Most Mainers became familiar with “Miles the Turnpike Moose” who, each Labor Day, thanked drivers at the York Toll Plaza for visiting Maine.

Fewer Mainers may have known the man inside the moose suit, Dan Paradee, the longtime spokesman for the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Paradee, the authority’s public relations manager for 15 years, died last week from pancreatic cancer. He was 54.

The Turnpike Authority lost an excellent advocate, and the citizens of Maine lost a true believer in governmental transparency.

Maine’s right-to-know laws stipulate that all records are public records unless the law specifically says otherwise. Paradee was the all-too-rare governmental spokesman who truly believed that.

He could, of course, explain the authority’s point of view on anything from rate hikes to controversial construction projects.

He was also willing to dig up data, such as 10-year traffic trends.

But Dan was just as quick to supply information to the public even when he fully realized it didn’t put the Turnpike in the best light.

One Associated Press story in 2007 reported that two turnpike executives and three board members attended a week-long transportation meeting in Austria, costing $26,000.

Another story revealed that Turnpike Authority managers and advisers spent $149 per person on a restaurant tab.

Paradee was always calm and helpful, whether the tough questions were coming from legislators, the public or the media.

Paradee, a native of Cherry Hill, N.J., who came here after college, seemed to love his adopted state.

“It just astounds me,” Paradee told the Portland Press Herald in 2002. “You would think that people would be a little grumpy” while waiting in traffic to pay their tolls on Labor Day.

“The summer’s over and they’re heading back and there’s heavy traffic. But you would not believe the look on people’s faces when they see (that moose). It just makes people’s day.”

Paradee was a good man who had that effect on us all.

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