RUMFORD — The message seems an unlikely condolence, but Arthur Boivin said the joke best summed up his brother, Joseph Eugene “Gene” Boivin, and helped him find a little laughter after losing his brother to cancer on Saturday.

“Someone came up to me at church today and said, ‘Well, I suppose you sent Gene to hell to straighten out the devil,'” Arthur Boivin, 69, said the statement was descriptive of his older brother’s spirit and spunk. “He did have quite an attitude — an attitude to get things done and get them done right.”

Gene Boivin was a man who didn’t need a microphone to speak to a crowd. He was someone who could organize a group and mobilize a volunteer effort in a matter of minutes. In Rumford, he was the go-to-guy.

Boivin was always first in line to volunteer to help his community and his neighbors. From fire chief to school board member, Rotary member to town selectman, his unwavering dedication to Rumford and the surrounding River Valley earned him the respect of hundreds throughout the community.

“He was an honest, straightforward guy. He told you what was on his mind,” said Richard Coulombe, 47, the last Rumford firefighter hired by Boivin during his more than 30 years with the town’s fire department. “He really loved Rumford, and he did a lot for the town.” 

Of course, volunteerism sometimes brought trouble, too. Arthur Boivin talked of Gene’s determination to help Rumford — whether the town leaders asked or not. Boivin laughed as he recounted how he and his brother got themselves in hot water with the town leaders for cutting down two maple trees that were blocking the town hall back in 2007.

“He had a really large voice and a really large heart,” said Mike Burke, chief executive officer for Community Concepts Inc. “He was truly one of a kind. There are probably a hundred more stories that you’d hear about him giving to the community.”

Before his 1989 retirement as chief of the Rumford Fire Department, he served as president of the Maine Fire Chief’s Association and was recognized by the Maine Forest Service, American Red Cross and State Fire Marshal’s Office. He also played a key role in developing one of the first Hazmat crews in the state.

Among his list of awards, Boivin was named Rumford’s Citizen of the Year, the River Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Volunteer of the Year and received a Commissioner’s Award from the Maine Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. His most recent involvement was helping six families through a Community Concepts Inc. program where families worked together to build their own homes.

“He was very much his own, individual person,” said Gene’s wife of 43 years, Geraldine “Gerry” Boivin, who saw the softer, gentler side of her husband’s gruff nature. “He liked to help anybody who was trying to help themselves. He worked very hard with Community Concepts because the people there who were building their own houses were working so hard to do it themselves, and he appreciated that.”

And that sense of spirit and giving extended across the border into Canada, where Boivin and his wife spent their summers in the Quebec region. In a letter to the editor provided by Arthur Boivin that appeared in the Le Quotidien Newspaper in the Sagenay area on Dec. 24, a neighbor summed up Gene Boivin’s sense of caring for his fellow man.

“In my opinion, Mr. Boivin is a giant who renders services to everyone and feels committed to assist people with any type of task,” wrote Louis Nazaire Dallaire. “With the use of his far-reaching voice, he knows how to make himself heard everywhere with his simple good-heartedness and his precise advice.”