Character of the County: Robert Clifford

When people grow up, they sometimes become the hero they needed when they were a child.

For Robert Clifford, the South Bristol Select Board member, United States Army veteran, and former owner of Colby and Gale Inc. in Damariscotta, said he wanted to grow up to be someone who could give back to the community that helped him and his family during his upbringing in Newcastle.

“There are people in this community that took care of us then; the heat, the food, and the clothing, and all that stuff,” he said. “There was people who helped us get along, so I always had the desire to want to do better and take care of people eventually.”

Clifford, of Walpole, grew up on Mills Road in Newcastle and went to Franklin School before attending Lincoln Academy.

After graduating from high school in 1975, Clifford attended the University of Southern Maine in Gorham for two years before going to Florida State University in Tallahassee to earn a degree in hotel and restaurant administration.

“My degree was going to be in accounting, but I’m not going to sit behind a desk just crunching numbers,” Clifford said. “I felt that I was a people person and I needed to be with people.”