LIVERMORE FALLS – Rick Hoddinott Jr. was remembered Thursday for his lasting mark on the young people he taught, his adventure-seeking, and being a pioneer of the whitewater rafting industry in Maine.

Hoddinott, 55, of Wayne, died Tuesday after a brief illness, his oldest daughter, Erika Hoddinott said.

“Rick was one of the very first people to train to be a guide up in The Forks,” friend Scott Phair said Thursday. “He was a pioneer in the whitewater rafting industry in Maine. Rick leaves a legacy of a lot of whitewater rafting guides. He did a lot of training and taught them to be guides.”

Hoddinott started his science teaching career at Hodgkins Middle School in Augusta in 1977 and ended up at Livermore Falls Middle School where he taught from the late 1990s to 2007.

He taught science and how to protect the environment.

Phair said he remembered hearing Hoddinott speak about cleaning up the lower section of the Kennebec River with his students at the Augusta school, and the two launched a plan to do the same in Livermore Falls. Phair was the principal at the high school then.

Hoddinott owned whitewater rafting and outfitting companies, and lent his rafts and his guides to help students clean up the Androscoggin River in the Livermore Falls area with the support of the paper companies.

The educator also taught his students how to monitor the drinking water at Moose Hill Pond for the Livermore Falls Water District. Another project he did was work with his students to write the history of the Androscoggin River.

“Rick was my friend and I’m really going to miss him,” Phair said.

After her father left the Livermore Falls school, Erika Hoddinott said he flew his plane, went scuba diving and traveled out West.

“He actually bought a recreation vehicle before he died. He was planning a road trip to end all road trips. First, he was going to South America and then out West. He needed an adventure,” she said. “He was getting ready to leave when he fell ill.”

Another friend and businessman, Joe Christopher, said “By my accounts, Rick was a great man.”

Christopher said he bought two companies from Hoddinott, the first at age 25.

“He sold me Downeast Whitewater. He gave me a break for no reason other than I was hard-working,” Christopher said. “He sold me a half-million dollar business and financed most of it. He risked a lot of hard-earned money. He believed a lot in young people. He believed in teaching young people to be great. He was one of the original pillars of the whitewater rafting industry. He was a key person.”

Hoddinott worked in the Legislature in 1983 to help structure the laws in that industry, he said.

“He was a big person. When he was in the room, he was making things happen. People listened and bought into what he was saying,” Christopher said.

Erika Hoddinott said the family is holding a gathering at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Ladd Recreation Center in Wayne.

“We just want people to come and tell stories, share memories and celebrate his life,” she said.