AUBURN — Dick Gleason, who served as mayor of Auburn from 2009 to 2011, passed away Friday night at the age of 71.
Dick Gleason
Gleason was the president and owner of Gleason Media Services, a business that oversaw seven radio stations that reached from Kennebunk to Rangeley, including WOXO-FM in Norway.
In 2008, the Auburn Business Association named Gleason its Citizen of the Year, an award that honors volunteerism, good business practices and dedication to Lewiston and Auburn.
He also received the Business Leadership Award from the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, the President’s Cornerstone Award for Business from the Maine Senate and the Legion of Honor from Kiwanis International.
Over the years, he has served as president of several organizations, including the Norway/Paris Kiwanis Club, the Oxford Hills Area Development Corp., and the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce.
Chip Morrison, former president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, said Saturday night that Gleason was “just a tremendous man for the community.”
“He was a city councilor and a mayor of Auburn at a time when we needed that kind of quiet, civil leadership,” Morrison said. “He didn’t stand much for people yelling at each other. In that respect, he was a quiet political leader.”
Morrison served on several boards and committees with Gleason, including the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce.
“He was chairman of the Androscoggin Chamber board when I was the president of the chamber,” Morrison said. “Once a month, we were in a meeting together, sometimes more than that. He was always proud of how the chamber grew under his leadership. He’d ask me at every meeting, ‘How many members do we have now?’”
Morrison said Gleason was also a “really good tennis player.”
“He could move really well on the court, and really knew how to play tennis,” Morrison said with a laugh. “He was also a great family man. He talked about his daughters and his wife all the time. He had a very loving family.”
“He was a very good business man too, and he did it in a field that’s not really easy to do that,” Morrison added. “As a leader, he was not ‘look at me and how good I am.’ He was a positive person who was looking to do something good for his community.”
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