LEWISTON – A man lauded for his tireless advocacy of his hometown died Friday.

Maurice Leo Goulet, 83, a real estate developer with a fondness for the city’s industrial heritage spent much of his life working toward making Lewiston a better place to live and work.

“To me, he was a visionary,” said Lucien Gosselin, executive director of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. “He always had a new idea or a new concept to present. He was 20 years ahead of his time.”

For example, Goulet proposed closing off Lisbon Street and enclosing it as a pedestrian mall and year-round retail center.

“This was in the ’50s and ’60s … long before other communities pursued these ideas,” said Gosselin.

Goulet was one of the original directors of the Lewiston Development Corp., which formed in 1952.

Lawyer Jere Clifford, who founded the LDC with his father, remembered Goulet for his enthusiasm and energy.

“He served on the board for many years,” said Clifford. “I remember him as a very friendly, outgoing fellow … very upbeat.”

Goulet continued his civic involvement right into the late 1990s when he joined the Citizens for Local Jobs and Opportunities, the group backing the redevelopment of the Bates Mill complex.

“Even though he was getting on in years, he was still volunteering,” said Gosselin, who added that throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Goulet was a fixture on the economic development scene.

“I always held him in very high regard,” he said. Gosselin met Goulet when he first came to public service in Lewiston in the early 1960s. “He always had my admiration and respect.”