NORWAY – Norman Goodwin was remembered Tuesday as a dedicated worker, family man and friend who was once so determined to get to work that he skied down Pike’s Hill during a snowstorm.

“When we were young and living on Pike’s Hill there was a terrible storm. The roads were impassable so he skied from our farm to the main road because he was so dedicated. He needed to get to work,” recalled his daughter Bethany Bryant of Topsham.

When asked how he maneuvered down the steep Pike’s Hill, his daughter laughed. “Oh no. We were on the back side of Pike’s Hill, not that steep hill. Oh he would have passed away a long time ago if he did that.”

Goodwin died on Feb. 16 at the age of 91 at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth where he lived his final years surrounded by photographic memories of his childhood and the family business, Goodwin’s Dairy and Dairy Bar.

“He was a very hard worker. Very dedicated to the business,” recalled Bryant in a telephone interview from her Topsham home Tuesday afternoon shortly before she and other family members headed over to Falmouth to pick up her father’s pictures and other life momentums and personal belongings.

A 1935 graduate of Norway High School, he was to become an integral part of his family’s business, Goodwin’s Dairy and Dairy Bar and four additional dairy bars in Portland, Auburn, Rumford and Farmington. Among other duties, it was Goodwin who made the ice cream for all their restaurants.

Goodwin, who was married at the time to Byrant’s mother, Pearl, with whom he shared a love of fishing and camping trips, was a familiar face in the Norway-Paris area. He was particularly special to the local children who looked forward to his weekly visits at the old Mildred M. Fox Elementary School where he delivered milk from the dairy.

“Everyone liked seeing him,” said Bryant, who was in fourth grade at the Fox school when her dad would arrive with cases of milk. “My sister and I were at the Fox School, and we were so proud when he came to deliver those half pints of milk. We were so proud.”

Even L.L. Bean founder and namesake, Leon Leonwood Bean, would frequent the dairy just to buy large quantities of cottage cheese from Goodwin, his daughter said.

Goodwin lived a life filled with work, family and fun. Not an outwardly demonstrative man, he had a keen sense of humor.

“He liked to joke around in a strange way,” said Bryant of stories she heard about her dad when he was young. “My cousin used to say that dad would take his dirty socks off and say to him, ‘I’m going to put these under your nose,’ I don’t know how you can put that in the paper though,” she said laughing. “He really had a love for his family.”

He had a summer home at Kal Shores on Lake Pennesseewassee and owned one of the first party boats on the lake.

“I call it a barge. It was like a pontoon boat. He was pretty excited about that. He would take us kids around on it. One time, I remember Dad hauled my husband on water skis behind it. We thought it would never work. All I could think of was Fred Flintstone. It was so funny,” she said.

One of his neighbors at the time, Ken Kilgore, remembered Goodwin as unassuming, a good friend, a man who could fix anything. “He had a tremendous ability to fix anything. I don’t care what it was. He said if it broke, it can be fixed.”

In the early 1970s, Goodwin purchased a lot from Kilgore on Kal Shores. He was Kilgore’s second customer after Kilgore decided to split his 30 acres into 14 lots in the area known as Kal Shores, which was short for the original land owners, Ken Kilgore, Herbie Andrews and Heywood Luck.

“We were buddies for a long time,” he said Tuesday. “He was just a good friend, very quiet and unassuming, so likable. He’d give you the shirt off of his back. There’s not very many like him around now. He was one of a kind.”

Although Goodwin eventually sold his home and moved to Florida with his second wife, Marie, who passed away in 2000, he loved the lake and came back for the entire summer in 1989 to help Bryant and her family build a log cabin on the lake shore. “He was so happy. It was a family project,” she said.

On his 80th birthday, Bryant and her sister Doreen and their husbands flew to Florida to surprise their dad. “He had no idea. He was so happy, proud and pleased. We had a wonderful time.”

One evening, Bryant and her husband decided to take a walk around her father’s neighborhood that was decorated for the Christmas holiday. “My dad said you can’t miss our house. It has all the lights,” said Bryant of her father’s pleasure at believing he had outdone all his neighbor’s with Christmas lights.

As the couple walked around the neighborhood and started back to Goodwin’s home, they realized there was no distinction between the houses. They found Goodwin’s home, but didn’t spoil their dad’s dream. “Everyone had all these lights. It tickled us.”

“He was a hard, dedicated worker. He loved his family dearly even though he didn’t outwardly show it. He would do anything for everyone,” Byrant said.