Obituary
view guestbook | sign guestbook

Paul David Mateosian

Date of Death: April 25, 2025

Date of Birth: September 27, 1949

Biography:

After a second bout with cancer, Paul David Mateosian left us on April 25, 2025 at the age of 75. He passed away peacefully at Midcoast Hospital, surrounded by loved ones.

 Known as Papi, Big Papi, or Big Paul, he was renowned for his superhuman strength, gentle soul, great appetite for chocolate (but not the white kind, which he deemed an abomination), and his ability to repair anything.

 He is survived by his sons, Timothy (Jackie) and Samuel (Bethany), his mother Mary, his brothers Richard (Christina) and Adrian (Gloria), his sister Molly (Wes), and his grandchildren, Eleanor, Rocco, Max, and Marianne. He is predeceased by his father, Samuel Mateosian, and his wife, Christine Mateosian.

 Paul was born on September 27, 1949 in Cornwall, NY, and grew up in Monroe, NY. He was a shy and quiet boy who displayed mechanical aptitude from an early age. He loved fishing, practicing his technique for hours, casting into floating innertube targets. He also developed a knack for nature photography which he carried throughout his life.

 Paul was an excellent student and athlete, playing football and wrestling in high school.  A chance encounter with Christine Perkins at a graduation party led to what became the love story of his life. They left their respective colleges to be married in the spring of 1968. Later, with their 4-year-old son Timothy, they traveled across the United States and Canada in a converted school bus that Paul had fixed up in his garage. They eventually made a home in the back woods of Somerville, Maine, where they parked the bus, built a house with the help of neighbors, grew a bountiful garden, and raised their two sons.

 While living in Somerville, Paul worked as a mechanic, clam digger, and bus driver. Later, he started a carpentry business with his friend and neighbor, “Uncle” Dave Jordan, who coined their infamous unofficial slogan, “We May Be Slow, But At Least We’re Expensive!”

 Paul became involved in local government and served as Somerville’s 1st Selectman from 1980-1994. Famously, the good people of Somerville once voted to raise the modest salary for Selectmen, saying, “Well, we got to pay him more—he don’t know nothin’ ‘bout the job!” (Which was only partially true.)

 His experience in carpentry and local government ultimately led to a career as a property assessor, first for the City of Waterville and then for the City of Bath, where he served for 20 years. This prompted a move from the woods of Somerville to the relative metropolis of West Bath. He was awarded the Maine Assessor of the Year in 2013 and also served as Assistant City Manager. He always worked hard to be of service to the communities of which he was a member—be it by building a new elementary school and Town Hall in Somerville, by being a member of the Volunteer Firefighters, or by helping to seed clam flats for future generations.

 In their 55 years together, Paul and Chris enjoyed many long walks through the woods and along the beach. Paul was not religious, but nonetheless the forest was his church. In recent weeks, he said that Chris had taught him about serenity and acceptance, and that he was at peace. He passed away on the eve of their wedding anniversary.

 Paul loved sports, and although he was a native New Yorker, he adopted New England as his home and embraced the Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots as his teams–much to the consternation of his brother Adrian. In later years, Big Papi played in the Maine Woods Senior Baseball League—all the way up until last season—and his team won the 2023 League Championship.

 In retirement, most non-napping hours were spent in the shop, tinkering on vintage machinery, fixing things for friends and neighbors, and perfecting the fabrication process for his hand-made clam hoes. Under the name Paul’s Classy Hoes, he sold many elegant, sturdy hoes to the region’s hard-working clam and worm diggers.

 Big Paul was a paternal figure and mentor to many beyond his two boys. There is a family joke that if forced to choose between Tim, Sam, his nephew Matt Mateosian, and their family friend Luke Davidson, Matt and Luke would be his “favorite sons.” However his friend Andrew Buchner, a fellow machinist and fishing enthusiast, was named “Heir to the Classy Hoe Empire,” which only goes to show that there was plenty of love to go around. Papi was truly beloved by his family, friends, grandchildren, daughters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and all his “favorite” sons.

 Paul had a particular affinity for a good deal. Whether from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or the side of the road, Papi would find it, fix it up, sell it, or more likely, give it away. The one exception was if it was an absurdly heavy piece of machinery. In that case, he would move it, single-handedly, using an unholy combination of ingenuity and brute force, into the shop to join his menagerie of beautiful old beasts.

 He was always drawn to the ocean, and enjoyed swimming with his grandchildren and neighbors at the town dock. Anyone lucky enough to speak with Paul at a cook-out, a fishing hole, or out on the mud flats, knew that he enjoyed a good conversation (as well as a healthy debate) and could be outspoken yet profound. He was an avid lifelong learner. His most recent pursuits were wood turning and fly tying, and the results were often remarkable.

 Paul and Chris both loved the act of turning something old and discarded into something new and beautiful. It’s easy to imagine them together now, walking the woods and beaches of the great unknown, collecting treasures, for who knows what.

 In lieu of flowers and other remembrances, his family suggests that donations be made to the Phippsburg Land Trust (207-443-4787). This will honor his life, which was in many ways guided by his relationship to the Maine wilderness.