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Current Issue
We Remember
Eugene L. “Gene” Dube
by Stephen Hochbrunn, NEIWPCC
As anyone who ever met him would say: there was nothing pretentious about Gene Dube. Nothing artificial, nothing forced. In an interview for IWR in the summer of 2005, he spoke frankly, as to a friend, with a rough-edged, natural storytelling grace. He didn’t try to charm or impress—there was no need to. His work spoke for itself.
As president of Pat Jackson, Inc./Tri-City Septic Tank Service in Belgrade, Maine, Dube was an innovator in a field where innovation can have a major environmental impact. He was the driving force behind the company’s development of a system for collecting septage and grease and turning it into compost that can be used on everything from hay fields to home gardens. In doing so, he solved two problems faced by so many communities—what to do with the septage pumped from septic tanks, and how to safely dispose of the fats, oil, and grease generated by restaurants, which if poured down the drain can lead to damaging sanitary sewer overflows.
Gene Dube was a businessman first and foremost. But his business benefited the environment, and you could tell he felt good about that. He enjoyed sharing with others what he’d learned over the years, and he participated as an instructor in several NEIWPCC workshops on fats, oil, and grease. He was also an instructor in many septage workshops run by Maine’s Joint Environmental Training Coordinating Committee (JETCC), which NEIWPCC has managed since 1985.
When Dube died on April 24, his family lost a husband and a father, and many others lost a friend and mentor. If you’re wondering, as we were, about his business, it remains intact, with his widow Pauline now in the president’s chair. In a phone conversation in November, PJI/Tri-City’s dispatcher Sharon Smith said, “We’re trying to keep the company going, just the way it was before he passed.” Does she miss him? “I’ve got tears in my eyes right now, sir.”
Dube’s death had that effect on people. You knew someone very real, very genuine was gone. At NEIWPCC and at JETCC, we miss him too.