Lee Lawrence Thibodeau

CUMBERLAND

Lee Lawrence Thibodeau

1951-2025

CUMBERLAND FORESIDE – Lee Lawrence Thibodeau, 74, passed away peacefully at his home with Holly by his side on October 23, 2025. Lee was born on October 1, 1951, in Presque Isle, Maine, to Audrey Bishop Thibodeau and Lawrence Alfred Thibodeau.

When Lee was four, he started skiing at a small ski area named Quoggy Joe in Presque Isle. His family took weekend trips to Sugarloaf, where Lee fell in love with skiing and the Mountain.  At the age of eleven, Lee started skiing at Mars Hill Mountain. On weekends, Lee would rise at 7:00 a.m. to complete his chores at home so he could be free to ski the rest of the day.  When he was old enough to drive to Mars Hill, he practiced ski racing until dinner time and after dark many nights under the lights.

At the age of five, Lee started picking potatoes during the fall harvest recess with his brother and sisters. Farmers loved having Lee pick potatoes over the years because he was a hard worker and tried to pick 100 barrels a day to earn as much as he could. With the guidance of his father, he invested his earnings in stocks and didn’t cash them in to this day. The upbringing of his parents allowed him and his siblings to be ironclad. He was an incredible mentor to his younger brother, Don R. Thibodeau.

Lee started riding on a pony named Dolly when he was eleven years old. He received instruction locally from various Presque Isle Pony Club instructors, his sister Ann Sietz and several Pony Club camps sponsored by Penobscot Pony Club.  At eighteen, he was tested and passed his “A” Pony Club rating, which is the highest one can go in Pony Club.  Lee worked two summers with a blacksmith in New Hampshire, where he learned valuable skills. In the summer of 1969, Lee won the most coveted junior award in the United States, the Peters Trophy for the National Junior Championship at Woodstock, VT, riding his very successful and cherished horse, Even Steven.  Lee competed in events too numerous to mention, always coming in on top.

He attended Presque Isle High School and, in 1970, graduated from Fryeburg Academy, where he was on the ski team.  Lee attended the University of Maine at Orono from 1970-1972 as a pre-medical student.  He was a member of Phi Eta Kappa and a member of the University of Maine Ski Team.  When he finished his sophomore year, Lee decided he wanted to work with horses year-round, and went to Tuscaloosa, AL, where he competed on jumpers and combined training horses (a complete test of horse and rider and involving three phases:  Dressage, Cross Country, and Stadium Jumping). He competed in the south, including the Sunshine Circuit in Florida.  All this was in preparation for a series of screening trials to be held in different parts of the United States. In the spring of 1970, Lee was chosen by Jacques LeGoff, coach of the United States three-day Olympic Team, to go to the United States Olympic Team training center in Gladstone, NJ. In the fall of 1970, he competed in the biggest event in the United States at Fair Hill, MD., on his horse, Even Steve, where he won. In the summer of 1971, Lee went to the American Dressage Institute at Saratoga Springs, NY, where he was a working student for the finest dressage instructor in the country. After the last trial in October of 1973, at the New England Regional Rally at Myopia Hunt at Hamilton, Mass, Lee was chosen again to go back to Gladstone, NJ for intensive training.

After riding with the Olympic team for two years, Lee realized he wouldn’t be one of the top three in the nation.  In the summer of 1974, he made the decision to drive to Ithaca, NY, to apply for Cornell’s pre-veterinary program.  He sat in the admissions office until he was able to meet with the dean of the school.  Lee was told that they had selected the class members for the fall, but they would consider admission as long as he took four summer courses and earned A’s. He did just that. Lee enrolled in Cornell’s pre-veterinary program in the fall of 1974, graduated in 1976, and was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine to pursue large animal veterinary medicine. After two years, Lee discovered his heart was drawn to human medicine and attended Tufts University School of Medicine and graduated in 1982.  He received the Martin J. Loeb Memorial Prize in Surgery for Academic Achievement and Evidence of Basic Human Qualities.

Lee’s brother-in-law, the late Chris Seitz, MD, encouraged Lee to shadow Dr. Carl Brinkman, Founder of the Southern Maine Neurosurgical Associates, in the operating room. All Lee could say was, “Now that’s exciting!”  From 1982-1988, Lee completed a six-year residency in Neurosurgery at the Yale University School of Medicine.  During the later years of his residency, he completed a fellowship in neurovascular and spinal stabilization surgery at the world-renowned Barrow Neurological Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1988, Lee returned to Portland and joined Dr. Brinkman, Dr. Tom Mehalic, and Dr. Bill D’Angelo as a partner at Southern Maine Neurosurgical Associates. His arrival in Maine in July 1988 heralded a period of great innovation and accomplishment. A gifted surgeon in all aspects of neurological surgery, he helped introduce many techniques previously unavailable in the State of Maine. Among his greatest accomplishments was the creation of a surgical epilepsy program. The scope and volume of that program rivaled that of Yale Neurosurgery, the largest in New England.

