Fred Goldrup has an infectious smile.

“I am a lazy person. It takes more muscles to frown than smile,” said Goldrup of Lewiston.

It’s his smile that makes Goldrup such a welcome face at the monthly support group he attends.

“I love Fred,” said Sharon Lowell of Auburn. “I wish I had his optimism, his positive outlook.”

Lowell has a lot in common with Goldrup. They both have the same life-changing condition – Parkinson’s disease.

While most in the monthly support group feel rather down, Goldrup, 75, somehow looks up.

“I have Parkinson’s but Parkinson’s does not have me,” said Goldrup, who was diagnosed in 2006 shortly after retiring from the Maine Department of Motor Vehicles. “I was not unhappy about it, because Parkinson’s is not fatal,” he said.

“I could complain, but I won’t do it,” said Goldrup, who admits he has his bad moments. There are a couple of hours each afternoon when Goldrup will just sit in his chair, not feeling like himself.

“I have it, but I don’t understand it,” Goldrup said about the disease that has no specific known cause. Genetics triggered by the environment is the closest researchers have come to finding a cause, said Lillian Scenna, Parkinson’s Program Manager with the MaineHealth Learning Resource Center. Parkinson’s attacks the central nervous system and often impairs movement and speech.

Goldrup walks bent over, but more so from a bad back than from Parkinson’s. “Like everything I do, I do my best and everything works out for me,” said Goldrup, who carries groceries up three flights of steps to his fourth-floor apartment, one bag at a time. He has lived in the same building for 30 years and has recently begun preparing for his future in a nursing home. “It doesn’t bother me about going to live in a nursing home,” he said. “I’m not going to just sit there. I’m going to be moving around.”

Goldrup has started to log his years of memories into a computer database. Keepsakes are placed into numbered boxes in preparation for his move. There are the 20 years worth of Appalachian Mountain Club newsletters that he wrote and put together. “I broke every rule in the book when I edited,” Goldrup said with a laugh.

There are also the 56 years of memorable moments as Taurus the clown. Taurus, named after Goldrup’s birth sign, is one of the founders of the Moxie Festival and because of his failing health, this summer will be Taurus’ 26th and final Moxie Day Parade. He is going out in style but will not reveal any details. “At my age, I can make a fool of myself and people like it,” he said. “I can walk up to a young lady and ask her what are you doing after the parade?”

It’s listening to music that Goldrup misses the most. He has lost most of his hearing and that bothers him more than the effects of Parkinson’s. Goldrup has over 68,000 separate recordings in his record collection and he likes nothing more than to share his music. “What’s the sense in having anything if you can’t share,” Goldrup said. He hosted a country music show for three years on an Auburn radio station. “I was sharing my music with my people and I was having a ball.”

Today, it’s the opportunity to help others in his support group that motivates Goldrup. “It’s people like this that lift me up and carry me,” Goldrup said as he motions toward the members. “It’s a family.

“Through the support group, I can learn more about Parkinson’s so I can teach others,” he said.

“Fred could actually run this meeting he is so informed,” said Danielle Lamore, service coordinator for Aging Excellence, the organization that runs the support group.

“We are going to find a cure and it’s people like this that are going to find it,” Goldrup said with a big smile.