Lamontagne is the ultimate renaissance man: a talented cook, a former barber, an emergency medical technician, a local labor leader and a former politician who grew up eating porcupines and squirrels in one of Biddeford’s toughest neighborhoods.
By RANDY SEAVER | Editor
In a 2012 interview, Pete Lamontagne told me, “I don’t look at the oyster shell, I’m always looking for the pearl inside the shell.”
And that philosophy – that quiet, thoughtful and understated optimism – might be the underpinning of why so many people in Biddeford consider Lamontagne to be one of the city’s most respected and most well-liked former politicians.
Lamontagne is the ultimate renaissance man: a talented cook, a former barber, an emergency medical technician, a local labor leader and a former politician who grew up eating porcupines and squirrels in one of Biddeford’s toughest neighborhoods.
He also was a self-described “drunk,” a man whose life spun almost out of control until he found sobriety nearly 40 years ago.
Today, Lamontagne is gentle, kind and full of empathy – always ready to listen and always straightforward and without pretense.
. . .
But he recalls a time in his life, when he and his young friends would roam the streets of Old Orchard Beach or Kennebunk, simply looking for a fight – just for a way to release the pent-up rage of late adolescence.
His life has been a series of ups and downs – from his intense battles with alcohol and the devastating loss of his second wife, Janice — to the joy he finds today cooking pork pies, spending time with friends and gardening.
Near the end of our interview, he took a certain amount of satisfaction in surprising us with the identity of one of his biggest heroes.
Although he has seen his hometown survive some turbulent political storms, he said it is becoming increasingly difficult to feel optimistic about the city’s future.
Three mayors, one steady approach
Lamontagne served as a member of the Biddeford City Council for more than a decade, including four years as council president during a rather tumultuous time in the city’s history.
Biddeford’s local politics were then – in the late 1990s — punctuated by acrimonious debates, the closing of the city’s last remaining textile mill and intense controversy surrounding a regional trash incinerator that was located just down the street from City Hall.
George ‘Pete’ Lamontagne served under three mayors: Donna Dion, Wallace Nutting and Joanne Twomey, but through it all — Lamontagne was considered the one constant in the days when Biddeford was struggling to reinvent itself and become something – anything — other than “a former mill town.”
“They were three very different mayors, and they each had their own way of doing things,” Lamontagne said. “But I was able to work with all of them. They always knew where I stood. There were no surprises. I was always willing to listen.”
In fact, Lamontagne recalls having to “step-in” and prevent physical fights between councilors and other local leaders.
“It happened more than once,” he said, quietly shaking his head.
Former Mayor Donna Dion described Lamontagne as a “true gentleman, someone you could trust and someone who wasn’t playing any games.”
“I did not know much about him before he joined the council,” Dion recalled. “I quickly came to appreciate his steadying influence on the council.
“Pete didn’t serve on the council to make himself important, he was always very rooted in what he believed was best for Biddeford,” Dion added. “We didn’t always agree, but I always admired his thoughtful approach. He was always honest, always authentic.”
Known as “Pete,” George Alphonse Lamontagne was named after his father, who was also known as “Pete,” despite his full name of George Adolph Lamontagne.
“Everyone just called him Pete,” Lamontagne laughed. “So, then they just started calling me Pete.”
“Pete didn’t serve on the council
— Former Mayor Donna Dion
to make himself important,
he was always very rooted
in what he believed was best
for Biddeford.”
Starting against the odds
Lamontagne did not have an easy life, describing himself as “full of anger and looking for trouble” as a young adult. Regardless, he says he had a “wonderful childhood.”
Today — more than six decades later – Lamontagne, 81, seems to have found peace and an uncanny ability to temper his expectations of the world around him.
He is a complicated man who has seen things; done things and came out stronger on the other side of some rather dark days.
Lamontagne was raised in an especially tough Biddeford neighborhood known as “the shipyard” along Water Street. The tightly packed neighborhood of tenement triple-deckers was also the childhood home of former mayors Raymond Gaudette and Gilbert Boucher.
“It was pretty easy to find trouble in that neighborhood,” Lamontagne recalled. “But we stuck together – even when we were fighting each other.”
His mother, Diana, died when Pete was just 11 years old, but he says his father, “Big Pete” didn’t miss a step when it came to caring for his two children – including Lamontagne’s older sister.
“My father worked in the mill, but he also had a side job, working as a mason,” Lamontagne recalled. “He built a lot of those brick outdoor fireplaces that you can still see on West Street.”
