Aime Alfred Levecque could pitch any product, whether it be a car, a camera or a fence.

“My father had the gift of gab,” said his son, Peter Levecque of Westbrook.

Mr. Levecque died at the Barron Center in Portland Saturday after struggling for four years with Alzheimer’s disease.

A longtime resident of Westbrook, he was 85 years old.

Mr. Levecque was born and raised in Westbrook and attended local schools but did not graduate from Westbrook High School.

“My dad left high school to join the Navy (in 1944),” his son said.

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In his 40s, he was able to return to night school and earn his high school diploma.

His true calling was in sales.

“He was a born salesman,” his son said. “A true, classic salesman. He had a lot of street smarts. And he was the type of person who would rather work than play.”

Mr. Levecque started a long career in sales working for Henley Kimball Co. on Forest Avenue. He specialized in selling vehicles made by the Hudson Motor Car Co., a position he held for more than nine years.

From there he went on to work in sales for Valvoline Oil Co. and Oxford Chemical Co.

In 1965, he moved to Portland, Ore., where he worked in camera sales for Bell & Howell.

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Peter Levecque said he recently discovered a letter written in 1968 by Bell & Howell that congratulated his father for being the top camera salesman in the United States.

“The funny thing was, he didn’t know all that much about cameras,” Levecque said. “He could sell anything. He had the gift.”

Mr. Levecque decided to move his family back to Maine. He returned to Maine in 1970 and established a chemical supply company called Dynamic Sales. He ran that business for 12 years. In 1982, a German company called Remstar International approached him and asked if he would be interested in helping it establish an office in Maine.

He accepted the offer and Remstar, which specializes in corporate automated storage and retrieval systems, is still doing business in Westbrook after 31 years.

In 1983, Mr. Levecque started another company. Executive Limousine Service offered the first stretch limousine service in Maine.

His passengers included former President George H.W. Bush, the Rev. Billy Graham, and various entertainers.

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His son said his father would transport the president to and from the Bush family’s Kennebunkport compound.

The Rev. Graham visited the Bush compound on several occasions.

“It was a job and (Mr. Levecque) got to meet some very interesting people,” his son said.

In the mid-1980s, Mr. Levecque purchased E.A. Burns Fencing, a Westbrook-based company that is now run by his son Peter, and his grandson Jason.

Burns Fencing does commercial and residential fencing for the entire state, said Peter, who serves as its president. His son, Jason, is vice president.

After his retirement, Mr. Levecque and his wife, Constance (Connie) Libby, spent their winters in Venice, Fla.

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He played golf in Florida with a man he knew only as Pee Wee.

Finally, someone at the golf club where they played asked him how he liked playing with a former baseball great.

It was then that Mr. Levecque learned he had been playing with Harold Peter Henry “Pee Wee” Reese, a former shortstop for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

“I think that’s why he liked playing with my dad because he didn’t know who he was,” Peter Levecque said.

Visiting hours will be at the Blais & Hay Funeral Home in Westbrook on Wednesday, March 13, between 4 and 6:30 p.m. The service will follow.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

 


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