A Windham town councilor died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack while traveling on vacation.

Thomas “Tommy” Gleason and his wife had stopped to see her aunt in New Jersey on their way to Florida when he had the heart attack and was hospitalized. He died several days later at age 67.

A native of Queens, New York, Gleason attended St. Francis College in Biddeford, what’s now the University of New England. He returned to his home state, where he started a career in heavy machinery, first as a crane operator working on high-rise buildings, bridges and tunnels throughout New York City.

“He loved what he did. He felt like he was a kid in a sandbox playing with big boy toys,” said his wife, Nancy Gleason.

He eventually became the training director for Local 14-14B International Union of Operating Engineers.

“Anything mechanical, he was a whiz at,” his wife said.

The couple met 44 years ago when they were set up by her mother and his best friend’s mother. Five months later, they eloped in Maryland.

They raised two girls in Long Island before getting tired of the stress of city living and moving to Maine.

At first, his wife said, Gleason kept working in New York, coming up to their house in Gorham on weekends. But after breaking his neck in a car accident a year later, he retired and moved to Maine full time. A couple of years later, they bought a small farm in Windham where they raised chickens, turkeys and pigs.

Twelve years ago, their younger daughter died of a brain tumor at age 24.

“He needed an outlet,” Nancy Gleason said. That’s when he started paying attention to local politics.

He wrote columns for local papers and eventually ran for town council.

He lost his first election, but tried again and won in 2010.

“His focus was always making Windham better,” said Timothy Nangle, a fellow councilor. Nangle said he knows that should be the role of any councilor, but that Gleason was genuine about it.

“He really cared about the community and wanted to have us move forward. He’s definitely going to be missed on the council,” he said.

Nancy Gleason said her husband’s favorite thing to do was get into his red Kia Soul, drive around town and stop at local shops, like Thayer’s Store and Molly’s Cafe ‘n’ More, to chitchat with whomever else was there.

“Everybody knew him,” she said.

Tommy Gleason was known for his bluntness, his humor and his kind heart – too big, his wife said, for the one in his chest.

Although he had health problems and had been on dialysis, they didn’t know about his heart problems until he was hospitalized.

His wife believes he died Wednesday because he was ready to be with his daughter again.

“He missed her something terrible,” she said.

His wife said she’s been overwhelmed by the generosity of the town and its people in the past few days. It just proves what she already knew.

“He’s loved by everybody,” she said.