Standish Town Councilor Wayne Newbegin, 75, died May 14 from lung cancer.

Born in Portland on Sept. 29, 1939, Newbegin built a house in Standish in 1999 after retiring from the Maine Army National Guard, where he spent most of his career. In retirement, Newbegin spent a considerable amount of his time engaged in civic activity, whether sitting on the Town Council, the Planning Board, or commanding American Legion Westbrook Post 197.

According to his wife, Linda, Newbegin quickly immersed himself in the civic life of Standish after retiring. In April 2003, he was appointed to the Planning Board for several months. In 2004, he was appointed to the assessment review board. The following year, he was elected to the Planning Board.

“He just went down to town hall and said ‘What can I do?,’” Linda Newbegin said.

In 2007, Newbegin was elected to the Town Council for a three-year term. He ran three unsuccessful campaigns for re-election in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and then was re-elected last year for a three-year term. In his time on the council, Newbegin served on the roadway, ordinance and beach committees.

“He was an extremely hard working councilor,” said Town Manager Gordon Billington. “I was very impressed when he took over the ordinance committee in his first term and did a complete wall-to-wall review of all the ordinances in our codebook. That was a fairly exhaustive study. It showed his tenacity to tackle a big project and see it through to the finish.”

Lou Stack, who served with Newbegin on the council for three years, praised Newbegin as a man of integrity.

“He was the most upstanding councilor that I had the honor of serving with,” Stack said. “The man was a great and selfless community leader.

“He may not have been on the winning side all the time but it’s my opinion that he was on the right side all the time,” Stack said.

According to Stack, Newbegin’s work on the beach committee has been critical in advancing the town’s efforts to develop a public beach at the Cargill Lot property owned by the Portland Water District.

“If it hadn’t been for his communications with the water district we may still be working on that with them,” Stack said. “He served as our communique? between Standish and the water district and his effort from working with the water district was very important to the completion of the beach effort.”

According to John Sargent, the chairman of the council, Newbegin donated a piece of his property to the town – with little fanfare – in order to allow an access road to be built to the Cargill Lot.

“Wayne was one of those fellows that was very hard working and served the town well,” Sargent said. “He wasn’t an attention seeker. He donated the land to the town, but just matter of factly. No big deal.”

Newbegin also helped found the Standish Watchdog Group, a pro-transparency advocacy campaign, according to Dan Kasprzyk, another founding member of the group.

“I think if you’ve known him or spent time with him, he was a man of high moral character and strong principles and convictions,” Kasprzyk said. “He felt strongly that Standish voters were very important and that their votes and their opinions should be respected.”

Newbegin graduated from Deering High School in 1957 and married Linda in 1982. He served in the military for 39 years, also serving stints in the Air Force and Air National Guard, and obtaining the ranks of Master Sergeant and Operation Sergeant at Joint Force Headquarters.

“He was very thoughtful in his words and actions, with a tremendous sense of integrity,” Linda Newbegin said.

He also was the adjutant for American Legion Standish Memorial Post 128 and a member of the Kiwanis Club, as well as a golfer, a craftsman, an ice fisherman, a poker player and a traveler.

Newbegin’s burial is scheduled to be held at the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta on Friday.

Former Standish town councilor Wayne Newbegin, who died last week, served for many years in the Maine Army National Guard.Staff photo by Ezra Silk