Former Maine lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate Henry Joy, passed away last week at the age of 89.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Joy, who worked in Augusta for 16 years and represented Crystal, a town in southern Aroostook County, was best known for his proposals that said that northern Maine should succeed from southern Maine, the latter of which he called “Northern Massachusetts”.

These proposals, while often see as tongue-in-cheek, were attempts to bridge the economic divide between the two regions, an issue Joy took very seriously. He repeated the proposal 3 times throughout his career, with the last one being introduced the year he retired from the legislature in 2010. The first of these proposals propelled him to becoming a candidate for governor in 1997, when he was beaten out by Angus King.

Joy was also known as a harsh critic of civic league leader Michael Heath, after Heath published a newsletter looking for a way to out LGBT+ members of the legislature.

Prio to his political career, he served in the Air Force, and was an educator as well, when he quit in 1992, and ran for office after the local state representative fell ill with cancer.

Joy died at a Houlton nursing home on March 29, according to his Bangor Daily News obituary. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary, their four children and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

To read the original Bangor Daily News article, click here.