1924 – 2013

AUBURN — Claude Robert Dube, 89, of 500 Webster St., Lewiston, recently of 99 High St., Auburn, passed away Thursday night, Dec. 12, from complications involved in his long battle with dementia. He died at home with his sons by his side.

Claude was born on East Avenue, Lewiston, to George and Angelina (Levasseur) Dube on Oct. 3, 1924. He attended Lewiston schools. In the 1930s, the family lived in Monmouth, in a beautiful large farmhouse atop the ridge on Norris Hill Road. Five years later he and the family moved back to Lewiston, to Lowell Street.

Claude served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the First and Third Armies, seeing duty on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and eventually the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The experience was something he spoke of rarely. He was a trained medic and was assigned to heavy artillery as a member of the 155 Long Tom crew. After the war he worked at Knapp Shoe and took various second jobs as well.

On July 5, 1948, he married Fernande Cloutier at Holy Family Church. They purchased a home at 500 Webster St. in 1953 where they happily raised three children. Claude also purchased Dube’s Greenhouses, a large wholesale cut-flower enterprise established by his Uncle Frank in 1939. Claude earned multiple “Best in New England” awards for his carnations and enjoyed a fine reputation as one of the most skilled growers in the region. There is a plaque honoring his achievements at the Boston Flower Market.

In the 1970s, the family moved to Ventnor, N.J., and Claude worked at Parker’s Greenhouses of Scotch Plains and Fisher’s Greenhouses in Linwood, N.J. He returned again to Lewiston in 1978, growing exceptionally fine crops of poinsettias and lilies at Saunder’s Greenhouse before working for about a decade at Hall & Knight Hardware Co. In his retirement years, Claude enjoyed maintaining part time work at Roak