By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

LEWISTON – After nearly 54 years of putting her job and her community first, Terry Samson is ready to carve out a little time for herself.

The energetic owner of Hudson Bus Lines is selling the business and retiring, gently tapping the brakes on a life that has been devoted to her 72 employees and dozens of charitable groups.

“My problem is, I never learned to say, No,'” Samson said with a quick smile. “I should have taken a lesson from Nancy Reagan.”

Samson joined L-A Transit Co. right after graduating from Lewiston High School in 1952. Seven years later it was sold to Hudson Bus Lines, a New England-wide bus company that provided the city and school bus services, as well as private charters.

The office manager at the time was ill, and owners Ken Hudson and James Sullivan asked Samson if she could help manage the office until they found a replacement. She agreed.

But her coordination capabilities and hard work impressed the owners. They had found their new office manager.

“They had confidence in me … probably more than I had in myself,” she said.

Hudson made an additional request of her: that she become involved in community affairs. Her husband, Gerry, was a sales rep for a wine company and often on the road. So Samson filled her evenings serving on boards as varied as St. Mary’s hospital, the Lewiston Development Board, St. Philip’s Church and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

“You see how I couldn’t say, No’?” she asks.

She got an additional nudge. A federal law in the early 1970s mandated that boards of directors recruit women. As one of the few businesswomen in the area, she was a hot commodity.

“I became the token woman,” said Samson. “It was very difficult. I took a lot of snide comments.”

She remembers one in particular. She was the first woman to join the local Chamber of Commerce board in the mid-’70s. At her first meeting, one of the other directors took a look at her and said “We’re going to the dogs now … there’s a woman on the board.”

“I had a lump in my throat and I wanted to cry, but I made believe I didn’t hear,” said Samson. “I held my head up and said I can do it’ and paved the way for others. I hope some gals today realize what some of us went through.”

Six years after joining the Chamber board, she was its chair.

“She is one of the greatest community leaders we’ve ever had,” said Chip Morrison, current president of the Chamber who has known Samson since his arrival in the Twin Cities in 1978. “She’s not afraid to speak her mind – even when it’s something people don’t want to hear – and she’s not afraid to work. Terry is one of those people I consider my hero.”

Hard work seems to be her hallmark. It’s helped steer the bus company from a fledgling operation in the early ’60s to a growing company with a fleet of 36 school buses and 18 vans today. In 1962 there were 16 bus runs in Lewiston; today there are 34.

In 1999, she was given first refusal rights to buy the Lewiston operation. She consulted with her husband and they decided to go for it.

Though now the owner, she continued to manage the company, overseeing its contract bidding, compliance with increasing safety regulations and trying to find ways to reverse the impact of increasing fuel costs. There were some 40-hour work weeks, but 60 was just as common.

Then last year her husband passed away. When she was approached about selling the business, she decided the time was right.

Although Samson won’t say who the interested party is, she did say the new owner will continue to employ her current crew and serve the city.

“We’ve got such a good group of people, and I’m as close as a telephone if they need help,” she said.

She said she feels “relaxed” about the new ownership, and that gives her the freedom to pursue some long-delayed interests, such as quilting, traveling and taking classes (“anything but a business course”).

Acknowledging that she “can’t keep still,” she expects to continue her work on the seven boards that she’s a member of now. But as those terms expire, she hopes to scale back her outside commitments.

“I’m going to practice saying no,’ and hopefully can fade into the sunset,” she said with another smile. “I think I’ve earned the right.”