The L.L. Bean Flagship Store in Freeport will close for only the sixth time in its 100-year history on Sunday, Sept. 13, in honor of Leon Gorman, the architect of the company’s exponential growth, whose memorial service will be held that day at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center in Westbrook.

Gorman died of cancer Sept. 4 at his Yarmouth home at the age of 80.

Gorman’s memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. Visiting hours will be held on both Friday and Saturday, from 3-8 p.m., at Conroy-Tully Crawford South Portland Chapel. The store will be closed Sunday from 8 a.m.-noon. The Westbrook Performing Arts Center is located on Stroudwater Street, at the Westbrook Middle School.

According to the company, since it was built in 1917, the store, which is Freeport’s magnet shopping attraction, had to close on Sunday three times in 1951, due to Maine’s old blue laws. It closed in 1963 for the funeral of John F. Kennedy, and in 1967 for the funeral of Gorman’s grandfather and company founder, Leon Leonwood Bean.

Gorman’s influence on Freeport, both in terms of brick-and-mortar stores and recreational opportunities, was remarkable. During Gorman’s 30 years as company president, beginning in 1967, the company’s presence in Freeport grew from the flagship store to a campus containing three other stores, a stage and surrounding green for cultural events called Discovery Park, and an enterprise teaching people how to use the company’s kayaks and other outdoor products, called L.L. Bean Outdoor Discovery Schools.

Leon Gorman Park, an 8-acre parcel of nature near the middle of downtown Freeport, off School and Bow streets, was given to the town by Gorman in 2007.

Dale Olmstead, town manager in Freeport for 30 years, knew Gorman well.

“I’ll always remember Leon as being very kind and generous,” said Olmstead, who left the position in 2012. “L.L. Bean was a partner with the town of Freeport, and that was because of Leon Gorman.”

Olmstead witnessed L.L. Bean’s boom under Gorman’s leadership. The company grew from a $4.75 million catalog company to a multi-faceted enterprise of more than $1 billion in Gorman’s three decades as company president.

“L.L. Bean was still a fairly small company doing business on Main Street,” Olmstead said. “L.L. Bean, along with George Denney of Cole-Hahn, set the standard for Freeport.”

Olmstead recalled when McDonald’s wanted to tear down a building and build one of its standard restaurants in the mid-1980s. It caused an uproar in Freeport, but the town didn’t have the ordinances to deal with it, Olmstead said.

“Leon Gorman and George Denney backed the town in talking McDonald’s into building something tasteful,” he said.

Gorman’s position was to keep his hands out of local politics, Olmstead said.

“True to his word, in my 30 years, Leon Gorman never called me for anything. He was a real gentleman and a really gentle person.”

Carolyn Beem, manager of public affairs at L.L. Bean, said Gorman “was a great man and he will be sorely missed. He had a great impact on thousands of employees that included generations. All of us at L.L. Bean extend our greatest sympathies to his wife Lisa and his entire family.”

Beem, a member of the Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce board, said that Gorman was a great business leader, a champion of the environment and a supporter of education and human services.

Gorman became chairman of the board at L.L. Bean in 2001, and chairman emeritus in 2013.

The Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce issued a statement expressing sadness at Gorman’s passing.

“Not only was he a visionary leader building the success of the L.L. Bean brand for decades, he was also closely involved with charitable giving, especially in his community,” the statement read. “His legacy for Freeport business owners will be a strong message that staying true to values such as customer service, quality and community makes for a solid foundation for long term business success and image.”

Melanie Sachs, who chairs the Freeport Town Council, said in a statement Friday that Gorman’s “reputation for kindness, service and vision is cherished in Freeport. He touched many lives in this community, through his stewardship of L.L. Bean, his volunteer service and his generosity. The town extends its deepest condolences to his family.”

Born in Nashua, N.H., on Dec. 20, 1934, to Barbara Bean and John Gorman, he was raised in Yarmouth, attended Cheverus High School, and graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1956. He served for six years in the U.S. Navy before returning home in 1960 to join his grandfather.

He tested the company’s products on outdoor trips. Among the most notable was his ascent to Camp Three during a 1990 Mount Everest International Peace Climb, sponsored by L.L. Bean.

He and his wife, Lisa, have played a lead role in The Nature Conservancy’s St. John River Project, the Appalachian Mountain Club’s capital campaign and fundraising efforts by the Student Conservation Association.

He also involved himself in various national and state civic organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, Bowdoin College and the United Way. The Gormans also had a leadership role with the Maine Community College System.

In 2006, Gorman wrote a book about his four decades of experience as the leader of L.L.Bean entitled “L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon.” The book gives a behind-the-scenes look at L.L. Bean’s history and culture.

In 1962, just a few years before he assumed the presidency of the company, Gorman wrote in his book that he “liked the idea of L.L. Bean and the way of life its products represented. I also liked the people who worked at L.L. Bean and their sincere and helpful attitudes. So a combination of duty to the people, along with a great fascination with the L.L. Bean potential – and some inertia – kept me there. I saw many opportunities to do a better job for our customers and for Bean people.”

Gorman was named president Oct. 18, 1967. “Change came apace,” he wrote in the book. “In 1969 we converted our mailing list to a computerized operation. Our mailing list had reached 700,000 names and there weren’t enough typists in the Freeport area to continue our old practice of hand typing twice a year. … In 1972 we put stock numbers in our catalogs for the first time and disclosed to the world that L.L. Bean had finally succumbed to computerization.

“In the Spring 1968 catalog we included our first guarantee statement. The next year we broadened our guarantee to make it unqualified, the broadest in the industry. Our customers continued to be trustworthy and we validated a big part of the L.L. Bean story.”

Leon GormanLeon Gorman, left, with Adm. Donald Baxter MacMillan, center right, at the L.L. Bean Store. The photo was probably taken between 1967, when Gorman became president of L.L. Bean, and 1970, the year of MacMillan’s death. MacMillan, a Freeport High School graduate, equipped his team with L.L. Bean’s Maine Hunting Shoe for his 1921 Arctic expedition. Gorman is presenting MacMillan with a Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket, an item first sold by L.L. Bean in 1925, and still available today.Photo courtesy of Freeport Historical Society, C. Raymond Thomas Collection.