AUGUSTA – At long last, Dr. Bernard Lown was honored at the State House on Tuesday when Gov. John Baldacci signed legislation to officially change the name of the Androscoggin River’s South Bridge to the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge.

Lown is a former Lewiston resident and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who also helped to develop the life-saving heart defibrillator. The bridge connects Lewiston and Auburn.

While he clearly has command of complicated physiological mechanisms, Lown said he was ignorant about how much work went into changing the name of a bridge.

“I never realized the complexity of a simple measure,” Lown said. “I had no idea it had taken so long.”

Rep. Dick Wagner, D-Lewiston, led the Lewiston/Auburn delegation’s united effort to getting the bill through the Legislature, but the original idea belonged to Al Harvie, a former Edward Little High School teacher.

Harvie, inspired after hearing Lown speak at a Bates College commencement more than 20 years ago, said he’s been working since the early 1990s to find a way to honor Lown.

Harvie said the bridge is the perfect symbol for honoring him.

“We are two cities, but one community,” Harvie said of Lewiston and Auburn. “Dr. Lown is the perfect role model.”

After sharing his idea with Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert, the effort took off. Gilbert spoke to Auburn Mayor John Jenkins, and soon after both city councils voted unanimously in favor of the new bridge name.

Both mayors traveled to Augusta on Tuesday to meet with Lown and see the governor sign the bill.

“We ought to celebrate those among us who achieve greatness,” Harvie said. “What he’s done speaks to the education he got here in Maine and Lewiston/Auburn’s immigrant history.”

Lown came to Lewiston from Lithuania just before World War II. He lived with his uncle, Phillip, who owned the Lown Shoe Shop in Auburn and attended Lewiston High School. The younger Lown went on to graduate from the University of Maine and then Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also holds an honorary degree from Bates College and is professor of cardiology emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In 1985, Lown won the Nobel Peace Prize with a Russian professor for their work analyzing what could happen to the world’s population if nuclear war broke out between the United States and the U.S.S.R.

Lown said when it comes to figuring out how to shock hearts into beating again, ending the Cold War or renaming a bridge, it all starts with a simple idea.

“It takes one person to begin the process,” he said.

Lown and his wife, Louise, who also grew up in Lewiston, live in Newton, Mass., but summer on Sebago Lake.

Lown said he has not been back to Lewiston for many years, but looks forward to attending the yet-to-be-planned bridge dedication.

“Lewiston is a different city in many ways than when I was growing up,” he said. “The diversity now is great; it prepares people for living in a global world.”