Lee’s talent for innovation and curiosity inspired his development of multiple patented surgical devices.  In 2010, Lee invented the Stryker Spine AVS Navigator PEEK Spacer, an intervertebral body fusion device.  Lee identified the problem while conducting minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and got to work.  His first prototype was his mother’s shoe horn; then he experimented with function and design with Jack’s large Legos on the garage workbench.  After honing his creation, he and his young family took a trip to Japan, where Lee taught Japanese Neurosurgeons how to use “The Navigator” for patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD).

Throughout his extraordinary career, Lee taught and mentored neurosurgical residents from Tufts University’s Neurosurgical Department and the University of Vermont and published many articles in the Journal of Neurosurgery and other notable journals and books. He was a Diplomate of the Board of Neurosurgical Surgery, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and New England Neurosurgical Society. In 2012, Lee founded Maine Spine Surgery, a neurosurgical practice at Mercy Northern Light Hospital in Portland, dedicated to the management of spinal degenerative conditions. His last day was earmarked for October 31, 2025, at which time Lee planned to “repurpose himself,” not retire.  He and Holly were making plans to travel around the world.

Lee’s greatest attribute was his ability to relate to people. His devotion to and compassion for his patients was showcased every day of his practice. Lee healed patients with his positive spirit. Patients rolling in with their walkers stood up straighter and walked out with less pain after a simple office visit with Lee.

Those who worked with Lee admired his laid-back, humble, and optimistic demeanor. Every morning, he said, “It’s going to be a great day.” His unique ability to treat those with whom he worked with respect and affection will forever be appreciated. He went out of his way to encourage his team with a pat on the back, often expressing, “You’re a star,” and “What can I do to make it better?”  (for the nurses)  . Co-workers will forever miss his shining light.

In 1990, it was fate that Lee met the love of his life, Holly.  Three separate individuals envisioned Lee and Holly together; from his nephews’ sixth-grade teacher reading stories about their “crazy Uncle Lee,” to one of Holly’s fifth-grade student’s parents suggesting she meet Lee while in the middle of a parent-teacher conference, and finally to his Neurosurgery partner inquiring about finding a girl for Lee to his friend, the school nurse and her husband while he and his wife are out to dinner.  They were right, and the two fell in love, two years later bought their home, a 1797 tavern overlooking Broad Cove, and married in the spring of 1992. Lee and Holly enjoyed their early years together, traveling, windsurfing, bike racing, harvesting their own lobster, clams, and mussels from the Cove, fly fishing, hiking, alpine and nordic skiing, raising ducks, boating on Casco Bay, camping on nearby islands, planting trees on their property, and harvesting crops from their gardens. They matched each other’s high energy levels and zest for life and packed a lot into a day as they prepared their home for raising a family. Lee and Holly built a beautiful life of thirty-five years together. He had a strong work ethic, was exceptionally humble and genuine, and was a true gentleman, all modeled by his father, Larry Thibodeau. He never missed a day of work, never complained about his rigorous call schedule and the lack of sleep, and gave 100% of himself 24/7. Lee always had something positive or kind to say and always put others first.  Everyone was a “good guy,” as far as Lee was concerned.

In 2002, Lee and Holly welcomed their son, Jack, and their daughter, Kate, in 2007. Lee’s strong sense of family was demonstrated daily.  It was his number one priority in life.  Jack and Kate were so blessed to have such a good, kind, strong, man of integrity and role model who always put them first. He freely gave his unwavering love from his generous heart, and they felt it and knew it because, as Lee always said to them, “show it, don’t tell it.” Jack and Lee shared fishing trips to Alaska together, spent hours on the water lobstering together, and enjoyed several hunting trips together, to name just a few of their many shared passions. Lee introduced Kate to riding, and they shared this special bond around dressage, showing, and their mutual love of horses. It was a heart-warming connection that Kate will have for a lifetime. As a family, they skied weekends in the winter, they spent joyful time at their island cottage in the summer, and learned karate together at Tracy’s Karate in Yarmouth.  Lee earned his brown belt.  Lee lived to provide for his family. He was the family’s constant, their rock.

Hunting and fishing were near and dear to Lee.  He took several moose, bear, deer, duck, turkey, and pheasant hunting trips over the years with his brother, Donnie, Jack, and close friends.  He and his “Elk Brothers” enjoyed their annual elk hunting trip to Colorado, hiking up to Postcard Lake with the Sangre De Cristo mountains turning red at daybreak.  Lee’s ten-foot Alaskan Bear stands in the corner of his home office beside the moose head on the wall, his elk head above the hearth at the Sugarloaf condo, and his alligator skin in front of the fireplace in his home office. He loved going on his fishing trips to catch Atlantic Salmon in Alaska, trout fishing in Labrador and Colorado, and countless other trips. Lee loved heli-skiing with his brother Donnie and brother-in-law, Chris Seitz.

