Dick Gosselin

Dick Gosselin, a veteran Maine broadcaster and reporter, died July 1 after a months-long struggle with Lewy Body disease and Parkinson’s. He was 72.

In a broadcast career that spanned a half-century, Mr. Gosselin became a mainstay on Portland television stations WCSH-6 and WMTW-8. He often joked about the fact that he worked at WGME-13 for one day, so technically had worked at all three local stations.

Mr. Gosselin started his broadcasting career in Somersworth, New Hampshire, with a volunteer job writing and reading the news over local radio station WTSN in Dover. At the time, he was a sophomore in high school and had a D minus in English.

Known for his calm, steady demeanor and rich tenor voice, Gosselin worked for radio stations in Sanford and Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

In 1972, he joined WCSH as a booth announcer. He answered the phones, read tag lines for commercials, and delivered the weather forecast at 11 p.m. He eventually became a news anchor and reporter covering a range of stories from breaking news to unusual segments, such an interview with Bruce Jenner and O.J. Simpson, who co-hosted the 1980 Olympics.

“At the heart of it all, whether on camera or off, Dick just loved to tell stories,” said Pat Callaghan, an anchor and reporter for NewsCenter Maine, in a news segment about Gosselin’s career.

In the late 1980s, he became host of the popular PBS game show, “So You Think You Know Maine.”

Mr. Gosselin returned to news in 1996 as a reporter for WMTW. In an interview for the news program Today River Valley, Gosselin chokes up talking about his coverage of shootings in Colebrook, N.H., in 1997, when a gunman killed two state troopers, an attorney and part-time judge and a newspaper editor.

“It was so moving how this guy could go berserk and shoot two state troopers and a judge and one of the newspaper office employees when he jumped on his back and tried to stop him. He shot him. He says, ‘That will teach you to mind your own business.’ That many people killed by a guy who went berserk. It was probably the most moving story I ever did,” Gosselin said in the interview.

In 2003, Mr. Gosselin went behind the camera as a videographer. He retired in 2013.

Mr. Gosselin lived in South Portland’s Meetinghouse Hill neighborhood. Prior to his retirement, he became a school bus driver for Scarborough and most recently Cape Elizabeth schools, where he drove bus number 14.
He also drove the Sea Dog Shuttle Bus and was a tour bus driver and narrator for Mainly Tours, & RTP.

He was in a relationship with Norma Salway of Portland for the past five years.

She remembered him Monday as a joyful, funny and outgoing person who lived life to the fullest.

“He loved life,” Salway said. “He loved people. He loved telling stories. He always led with his heart. He always had a way of making people feel special. He brought so much joy to so many people. He had this golden voice.”

Mr. Gosselin also performed in local plays, with roles in Portland Players’ “A Flea in Her Ear” and “On Golden Pond.”

He retired from driving a school bus last summer. His health began to decline quickly in October, as he developed Lewy Body disease and Parkinson’s, Salway said. He broke his arm in April and was living at the Augusta Center for Health & Rehabilitation at the time of his death.

Because of COVID-19, Salway could only see him through the first-floor window at the facility.

She choked up talking about the last time she sat with him outside the facility, spaced 6 feet apart and wearing a mask. He was hard of hearing and the mask made it difficult for him to read lips, she said.

“When I got ready to leave, I air hugged him,” she said. “He looks up at the nurse and said, ‘Why can’t I hug her goodbye?’ It just broke my heart. I cried all the way home. We were both heart-broken we couldn’t hug each other. It was very hard. Both diseases are very unkind.”