SOUTH PARIS – Albert “Al” Boyd Soule, 86, of South Paris died Saturday evening, Aug. 27, at his home surrounded by his family.

He was born in South Windham, Jan. 21, 1919, the son of Arthur C. and Rizpah K. Marton Soule. He attended Gorham schools and graduated from Gorham High School in 1937. He attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Maine at Orono, majoring in mechanical engineering.

He served his country in the Army during World War II for four and a half years as a captain, with the rating of battery commander in the Pacific Theater, after operating behind enemy lines.

After serving his country, he returned to Maine to become an executive with the Morton family enterprise, The Paris Manufacturing Co. He was associated with the business for more than 30 years.

In 1965, Sears Roebuck and Co. recruited him to be the contract sales manager for institutional furnishings for the entire East Coast. He retired from Sears in 1979.

He and his first wife, Jeannette Merrill, whom he married in 1947, purchased the Merrill Homestead on High Street, South Paris, where he designed and constructed a unique wood-burning furnace for which he received both the state of Maine and the national Department of Energy Innovation Award in 1986.

His affiliations included being deacon of the South Paris Congregational Church, member and chairman of numerous committees and boards at Deering Memorial Methodist Church in South Paris, and chalice bearer, usher and vestry president of Christ Episcopal Church in Norway.

He was a director for SAD 17 and instrumental in the design and construction of the new Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. He was a founding member and officer for 27 years of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, both state and local chapters.

He designed and oversaw the construction of the Oxford Hills Recycling Center, with H. William Detert. He was founder, president and building chairman of this corporation, which was named the Albert B. Soule Recycling Center in 1996.

He was moderator of Paris town meetings for 23 years. He was also a long-standing board member and recently appointed president of the Paris Public Library. He gave with great love and admiration a new wing in 1997 in memory of his wife, Jeannette.

Among his other civic activities and contributions, he was vice president of Oxford County Savings and Loan Association, director of the Paris Industrial Corp. and a board member of His Place Teen Center. No man has ever given more of himself to the community than he has.

He married the former Lynda Haegele of Norway, on Feb. 1, 1997. Together they had a joyful and spiritual marriage, traveling throughout the world, ballroom dancing, and spent endless hours together as stewards of their environment, loving their own designed and built home in the woods.

Survivors include his loving wife, Lynda; sister, Elizabeth Peterson of Cape Elizabeth; brothers, Walter of Scarborough, Lester of Paris Hill and Calabash, N.C., and Dr. Stanford Merrill, brother-in-law of Oakland; and several nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Jeannette; his brother, Dennis; and his parents.