William F. Reid Jr.

SKOWHEGAN – William F. Reid, Jr., 86, died on Monday, May 12, 2025, from heart disease.

He was born in Pawtucket, R.I., on Sept. 29, 1938, to William and Marion Reid. An only child, Will grew up in the Old Town area of North Attleborough, Mass. His love of nature began at a small pond behind his house, where he caught snakes, frogs, and turtles. He developed a lifelong affection for Maine during camping trips to Toddy Pond in the 1950s and then by attending Bowdoin College, where he earned a degree in Biology in 1960.

While at Bowdoin, he often spent weekends in Skowhegan at the house of college friend Dave Boyle, where he met his future wife, Margaret Laney. He spent an unforgettable fall hunting in Northern Maine, including the Lexington Highland Plantation near Bigelow Mountain, where he and friends camped in tents and horse hovels. One of his most memorable experiences was fishing and canoeing on Eagle Lake in the Allagash in May of 1959 and 1960. At that time, the Allagash was still wild, requiring a long, rough drive over gravel roads to get there.

After college, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wichita Falls, Texas, serving as an administrative officer for four years. During that time, he drove a white Chevy convertible. As soon as he could, Will returned to New England, managing a fish hatchery in Berlin, N.H.

In 1967, he married Margaret Laney. By this time, he had traded his Chevrolet for a green Mustang. They moved to Old Town, Maine, while Will earned his M.A. from the University of Maine. They later bought a house in Orono and a used orange VW bus, with an underperforming defroster, to transport a family of four children, two cats, and two dogs.

Will earned his Ph.D. in Forest Resources (Wildlife) from the University of Maine in 1976. He became a leading expert on freshwater crayfish in Maine. He was the first Director of Environmental Services at the Maine Department of Transportation. Over 27 years, he worked to protect streams and rivers from road construction, installed turtle fences on I-95 and I-295 to prevent collisions, and ensured that municipal salt and sand piles were covered to mitigate harmful runoff.

In 1980, after the death of his father-in-law, Dr. Richard Laney, Will and his family relocated to Skowhegan to be closer to Margaret’s mother, Marion. That first fall in Skowhegan, he will be remembered standing, chainsaw in hand, atop a truck load of tree length firewood he had delivered to their front lawn, most likely a first for Coburn Avenue.

He spent summers at Lake Wesserunsett with his family, becoming one of the lake’s greatest environmental champions. As a pioneering citizen scientist, he initiated Lake Wesserunsett’s water quality testing program in 1982 and the lake’s annual Audubon loon count in 1983.

In 2002, he helped establish the DEP’s courtesy boat inspection program at the East Madison boat landing. He was instrumental in developing the Lake Wesserunsett Association’s watershed conservation plan, and he started the wetland protection work that LWA continues today. The first successful wetland conservation project, Reid-Lahti Wetlands Preserve, is jointly named in his honor. He was also active with the Somerset Woods Trustees, the oldest land trust in the state.

Will enjoyed playing recreational softball and volleyball, but he loved mountain biking and cross-country skiing. In his free time, he explored woods in Mayfield, Solon, and Bingham by bike and skis, usually with his loyal golden retriever, Duffy. He was fascinated by the history told by old cellar holes, stone walls, and other artifacts left by early settlers.

In addition to his distinguished career as an environmentalist, Will instilled in his children and grandchildren an appreciation of nature. He taught them about fish, frogs, turtles, birds, dragonflies, ferns, vernal pools, as well as native trees and flowering shrubs. He said that if one ever had trouble identifying a particular species of native shrub, it’s probably a viburnum. He was a dedicated, precise, and rigorous technician and a true scientist who could write a good sentence.

Will also will be remembered for his kindness, humor, and intelligence. He loved the blues, had many strong feelings about the Red Sox, believed in equal rights, and saw funding libraries as an investment in the people of a community. He kept his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck together with bungee cords and duct tape longer than most would think possible, but he would have happily sacrificed his Nokia flip phone.

William is survived by his wife, Margaret; and their four children, Elizabeth Payne (Richard Brucher) of Orono, Kathryn Reid (Hugh Tozer) of Portland, Michael Reid (Uyen Bach) of Petersburg, Va., and Anne Reid (Todd Boyd) of Brookline, Mass. He is also survived by six grandchildren, Margaret Reynolds, Genevieve Payne, Pablo Reid, Anna Reid, Benjamin Reid, and Phoebe Reid Boyd, along with one great-grandchild, Theodore Reynolds.

Please visit Will’s memorial page at https://svremembrancecenter.com/obituaries/william-reid-2025 where condolences, photos and special memories may be shared.

In place of flowers, donations may be made to

Somerset Woods Trustees (https://www.somersetwoodstrustees.org)

Lake Wesserunsett

Association

(https://www.wesserunsett.org/blackpoint )

Lake Stewards of Maine (https://www.lakestewardsofmaine.org)