at his 90th birthday celebration he seemed “able to appreciate every moment that he lived.”

“We all feel that Pat was a town icon, very much loved and an important and integral part of the community,” said Harris during a break from a committee meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday night. “But Pat’s Pizza in Orono will forever be important in terms of his memory. It will continue to be the gathering place not only for the people who live here but for all the alums who come back here and never miss going to Pat’s for a pizza and beer.”

Bruce Farnsworth said that one of the most important things he learned from his father was not to make too many changes too quickly. When floors and booths were replaced a few years ago, the Farnsworths carefully selected new ones making sure they were very similar to the old ones.

He said that he uses his father’s keys and does paperwork at his desk, the drawer filled with his dad’s old cigar boxes. There aren’t going to be “improvements at the restaurant. The worn countertops, installed in the 1940s, and all the family photos on the walls are staying, until he and the rest of the second-generation Farnsworths are ready to slide aside for the third.”

“He was always building things and said that in his next life, he wanted to be an engineer,” said Bruce Farnsworth, “so, we’re going to put $150 in his pockets so he can start over again.”

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Orono next week. Specific funeral arrangements are pending.