Rick Stillman hails from Walpole, Mass., but spent summers as a boy on Moose Pond.

Bridgton has hired Rick Stillman, the longtime police chief of Walpole, Mass., to replace departing chief Kevin Schofield.

On Tuesday, the Bridgton Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 to confirm Town Manager Robert Peabody’s decision to appoint Stillman. Stillman, 60, who will begin work on July 27, was one of 19 people, both in and out of state, who applied for the job, Peabody said.

“Rick was the top choice among all members of the interview committee, with his background, his approach to policing, his work experiences over the years, and his desire to be in this area,” Peabody said.

A Walpole native and graduate of Northeastern University, Stillman was hired by the Walpole Police Department as a patrolman in 1977. He ascended the ranks from sergeant to lieutenant, and in 2002, became chief. He has remained chief of the 50-person department ever since. Stillman said the transition to Bridgton’s 10-person department would likely be a challenge.

“It’s going to be a learning curve, there’s no question about it,” Stillman said. “The chief in Bridgton probably wears a lot more hats than I wear in Walpole. I have a very significant staff to take care of issues and that’s going to go back to me for the most part.”

Stillman said he was coming to Bridgton because of his love for the area.

“I still want to work for a number of years, but I want to establish myself in a place that I really want to be,” he said. “It’s the quality of life. I love the mountains and lakes.”

Walpole is located about 13 miles south of Boston. It has a population of 24,070 and a median household income of $74,757. Recurring issues in the area include opiate abuse and underage drinking, Stillman said.

“It’s upper middle class, but at its core it was a factory town, so it still has a fairly blue collar working class group of people,” Stillan said. “It’s changing. It’s getting more affluent as time goes on.”

Walpole is also home to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison. Stillman said he has had relatively little to do with the prison, except for receiving occasional calls from prison officials when prisoners have escaped.

“When people think of escape they think of the recent Mexican escape,” Stillman said. “That’s not what happens. In Massachusetts, they escape because they’re on work release.”

“The prison has a complete protocol on how they handle that and part of that protocol is they call us,” he added. “We had very little to do with the prison.”

In Stillman’s view, “a very small percentage of policing is crime.”

“New cops think that policing is all about crime and chasing bad guys,” Stillman said. “I don’t care where you are, New York City or whatever, policing is about quality-of-life issues. The focus of policing is in helping people solve problems and mitigate problems as best we can.”

Stillman has been married to his wife, Diane, for 31 years. His oldest son, Bill, is a Navy lieutenant stationed on a submarine, while his younger son, Andy, is an Army lieutenant serving in the Egyptian Sinai.

For 10 years during his childhood, Stillman would regularly visit a cottage on Moose Pond in Bridgton that his parents rented.

“I learned to swim on Moose Pond, I learned to fish, I learned to row a boat on Moose Pond,” Stillman said. “That’s where we spent our summers.”

His father subsequently built a house in Conway, N.H., that remained in the Stillman family until three years ago.

“I’ve been coming up to this area forever,” Stillman said. “I love the North Country. My oldest brother and my father also graduated from UMaine, Orono.”

Jim Johnson, Walpole’s town administrator, described Stillman as a “common sense” person.

“He’s well-rounded, generally just a great guy and a great confidant,” Johnson said. “I know he has the respect of the officers. He’s well respected here amongst the chiefs, not only in the area but around the state. Our loss is going to be Bridgton’s gain.”

Former Brunswick Police Chief Jerry Hinman has served as Bridgton’s interim chief since Schofield left for Windham in April. Schofield started as Bridgton’s police chief in 2011. According to Peabody, while Schofield was receiving an annual salary of $64,833.60, Stillman will receive a starting salary of $65,000.

Rick Stillman