It was April 1984 and Norman Boulet, 47, of Winslow, was on vacation with his wife in Las Vegas. While there, he had a heart attack.

One of Boulet's family members contacted Robert Maheu, originally from Waterville, and told him about Boulet's situation. Boulet and Maheu had known each other through family connections, but they were not close friends. That would soon change.

Maheu found a top-notch doctor within a few hours to perform open-heart surgery on Boulet. Maheu and his wife visited Boulet in the hospital several times after that, and Maheu later drove Boulet from his hotel to the airport.

"He knew high-powered people and when he talks, something moves," Boulet said in an interview this week. "That's how come I got close to Bob. I got to know him pretty good, and then every time he came to Maine we had lunch together. I was very grateful to him. He was very a nice gentleman, as far as I'm concerned."

He was a lot more than that. Maheu was well known as the chief aide to billionaire businessman Howard Hughes, engineering his business empire and changing the face of Las Vegas. Maheu had also been an FBI agent and a spy for the CIA, involved in international dealings and plots.

Maheu, who died Aug. 4 at age 90, was born and raised in Waterville. And although he went on to world renown, Maheu never lost his love of central Maine, and he frequently returned to Waterville to be with friends and family, according to those who knew him.

"His love was Maine and that was Waterville," Robert Maheu's son, Peter Maheu, said in an interview this week. "It was always his home, despite all his travels and all his adventures. That was his cement. That was his rock."

Peter Maheu is a managing member of Global Intelligence Network of Nevada, a company that assists in the business decisions of gaming manufacturers and suppliers, hotels and casinos, Indian nations and others.

Asked to describe his father, Peter Maheu recalled what one of his brothers said in a eulogy at the funeral: "'He was a gentleman and a gentle man,' which I thought was fairly accurate description."

Humble roots

Robert Maheu, the son of French-Canadians, had an upbringing that was a far cry from the wealth and power he would later achieve.

Maheu grew up on Summer Street and attended Notre Dame Parochial School. He helped out in his father's grocery store on Water Street and his grandfather's bottling company beside the grocery store, delivering soft drinks.

Wilfred Chamberlain of Beaumont, Texas, said he grew up with Bob Maheu in Waterville in the 1930s.

"I remember Bob Maheu being, not a snob, but he was on a higher education level," Chamberlain said. "Bob was very friendly, but still he was a very different person. He was very, very smart. I remember that he was on a debating team (in high school) and he won honors for the state of Maine."

Chamberlain said he knew that Maheu would become a prominent lawyer someday because he "always talked about it."

"He was, I wouldn't say a loner, but he was a little bit aloof. He was a thinker and would concentrate on different things," Chamberlain said.

Maheu was a member of the Knights of Columbus and his family attended St. Francis Catholic Church, Chamberlain said. Once, Maheu attended a field days event and demonstrated his skill with a pistol, Chamberlain said. "He was amazing, the trick shots he could do with a mirror and all kind of things," Chamberlain said.

Maheu even learned to fly a plane at the Waterville Airport prior to college, Peter Maheu said.

Clayt LaVerdiere, in a column published in the Morning Sentinel on April 25, 1992, says he can remember growing up on Summer Street and "accompanying Bob Maheu as he drove a delivery truck for the Elm City Bottling Company on Water Street."

Maheu, LaVerdiere wrote in 1992, was "a soft-spoken individual with an easygoing, courteous personality" who never lost "the common touch, even though his business has brought him in contact with some of the more prominent individuals in the country."

Rise to prominence

After receiving a bachelor's degree in economics from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., and studying law at Georgetown University School of Law, he joined the FBI in 1940. He worked counterintelligence during World War II, posing as a German sympathizer and transmitting false information to Nazi commanders. While he was in Seattle, Wash., on assignment for the FBI, Maheu married his high school sweetheart, Yvette Doyon of Waterville.

Maheu left the FBI in 1947 and went on to work for the Small Business Administration. In 1954, he founded an investigative company called Robert A. Maheu and Associates. Soon after that he began doing work for the CIA.

Maheu later disclosed that, in 1960, the CIA asked him to meet people connected to the Mafia to plan the assassination of Castro. The plot was eventually abandoned after several failed attempts.

Maheu had begun working for Howard Hughes in 1954 and three years later he was asked by Hughes to become his "alter ego." He moved to Las Vegas to run Hughes' casinos. Maheu never once met his boss during the decade and a half that he worked for him. In his 1992 memoir, "Next to Hughes," Maheu recalled that he was his boss' "eyes, his ears and his mouthpiece. I met with presidents, appeared before committees and entertained the rich and famous."

But Maheu eventually had a falling out with Hughes and his aides and was fired in 1970. Two years later, Hughes said during a telephone news conference that Maheu "stole me blind." Maheu pounced on that statement, winning a $2.8 million defamation judgment, but it was later overturned and an undisclosed settlement was later reached.

Robert Maheu "changed the course of history a number of times and he went to his grave with more secrets than any person who has ever lived," said Peter Maheu, who added that he "didn't know he was a spy; I didn't know what he was. I was just a kid."

Boulet, who became close friends with Maheu after his heart surgery in Las Vegas, said he and Maheu would meet talk about "Waterville and the old days," but Maheu "didn't offer any information on (his) business." Boulet described Maheu as being "a pretty smart man," who was heavyset, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall.

"He was a very pleasant man to talk to. He liked to talk French a lot and my French is very good. He was a very polite man, very well-dressed," Boulet said.

Coming home

According to an article published in the Morning Sentinel on Dec. 12, 1970, Maheu "always maintained strong ties with his home town."

"Whenever his busy schedule has permitted him, he has flown to Waterville to visit his mother, Mrs. Ephram Maheu of 60 Summer St.," the article says.

Maheu is described in the article as "a booster of Maine products, and especially this state's seafood." For instance, Maheu enlisted Donald Rancourt of Maine's Best Lobster Pound to cater a large clambake for prominent friends in Las Vegas.

Even when he returned to Waterville at the height of his national fame, Robert Maheu stayed true to his roots, his son said.

"I don't think he ever went around town saying, 'I'm Bob Maheu; I deserve special service.' He wasn't that kind of a guy," Peter Maheu said.

Warren M. Poulin of Winslow says his father, Laurier Poulin, was chief of police in Winslow between 1935 and 1945 and knew Maheu during that time. Based on his father's stories about Maheu, Poulin said, "it was almost as if the guy walked on water."

Peter Maheu said he can remember trips back to Waterville with his family, staying at cabins on lakes just about every summer. They waterskied, drank beer, talked and relaxed.

Every spring, Robert Maheu would start talking about going back to Waterville. While he worked for Hughes, Maheu would fly over in a personal jet.

"It was just where he wanted to go, whenever he had time off," Peter Maheu said.

Robert Maheu will return home to Waterville one last time. Peter Maheu said his father was cremated and his ashes will be returned to St. Francis Catholic Cemetery in Waterville, across from Summer Street.

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253, 487-3288

smonroe@centralmaine.com