LEWISTON — The doctors thought Paul Alfred Samson surely would succumb to his illness by Monday morning at the latest.

It didn’t happen that way. Samson hung in there until evening and in his final moments, he gazed up from his bed and asked his son, Eric, a question of great importance.

“He looked up at me and he asked if I have enough campaign signs,” said Eric, who happens to be running for county sheriff. “We kind of had to laugh, but that’s who he was. In his last hour, it wasn’t about him. He wanted to make sure that I was taken care of.”

Samson’s selflessness at the end comes as no surprise to the many who knew him. He was known as much for random acts of kindness as he was for utter commitment to the city he adored.

“My father loved Lewiston,” Eric said. “He had no desire to be anywhere else. He had that strong commitment to the city and he brought it out in other people.”

Samson died Monday night at 8:15, with his family at his bedside. At 71, he succumbed to heart disease, lung cancer and other illnesses related to exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange, according to his obituary.

A former U.S. Marine, Samson served 15 years on the Lewiston police force where he received the Award of Valor before injury put an end to his career. In the mid 1990s, Samson was elected to the Lewiston City Council representing Ward 5, a position he would hold for several terms before completing his service in 2007.

Those who knew Samson described him as a man who put the needs of others before his own. Whether it was addressing complaints of potholes for constituents, seeing to the needs of the elderly or taking care of his neighbors, Samson was a man who liked to help, whether it was here or at his camp on the coast where he spent time with his second wife, Patience Johnson.

“My grandmother, Althea Fish, lived across the street from Paul and Patience in Harpswell,” Chad Luce of Lewiston recalled. “There was a well on their property. Paul used to carry buckets of water over to my grandmother’s residence whenever there were water issues in the area.”

Mostly, Samson preferred to be in Lewiston, where he forever was searching for new ways to help his community. He served on numerous boards and with several organizations, including Lewiston Housing Authority, the Lewiston School Board Downtown, the Empowerment Zone and the Lewiston Land Committee, to name a few.

“He was great to work with,” said Paul Ouellette, Lewiston’s fire inspector. “Paul was a good man.”

Samson first took office on the Lewiston City Council in 1996, replacing Ward 5 Councilor George Ricker, who died in office. Samson beat out three challengers in a special November council election that year.

Samson was re-elected to the City Council in 1997 and again in 2001, when he ran unchallenged. He won the Democratic party’s nomination for a Lewiston seat in the state House of Representatives in 2002, but chose not to run for that seat and stepped down from his council seat later that same year. He cited health problems.

He was back three years later in 2005, however, reclaiming his Ward 5 seat. He held the seat for one more term, declining to run in 2007. Again, he said health decisions influenced his decision.

“But I think I’ve done as much as I can,” he told the Sun Journal at the time. “I just get tired. The fact is, with age, I just don’t have the energy anymore.”

By Tuesday, word of Samson’s passing was spreading throughout the community. For two days, condolences were passed along and memories of Paul Samson, the public servant, were shared. Among those to share their thoughts on a memorial webpage was a former rambunctious teenager who met Paul Samson the cop the hard way — after a night of mischief.

Even under those circumstances, Samson’s generosity shone through.

“I had the great honor and pleasure to meet Paul under awkward circumstances in the ’70s,” wrote Jerry Aripez of Lewiston. “He caught me throwing eggs at Bates College on Halloween and was so kind and tolerated our stupidity. He was a good man, as a true blue policeman with kindness that we surely need more of him today.

“I always respected and looked up to him on how in the days he handled us kids,” Aripez wrote.

Paul left behind two sons, two stepchildren and eight grandkids. There are clear signs, said his son Eric, that Samson’s altruism and civic pride have reached into the third generation.

“We raise our kids to be like he was,” Eric said, “to be proud of their city and to be committed to it.”

And with humility. Above all, Eric said, his father went about the business of kindness in a quiet way, never asking for a thank-you or a pat on the back. Until the very end, he simply recognized what needed to be done and got about doing it as best he could.

“He was always humble about it,” Eric said. “He was always willing to do something for somebody else regardless of his own situation. He always wanted to do for others.”

Services are planned for Saturday at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Samson, who did a tour in Vietnam as a heavy equipment operator and worked with military police, will be buried with military honors.

“I think my father accomplished what he set out to accomplish,” Eric said. “He had a positive effect on a lot of people.”

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