Lee was a true entrepreneur. In 2005, Lee and his brother Donnie discussed the idea of making a potato vodka when traveling home from Presque Isle.  Using Donnie’s potatoes from his farm in Fryeburg, Green Thumb Farms, which he owns with his wife, Brenda, the two brothers set out to create a potato vodka and a team, and then attend “Alcohol School” in Kentucky.  The team, comprised of four couples, Lee and Holly, Donnie and Brenda, Chris Dowe and Jeannie St. Pierre, and Bob and Sally Harkins, sat at Lee and Holly’s kitchen table on Monday nights and created Maine Distilleries, LLC. What was born was Cold River, a gluten-free hand crafted vodka and gin that is triple-distilled, hand-bottled, and numbered.

While skiing weekends with his family at Sugarloaf, Lee discovered the problem of struggling to get his son’s foot into his tight racing ski boot. “There must be a sock that I can invent to make this easier.” After many iterations, Lee invented the EZ Glider® socks that launched his company, Maine-Lee Technology Group, LLC, with his friend, Bill Kimball.  Lee’s odor-fighting, moisture-managing, and blister-reducing technology used lobster shell chitosan to provide friction-resistance, thus solving the problem.

When Lee was stopped for speeding while driving back from Presque Isle, he gave his office manager the ticket to pay. However, Lee wrote the return address as Cumberland, ME (The County boy in him couldn’t reconcile with Cumberland Foreside). For some reason, the ticket went unpaid, and Lee never showed up to appeal it. He was stopped again a year later and was told his license was suspended. A few days later, policemen showed up at the door and escorted Lee into a cruiser to go to the local jail.  Lee was horrified.  Holly and their two young kids quickly bailed him out.  This experience became a nightmare where Lee lost his identity. “This would make a good book!” Lee jotted down ideas to present to Bryan Wiggins, who worked for Pulp and Wire. Bryan decided to take it on, and the two of them created the book, The Corpse Bloom.

More recently,  Lee invented the Tuff Cuff™ Technology to solve the leakage problem at the Glove-Gown Interface, a major weakness in surgical gowns. Lee is credited with six patents and four others, “patent pending,” surrounding the “fluid management system.”  His work with his partner, Bill Kimball, is ongoing and nearing fruition.

For all those who knew and loved Lee, the space left will never be filled, but he will forever live in our hearts. Although Lee was snatched away too early,  he made a profound and lasting difference and mark in this world.  Lee was one of a kind.  He was an inspiration to us all.  We will always know where to find him, skiing down Sugarloaf’s Narrow Gauge, fishing in the cove, or hunting in the woods.

Lee is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Holly Thibodeau of Cumberland Foreside; his son, Jack Eugene Thibodeau of Durham; his daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Thibodeau of Loxahatchee, FL; his sisters, Berna Andrews of Brunswick and Ann Seitz of North Yarmouth; his brother Don R. Thibodeau and his wife Brenda of Fryeburg; his nephews Jeffrey Andrews and his wife Julie of Denver, Andrew Seitz and his wife Susan of Fairbanks, AK, Adam Brewer and his wife Ammarie of New York, Brian Thibodeau and his wife Julie of Fryeburg, and William Bengtson of Argyle, Kyle Lamberson of Cumberland and Charlie Seitz of Fairbanks, AK; nieces Beth Andrews and her husband Jeffrey of Cumberland, Jennifer Seitz of Salt Lake City, Amy Buzzi and her husband Danny of Providence, RI, Abby Brewer of Berlin Corners, VT, Betsy Pitreau and her husband Jim of Fryeburg, and Elly Bengtsson of Portland; Lauren Lamberson of Cumberland, and Lola Seitz of Fairbanks, AK; brothers-in-law Jeffrey Bengtsson and wife Donna of Freeport and Christopher Bengtsson of Argyle.  He was predeceased by his mother, Audrey Bishop Thibodeau; his father, Larry Alfred Thibodeau; his brother-in-law, Christopher Seitz, M.D.; his nephew, Greg Seitz; and his nephew, Brett Thibodeau. His family wishes to thank Hospice of Southern Maine for their gracious care and support, as well as Align Home Care.  Arrangements are under the direction of Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home of Portland, 300 Allen Ave. Portland.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 8, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 307 Congress St., Portland.  A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Parkinson’s Foundation

www.parkinson.org; or

Hurricane Island Center for Science & Leadership

www.hurricaneisland.net