Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Collection

Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

3-29-1999

Interview Number

MOH 076

Abstract

Lucien B. Gosselin was born on November 13, 1941 to Delia Hamel Gosselin and Arthur J. Gosselin. His mother was a homemaker and his father worked full time at the Pepperill Mill of Lewiston. He was the second youngest of nine children in his family. They lived on Blake Street in Lewiston in a working class, French-speaking neighborhood. His father passed away when he was ten. He attended the parochial schools St. Peter’s Elementary and St. Dominic’s High School. During high school and after graduation, he worked for the Lewiston newspapers, at first as a delivery boy, and then in the circulation and proofing departments. He then worked at Victor News from 1961 to 1963 before taking a position in the Lewiston city government as an assistant to the City Controller. He eventually worked his way to being the City Administrator under the new Lewiston City Charter of 1980. He served in this capacity until 1989. Gosselin was instrumental in lobbying for the founding of Lewiston-Auburn College. He graduated from Lewiston-Auburn College in 1991. He later received a masters degree from the Muskie School of Public Policy, and is pursuing his Ph.D. He worked for the Maine Development Foundation in the early 1990s, and in 1997 became president of the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council (LAEGC), which is the position he held at the time of the interview.

Scope and Content Note

Interview includes discussions of: growing up in Lewiston; the Roman Catholic Church in Lewiston; the Franco-American community of Lewiston; French language in Catholic schools; his experiences working at Lewiston newspapers; Victor News; civil defense in Lewiston; the Lewiston City Charter of 1939; the Lewiston City Charter of 1980; economic development at the municipal level; Faust Couture; Franco-American media in Lewiston; Bill Rocheleau; Louis Jalbert; block voting for state representative; John Aliberti; Hal Gosselin; Al Cote; John Orestis; Ed Muskie fundraiser for George Mitchell; Estelle Lavoie; being a Democrat in Lewiston; and Muskie in Washington.

Use Restrictions

Copyright Bates College. This transcript is provided for individual Research Purposes Only; for all other uses, including publication, reproduction and quotation beyond fair use, permission must be obtained in writing from: The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240-6018.

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