RAYMOND – An elderly man found dead in Crescent Lake last week was remembered as a gentleman and a loving husband who left an impression on the many friends and acquaintances he made in Maine.

William Prouty, 86, who was an Eagle Scout, a veteran of World War II, husband and father of three sons, died last Thursday morning near his island home on Crescent Lake in Raymond. He was either working on the boat or on the adjacent dock when he collapsed after a cardiac event and fell into the water, said Mark Belserene, administrator at the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. A repairman on his way out to the island found Prouty’s body in the water floating next to the dock.

Prouty was known as “The Boat Man” to the employees of Shaw’s supermarket in North Windham. Prouty, who knew the original Shaw family while growing up in Portland, was a lifelong patron of the supermarket. Since he had to transport groceries by boat to the island, Prouty would ask employees to bag his groceries so they could withstand the long trip to the home he shared with his French-born wife, Chantal, whom he met in Paris during World War II.

“He just doted on her. He would always buy raspberries and lobster sandwiches just for her,” said 29-year Shaw’s employee Peg Ellis.

Ellis said Prouty would request a double layer of paper and plastic to protect the groceries as he rowed to the island. He would come to Shaw’s several mornings a week and preferred to row to keep himself in shape, he told employees. About 10 years ago, Ellis said, Prouty broke down and got a motor for the boat.

“He was just a nice, nice man, and he was always amazed we would remember how he wanted his bags,” Ellis said.

The Proutys purchased their Raymond home in 1980 from Hacker Hall after renting the island home in summers since the 1950s, according to their son Georges Prouty. William Prouty was a Portland native and Deering High School graduate, and moved to Hartford, Conn., shortly after marrying in 1946.

Prouty, who earned his master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and worked as an actuary at Aetna Life & Casualty in Hartford, was good friends with the Hall family, which is handling funeral arrangements. The Proutys were also friendly with Bob and Rachel Akins, who live on the mainland in Raymond within sight of the Prouty home. The Akinses regularly invited the Proutys for dinner on their deck overlooking the island. The Akinses also visited the Proutys at their home in West Hartford, Conn.

“He was a real gentleman. A lot of people use that word to describe him, just a gentleman,” said Rachel Akins. “He enjoyed people. You always felt his joy. And he was very interested in people.”

According to sons Georges and Carl, their father and mother most enjoyed opera, and the Metropolitan Opera of New York especially. Georges said the two dated in Paris near the end of the war and attended productions at the Paris Opera House “and continued to see opera together their entire life. It’s a real romantic story. They were just about to celebrate their 65th anniversary,” Georges Prouty said.

Georges Prouty said his father loved Raymond and Crescent Lake. The family intends to keep the island home in the family.

“It was a very special place for him, as it is for me,” he said.

William Prouty