Lamontagne described his father as a hard-working man who was creative and not afraid to take care of the tasks that most men left for their wives including doing the laundry on Monday nights and being creative in the kitchen.”
. . .
“We ate porcupine and squirrels’
The elder Lamontagne was an avid hunter and fishermen, but he also never passed up an opportunity to bring home some other types of wildlife — including roadkill that would become central ingredients for a stew or casserole pie.
“We ate porcupine, and we ate squirrels – every conceivable animal — and it was delicious,” Lamontagne said. “My father was being thrifty, but he was also very creative in the kitchen. He really enjoyed trying new things.”
George Lamontagnee, senior, was a Republican who worked long shifts at the mill and aspired to be a local politician but was never elected.
“It was the letter R after his name,” Lamontagne said, explaining why his father always came up short at the polls.
Through his hard work and a thrifty lifestyle, Lamontagne’s father was able to purchase an undeveloped, ocean-front double-lot on Hills Beach.
“He paid a thousand dollars for that property, and all of his friends at the mill laughed at him,” Lamontagne recalled. “They told him all you have is a sand box on the ocean.”
But it was at that cottage – the expanding home that Lamontagne’s father built while still working full-time – where the younger Lamontagne met the “prettiest blonde girl in the world.”
“She was something else,” Lamontagne recalled of his first girlfriend whose mother would park at the cottage in order to spend a day at the beach with her daughter.
“I convinced my father to let them park there, so that I could spend time with her, just talking and holding hands,” he said.
Pete Lamontagne was 12-years old, and that pretty blonde girl would grow up to become Joanne Twomey, a former state representative and one of Biddeford’s most outspoken mayors who often struggled to contain her emotions.
When asked about that summer romance from her childhood, Twomey giggled somewhat sheepishly. “He was so handsome,” she recalled of an adolescent Lamontagne. “He was very tall and quite thin – and his eyes twinkled. Yes, he was my first boyfriend.”
A winding career path
Just as the Vietnam War was beginning to escalate, Lamontagne dropped out of his classes at Biddeford High School in 1962 and joined the United States Army, where he served as a postal clerk while stationed in France.
During his tour, Lamontagne was able to complete his high school classes and earned a GED before coming home and then enrolling in barber school classes in Lewiston.
His classmates included some of Biddeford’s most notable barbers, including Roger Chretien, Roland Porier and Nelson Ouellette.
Pete found work at Dick’s Barbershop in Lewiston, where he enjoyed being able to read the paper while relaxing in his own barber chair between customers.
Although he was able to become a certified Emergency Medical Technician, he gave that job up because of the stress. “I just couldn’t handle some parts of it,” he recalled.
Eventually, he followed in his father’s footsteps and began work at the Pepperell Mill in 1972. He married a Biddeford girl (Elaine LaFlamme) and the couple had two sons, George and Kevin.
That marriage did not last long, but Lamontagne vividly recalls the date, time and location when he first laid eyes on Janice, his second wife.
“It was love at first sight,” he recalled. “It was at the Kerrymen Pub, and she was sitting there at a table with five girlfriends. She had long hair and a beautiful smile.”
The two were soon married and the couple had a son, Randy who today lives in Boulder Heights, Colorado. Pete and Janice were married for 44 years before she passed away on August 20, 2022.
. . .
A path of self-destruction
During our interview, Lamontagne is relaxed; arms spread wide as he leans back on a sofa in his living room.
He is a man at peace, ready to openly talk about anything – even his addiction to alcohol that lasted more than a quarter century.
“I was a drunk,” he says bluntly. “I had a lot of fun with alcohol but then it started having fun with me.”
Lamontagne said he was unable to function without quick access to beer or another alcoholic beverage.
Drinking nearly cost him his job at the mill, where he was well-liked and became president of UNITE, Local 305.
“I never went anywhere without a beer, even when I was driving,” he said. “It became an issue at work because I would have a few beers at Doc’s before starting my shift.”
In just a few weeks, Lamontagne will celebrate his 40-year anniversary of sobriety.
“I had a lot of fun with alcohol
— George ‘Pete’ Lamontagne
but then it started having fun
with me.”
“I still crave it, but now I can look beyond that next drink,” he said. “If I go there, I won’t be able to come back.”
Although Lamontagne’s addiction became a dangerous coping tool, it also became the foundation of his humble, generous and empathetic nature. He does not judge others or their struggles.
