AUBURN – Lisa Giguere, 52, a reporter and editor for the Sun Journal for 30 years, died early Tuesday after battling lung cancer. Giguere was recalled as a thorough reporter who asked tough questions, as well as a creative person who was curious about everything.

Beyond journalism, Giguere was involved and interested in the arts scene, local history, conservation and the outdoors.

Chip Morrison, president of the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce, said he was devastated by the news. “She’s too young. And how can a nonsmoker get this disease? It’s the most unfair thing on this planet. … I miss her already.”

In the 1970s, Morrison was Auburn’s city manager and Giguere was the Auburn reporter for the Lewiston Evening Journal. “I saw her every day,” he said. “A day without Lisa meant she was on vacation.” As city manager, he dealt with several reporters, “but she was the pushiest of the bunch … not adversarial, but persistent. When she wanted something, she was going to get it,” Morrison said. Giguere had good sources “and asked the question I didn’t want to have asked. She was good for readers.”

He later got to know her personally through civic events, shared interests in art and theater, and as a neighbor. She and her husband, Ralph Tuttle, lived a block-and-a-half from the Morrisons.

A real pro

Giguere was born in Lewiston in 1951. She graduated from the University of Maine and was hired as a Lewiston Evening Journal reporter in 1974. After covering Auburn for years, she was on the original team of reporters appointed to the new Sunday Sun Journal in 1983. She was later promoted to Journal city editor, then managing editor. In 1994 Giguere was named business editor, and in 2000 she became a design and copy editor.

“Lisa’s done all sorts of stuff here,” said Sun Journal publisher James Costello Sr. “She never hesitated about doing anything. Whatever she did, she was a real professional at it and did a great job.”

Costello recalled how valuable Giguere’s input was as the Sunday paper was developed, not only because of her professional experience but because she was a native who “knew everybody.” Many employees were invited to plan the new paper, “but there’s always a few who surface and get more involved. She was one of them,” Costello said. “She was solid.”

On Tuesday, her husband recalled Giguere as someone who was well-rounded, optimistic and brave. “She fought her illness every inch of the way for the past year,” Tuttle said. “She welcomed the toughest treatment. I can’t recall her ever giving up hope. She was a truly good person. We will all miss her generosity and her bright mind.”

They would have been married 23 years later this month.

Always learning

Environmentalist and lawyer Bonnie Lounsbury of Auburn, who worked with Giguere on the Androscoggin Land Trust, said her friend was “intellectually curious.” She was always challenging herself to learn new things, from earning a master’s degree in American studies, to developing and producing newsletters, to creating Web sites.

“She did all the design for the Web site for the Land Trust, and she won an award for it,” Lounsbury said.

Giguere was also a movie buff. Before Lounsbury saw a movie, she’d ask Giguere for her opinion. On a recent visit “she told me she saw House of Sand and Fog.’ She was afraid it would be so tragic, but she loved the movie and said it was emotionally intense,” but had some hope, Lounsbury said.

Carmen Dufresne, a fourth-grade teacher at Pettengill School, was friends with Giguere since they were 4 years old and spent summers at Taylor Pond in Auburn. As adults, they canoed, hiked and skied.

She’ll remember Giguere as someone with intelligence, creativity, good judgment and a woman who had a kind of Katherine Hepburn confidence that many women didn’t have in the ’70s. That made Giguere a role model for many people, Dufresne said.

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