Maine warden recalls fellow warden who died

Maine Warden Rick Stone was remembered Wednesday as a dedicated and passionate outdoorsman.

Stone, 53, lost his fight with cancer Tuesday.

It was an especially trying day for the wardens who knew and had worked with Stone, who was named Game Warden of the Year in 2001. He patrolled the Lewiston area.

“It was a very sad day,” Warden Brock Clukey of Andover said Wednesday.

He said he worked with Stone for about 15 years.

“He was an excellent game warden and a great worker and he had an unbelievably positive attitude,” Clukey said.

Stone began his career as a game warden in February 1986. He was the longest-serving member of the Warden Service Dive Team and had a true passion for the outdoors, Maine Warden Service spokesman Doug Rafferty said in a news release.

“His attention to detail, his commitment to evidence control and his work in law development will always be remembered,” Rafferty said.

Stone was “an outstanding game warden, just very dedicated to the job and he always helped and taught all of the younger game wardens coming up through the ranks,” Clukey said.

He said Stone, who was on the Warden Service Dive Team his whole career, was “an excellent diver.”

Clukey said he didn’t work with Stone every day because Clukey covered the northern zone of western Maine while Stone worked out of the Poland area.

“Rick was a good father,” Clukey said. “He had six kids and a great wife and he worked hard his whole career.”

Rafferty said the Warden Service was second only to the love Rick had for his family, wife, Cindy, and his six children, Isaac, Rebekah, Samuel, Nicholas, Kyle and Chris.

“I just can’t say enough about him,” Clukey said.

Rafferty also said Stone was very “press friendly.” Rafferty recalled a time when he was working as a reporter and news anchor at WGME-TV and Stone helped him with a story on night hunting, taking Rafferty and a videographer into the woods.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com