WEST PARIS – Howard Gurney, a well-loved founder of West Paris town government, died Tuesday at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway. He was 84.

His wife, Ida, died Sunday. A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday for both of them at the West Paris Mission Congregational Church on Church Street.

Friends remembered Gurney, who served more than 25 years as a West Paris selectman, as an honest, kind, meticulous man who was a stickler for financial accountability and local control.

“He just loved town business,” said Wade Rainey, chairman of the Board of Selectmen. Rainey served on the board with Gurney for eight years.

“He was a very savvy small-town municipal selectman,” said Rainey. “He taught me and Jim Marshall so much. He was a very smart man.”

Marshall, a former selectman, said he has “the utmost respect” for Gurney, who fought in the Philippines in World War II and continued his public service while battling cancer.

“He was the toughest man I know,” said Marshall.

Marshall remembers Gurney’s work as general assistance administrator for West Paris.

“He was one of the kindest men I know. He always made sure people got what they needed. He was firm but fair.”

Rainey said the strife and controversy in West Paris town government in recent years was very upsetting to Gurney. Nevertheless, he used his leadership and budgetary knowledge to help guide the town through the crisis, he said.

Gurney served on numerous regional boards and committees, including those at the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and Community Concepts, Inc. He and his wife were instrumental in founding the Finnish-American Heritage Society of Maine in the early 1990s.

Said Marshall, “Howard really was a terrific person and this community will miss him for sure.”