Frank Trautmann wasn’t at the State House Thursday for the unveiling of his gift to the people of Maine.

Health issues kept him away. But, truth be told, the 86-year-old probably would have had a hard time shrugging off all that gratitude anyway.

“He’s a very low-profile, quiet individual,” said his friend Buzz Caverly, former director of Baxter State Park.

Trautmann and Caverly share a deep reverence for the park and the legacy of Gov. Percival Baxter, the man who pieced it together and gave it to the state. That devotion led to Thursday’s announcement.

Trautmann donated his long-time summer home and oceanfront property on Islesboro in order to, first, make sure Katahdin Lake would be added to the park and, second, create a new trust fund to help manage and maintain Gov. Baxter’s grand gift.

A retired manufacturing industry manager in southern New England, Trautmann arrived in Maine in the early 1960s. He and his wife Margery bought a home in Rockport and a picturesque summer place that sits on 58 acres and juts out into Penobscot Bay.

About 20 years ago, Trautmann wandered into Baxter State Park and became one of the most dedicated of the park’s volunteers. He shingled lean-tos and did trail work, clearing brush, marking trees, building stormwater diversions and foot bridges. “He did just about everything we needed done,” Caverly said.

When the park needed some new lean-tos but didn’t have the money, he cut trees on his island property, milled the lumber in his barn and built the shelters in sections, which he drove to the park in his 1977 Suburban station wagon, Caverly said. “The next spring, he went in and camped out and put them together.”

Trautmann also talked to Caverly off and on about donating money to create a new trust for the park. “He and Margery have been considering this gift for 20 years,” Caverly said.

Last year, Caverly and others were scrambling to raise $14 million to buy Katahdin Lake before a fast-approaching deadline. Trautmann had already pledged money, but Caverly called him to ask for more help. Trautmann, as usual, did what needed to be done.

He quickly contacted a man who had offered to buy and preserve his 58-acre Islesboro property, and sold it to him. The sale instantly raised more than $6 million for the park.

“It was a quick way to come up with the money,” said Willard “Skip” Pease, Trautmann’s attorney. “It was a huge sacrifice.”

More than half of the money went toward reaching the goal for Katahdin Lake. The rest, about $2.7 million, was used to create the new trust fund, which is expected to grow to $10 million.

Trautmann, whose wife died in September, didn’t immediately respond to a request on Friday for an interview about the gift. His friends warned he might not, and said not to take it personally.

Trautmann, like many who visit the park, was inspired by the generosity of Gov. Baxter and he never felt his help deserved recognition, Caverly said. As a volunteer, he just shrugged if someone thanked him for building a footbridge or a lean-to.

He may be doing it again right now.

E-mail this entry to a friend