LEWISTON - Sister Solange Bernier had a list of teaching and humanitarian awards as long, maybe longer, than the average arm - but it was the way she reached out to, and touched people that made her most special, said former students and co-workers.

Sister Solange, a Lewiston native, died Monday at the age of 86, after more than 50 years of teaching in the state's Catholic schools, most of that time at St. Dominic Regional High School. She had been head of the school's French department for many years.

An impassioned teacher and ambassador of French language and culture, the Ursuline nun had a "peaceful, saintly face, that somehow called you," said Rita Dube, executive director of the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston.

"I know this is making up a word, but she's just the 'goodest' person I know. She was just a very good, good person," Dube said.

She was recalled by former students, co-workers and a friends as someone of true humility.

Dube, a St. Dom's alumna who was the private high school's director of development for several years, said she became close friends with the nun, who taught at least three of her four children how to speak French.

"She was a true role model," Dube said, recalling how she used to reach out to her students. "She's my mentor. If I could be half the person she was, that would be my goal. She touched my whole family."

An alumnus and former faculty member at St. Dom's, Paul Caron, an assistant professor at the University of Southern Maine, L-A College, remembers Sister Solange as person of exceptional humanity and humility with a gift for teaching and reaching people.

"There were no bad students to Sister Solange," recalled Caron. "All students had potential," he said of the woman whom he had known from the CCD classes she taught in the mid-'60s at St. Mary's Church in Lewiston.

"She was so humble, she'd probably be embarrassed," about the celebration that is going to occur in her honor, said Caron, who will be playing the organ at the funeral services set for 11 a.m. Thursday, at Holy Family Church in Lewiston.

"When she met you, she always made you feel special," he remembered. "She had a genuine love of humanity."

Former student Christine Bosse of Sabattus recalled the teacher as a "positive, energetic and warm-hearted person," who always remembered her students' names.

In April 1996, upon the occasion of receiving one of her many awards, the nun who was being honored for making a difference in so many lives, shared her own thoughts: "They say to teach is to touch lives of youngsters forever. But I see the other side of the coin; to teach is to be touched forever."