FARMINGTON – Gwilym R. Roberts, 88, one of Maine’s best-known college professors and public speakers for many years, died on Tuesday, May 10, at his home in Farmington. For more than 60 years, he was closely associated with the college which is now the University of Maine at Farmington.

He was born on Jan. 23, 1917, in Brownville, the son of William and Grace (Griffith) Roberts. His father and three grandparents were immigrants to the Welsh slate-quarrying community. A graduate of Brownville High School and Farmington State Normal School, he taught in Greenville Junior High School before completing his B.S. and M.A. degrees at the University of Maine in Orono. Later he did graduate work in history at Columbia University and on a Fulbright Grant, at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, North Wales.

In 1940, he was hired as a one-year substitute at Farmington Normal School, where he remained as a member of the history department for 43 years. He served as chairman of that department, dean of instruction, and for 11 years, as the first dean of instruction of the University of Maine at Farmington, which existed under five different names during his years of service.

After studying Welsh as a foreign language, he researched in Wales and in the United States on slate quarries, and quarry villages in Wales and in New England. Also on the migration of slate quarry families from Wales to America. His book on this subject, “New Lives in the Valley,” was published in 1998, and went into a second printing in 2000. He was awarded the Hopkins Medal, the highest honor of St. David’s Society of New York State in 1999, and in October 2001 he received the George Jones Medal of Green Mountain College for his work in preserving the Welsh-American heritage.

During his teaching career, he spoke at dozens of high school commencements and to local historical societies and other groups. For many years, he wrote historical and current events columns for the local newspaper, the Franklin Journal, and in the 1990s he served as guest columnist for the Portland Press-Herald.

In retirement, he founded the UMF Alumni Travel Program, leading hundreds of alumni in summer trips to most of Europe and to China.

Moderator of the Farmington town meeting for 20 years, he served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987 as a Democrat representing the normally Republican Farmington district. He was a member and former officer of the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington, and served on the board of directors of the Androscoggin Home Health Services.

An enthusiastic skier for more than 50 years, he served as co-director of the Farmington Junior Ski Program. In 1990, he skied in the Swiss Alps with the UMF Alumni Travel group.

In 1989, the largest classroom building on the UMF campus was named the Gwilym R. Roberts Learning Center. Because of his strong support of athletics, he was one of the three original members of the UMF Athletic Hall of Fame when that organization was created in 1994. At the 1995 UMF Commencement, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters, and the Gwilym R. Roberts Scholarship Fund was created by alumni to assist UMF undergraduates in foreign study.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Patricia Keith Roberts, of Farmington; five daughters, Beth Roberts of Albany, N.Y., Janet Roberts of Brunswick, Megan Roberts of Farmington, Sara Roberts of Farmington and Meredith Roberts of Bristol, Vt., and her fiance, Jeff Rehbach, of Cornwall, Vt.; two granddaughters, Rachelle Pean and Seikah Raye Turner Roberts; a brother, Paul Roberts and his wife, Ruth, of Freeport, Fla.; one niece; and four nephews.

He was predeceased by a sister, Constance Sawtell of Brownville.

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