PORTLAND – Dr. Norman O. Gauvreau, 87, born and raised in Lewiston, died on Sept. 22, in Portland, where he had recently moved.

He was born on Jan. 16, 1921, in Lewiston, the son of Dr. Horace O. Gauvreau and Marie-Louise Lebel Gauvreau, both of Lewiston. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1937, and completed a post graduate course of study at Hebron Academy before enrolling in Bowdoin College in 1939.

An excellent athlete, he lettered in football as a tackle at Lewiston High School, Hebron Academy and Bowdoin College. He interrupted his college studies to join the Navy as an aviator, reporting to Chapel Hill, N.C., for preflight school. He completed his flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida.

He excelled in flight training and transferred to the U.S. Marines with the rank of lieutenant. While stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station outside Santa Ana, Calif., he met the love of his live, Dorothy Daniels of Beverly Hills, at an officers’ dance. Lt. Gauvreau married Dorothy Daniels in La Jolla, Calif., in February 1944. Shortly thereafter he shipped out aboard the aircraft carrier USS Savo Island to join his flight squadron, VMF 222, the Flying Deuces, in the Solomon Islands. During his military service in World War II, he flew more than 100 combat missions in the Solomon Islands and Philippine Islands, flying F4U Corsairs with the VMF 222.

After the war, he returned to Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, where he served as a flight instructor. From 1946 to 1950, he flew P-47 fighter aircraft with the Vermont Air National Guard in Burlington, Vt. He later attained the distinction of serving as a commissioned officer in all four branches of the Armed Services: Marine Corps fighter pilot, Army Air Corps Reserve fighter pilot, Air Force reserve fighter pilot, Navy physician, and also as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

He had a lifelong love of flying and regularly flew his twin engine Cessna after he returned to Maine to establish his medical practice. He had four true loves: his country, his wife, his children, grandchildren and family, and his flying. He often remarked that had he not entered medicine he would have pursued a career as a military flight instructor.

In 1946, he graduated from Bowdoin College and entered the University of Vermont Medical School, where he graduated in 1950. After graduation from medical school, he conducted his internship at the Chelsea Naval Hospital outside Boston, Mass., before returning to Lewiston to establish a medical practice with his father, Dr. Horace Gauvreau.

From 1956 to 1958, he interrupted his general medical practice in Lewiston to pursue a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cambridge City Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. In 1958, he was selected in a highly competitive process to participate in a one year cancer surgical fellowship at Pondville Cancer Hospital in Walpole, Mass. After his specialty training, he returned to Lewiston and re-established his medical practice with a specialty in obstetrics and gynecology. During his practice, he served as chief of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, was on the courtesy staff at Central Maine Medical Center, and was designated the Maine Section Chairman of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He retired from medical practice in 1990.

He remained an avid athlete and outdoorsman all his life as an active golfer, skier and tennis player. He was an enthusiastic boater who cruised the Maine coast for years in his cabin cruiser, the Ebb Tide, out of Boothbay Harbor. He also was an excellent bridge player and regularly competed in local tournaments.

He loved his vacation home in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island in the Bahamas and regularly flew his Cessna to the Bahamas. Upon his retirement, he spent his winters in the Bahamas. He had a special fondness for Maine and its people, often remarking upon his good fortune in living in this very special state.

He had a deep and abiding interest in civic and community affairs. A strong proponent of combined municipal services for Lewiston and Auburn, he ran for mayor of Lewiston in 1962, finishing first in the initial voting while losing in a runoff election to Donia J. Girard. He imparted to his family a keen sense of civic involvement and public service.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Dorothy Daniels Gauvreau, formerly of Lewiston and now of Portland; a son, Dr. Douglas Kent Gauvreau and his wife, Andrea Woods Gauvreau, of Falmouth; a son, Norman Paul Gauvreau and his wife, Evelyn Greenlaw, of Lewiston; a son, Kenneth Daniel Gauvreau and his wife, Robin Gauvreau, of Putney, Vt.; a daughter, Gayle Martha Gauvreau of Portland; a sister, Claudette Gauvreau, of Bluffton, S.C., and Ocean Park, Maine; and his beloved grandchildren, Daniel Gauvreau of Springfield, Vt., Becky Walker of Swanzey, N.H., Sarah Gauvreau Kuzniar of Chicago, Ill., Jessica Gauvreau of Lewiston, Robin Ryerson Gauvreau of Boston, Mass., Johanna Gauvreau of Boston, Mass., and Elise Douglas Gauvreau of Aspen, Colo.

He was predeceased by a sister, Anita Gauvreau McCaulay, formerly of Lewiston and Montauk, N.Y.