Grand Marshal Robert Plouffe

In nearly all of the Saco Fun Days’ parades since 1982, Saco’s Robert Plouffe has lined-up second in the crowd, walking the parade route with the Honor Guard, carrying the American Legion Flag as he walks by the spectators, but this year, Plouffe will be first in line.

“We picked Robert to be the Grand Marshal this year because of his military service, because of his long-time affiliation with the American Legion, and because of all he does for the town and people of Saco,” said Lacey Beil, Saco Chamber President.

“It’s an honor …it’s an honor since they picked someone so young, they should have picked somebody a little younger,” Plouffe kidded when asked about the appointment.

Plouffe, 65, has participated in the last 36 Saco Fun Days Parades and walked in all but one, 2012 when he rode with the Saco High School Class of 1972, his graduating class. Other than that, he has always walked with the Color Guard since returning to Saco following a stint in the United States Navy, college in MSU Northern in Havre and a short career as a paint and autobody man in Malta.

Plouffe enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1972, serving for three years aboard the USS Buford, an ocean-going tugboat with a crew of just 110 men (to give a better glimpse of just how small the Buford’s crew was, his brother, Steve, now deceased, joined the Navy a year after Robert and was aboard an aircraft carrier with a crew of over 1,000 sailors.) During his three years aboard the Buford, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Plouffe traveled the world as a “swabby,” sailing to 12 different ports including the Philippines, Guam, Midway, Alaska, and Japan. Plouffe said he enjoyed his time in the Navy and decided to do so after graduating high school because he wasn’t sure what else he was to do as an adult.

“I was just an average Joe and I just wasn’t quite ready to go to college,” he said. “I had some classmates that joined as well. I was young and not sure what I wanted to do … I think it is something that should almost be mandatory for kids because it teaches you to grow up and gives you some life experience."

Plouffe got out of the Navy and attended MSU Northern and got an AA in autobody in the fall of 1977. From there he worked for five years in Malta working at the Chevy Garage as a painter, when the Saco Pay N Save came up for sale in 1982 he and his wife (Betty, who he married in 1978) started their careers as business owners in Phillips County... the same year he joined the Saco American Legion. Robert and Betty have three children; Tracie, Mellissa, and Travis. Robert is known as a butcher and the creator of some of the best beef sticks and different flavors of bacon across the Hi-Line and Montana (he said his favorite flavor of bacon he makes is the original.)

He has also been providing the meat for the Saco Fun Days Friday night Pot Luck for many years and said this year’s menu will include pulled pork, bratwurst, and some smoked pork loin (about 75-pounds in total.) The Friday night Pot Luck Dinner gets underway this Friday at the Saco City Shop at 6:30 p.m. (See the entire Saco Fun Days schedule on pages 1A and 6A this week in the PCN.)