His ongoing recovery, Lamontagne says, gives him insight into how others behave and about how their vulnerabilities impact their own perspective.
That rigorous empathy made Lamontagne a leader among his peers, and it launched his success as a local political candidate.
“People who didn’t have much of a voice always showed up for me,” he explained. “I only had five campaign signs. That’s all I ever needed.”
Biddeford: Then and Now
It has been nearly 20 years since Lamontagne served on the Biddeford City Council.
Today, Lamontagne says that he almost doesn’t recognize the city where he was raised. He wonders about the sustainability of a service-sector economy that is replacing the economic engine of Biddeford’s downtown mill complex, where nearly 1,000 employees toiled three shifts for competitive wages and access to union benefits.
“I don’t go to restaurants anymore,” he sighs. “The prices are so high. I don’t see how anyone can afford to spend that amount of money for a breakfast or lunch.”
Inflation, he says, prevents him from visiting many of the businesses he once frequented – and he quietly wonders what’s next for his hometown.
When talking about his career in Biddeford’s sprawling downtown mill complex, Lamontagne leans forward, his words oozing with pride.
“Management was the best of the best,” he said, recalling Dick Guay, a man who started his career at the mill as a maintenance worker and was repeatedly promoted through the ranks to become the third-highest company representative.
Lamontagne remembers working with Francis Spencer, the man who invented the world-famous Vellux blanket.
If management had a problem or something they couldn’t quite figure out, they came to us, seeking our input and ideas,” Lamontagne said. “They respected us, and we respected them.”
When he was a teenager, Lamontagne recalled seeing heavyweight musical acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee and Eddie Cochrane at the former Lightning Club, a concert hall within the St. Jean Baptiste building on the corner of Main and Elm streets.
The perspective of a former leader
. . .
Lamontagne once served as chair of the city council’s Finance Committee.
“We always got good bond ratings. We handled money responsibly, but today we have found ourselves in a big mess. I very much doubt that any one person can fix things.”
The former city councilor bemoans rapid employee turnover at City Hall and a lack of institutional knowledge. He said he was optimistic when Truc Dever was hired as the city’s new manager last year but then felt deflated when she abruptly resigned nine months later.
Lamontagne also expressed concern about the city’s current and very tense relationship with the University of New England (UNE).
His wife, Janice, worked on the Biddeford campus for more than 30 years, starting as a telephone operator and becoming the school’s business manager.
“I love UNE,” Lamontagne said. “They were a good neighbor when we were living at Hills Beach. I think we’re lucky to have a school of that caliber in Biddeford. It saddens me that we don’t have a better relationship.”
When it comes to the city’s current political landscape, Lamontagne described newly elected Mayor Liam LaFountain as a man who cares about Biddeford and has his heart in the right place.
“He does well,” Lamontagne said of the mayor. “But there’s just so much going on; so much that needs to be repaired. There are not enough answers.”
For the first time during our hour-long interview, Lamontagne’s smile and sense of optimism is overshadowed by concern and anxiety.
“We’re not living in good times, nationally or locally,” he said. “I don’t see how anyone can fix it.”
Just the facts
Lamontagne seems relieved when the conversation shifts from local politics to exploring some parts of his life that many people don’t know.
He shares his home with two, 10-year-old budgie parakeets, Jack and Lettie.
Although Janice named the female bird Lettie, Pete Lamontagne named the male parakeet after his life-long hero Jack Webb, the actor and television producer best known for his role as a straight-talking detective on the television show Dragnet.
“He was so far ahead of his time,” Lamontagne says of Webb, pointing out highlights of Webb’s long career and influence in television entertainment.
“He treated everyone the same,” Lamontagne says of Sgt. Joe Friday. “He was a hard-working, no-nonsense type of guy. All he wanted was the facts, and that always appealed to me.”
. . .
If you enjoyed this story, please consider supporting local, independent journalism by making a donation to the Biddeford Gazette, a community-driven, non-profit news organization fueled by decades of professional experience | Click Here to Donate Thank you!
.
This story was made possible by the generous support of our readers and these local businesses
STAY CONNECTED | SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TODAY
.
THE BIDDEFORD GAZETTE
“Keeping You Connected to Biddeford”
Editorial Standards & Policies
© 2026 Biddeford Gazette, Inc. All Rights Reserved
BIDDEFORD GAZETTE 