AUBURN – Longtime businessman and former county commissioner Bertrand L. Pontbriand died Sunday.

While he did not work at Pontbriand’s Hardware, his father, Arthur’s, store, he was well-known locally as a member of the community through business ventures such as Twin City Furniture and Kilbreth and Pontbriand Realty. He was a state legislator, and served as a board member for Depositor’s Trust and the Auburn Water District.

An avid outdoorsman, Pontbriand loved to hunt and fish. Daughter Connie Maloney recalled many camping trips around the state when she was a child. She said she and her four sisters spent most of their time over the past 50 years with her parents at the family camp on Taylor Pond in Auburn.

“He had a very full, productive life,” daughter Jan Cutter said.

Pontbriand and his wife, Carmen, enjoyed traveling. Maloney and Cutter recall the islands being one of their favorite destinations.

“The trips he won were his favorite, because he’d earned them,” Cutter said.

Pontbriand was a member of the American Legion, Elks Club and the Taylor Pond Yacht Club. He was a self-taught sailor and also enjoyed years of snowmobiling in Madrid and skiing at Saddleback Mountain.

In his later years he cared for two of his cousins until their deaths.

“He had a big heart and was just a wonderful guy,” Maloney said.