Louis-Philippe Gagné

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Louis-Philippe Gagné (April 16, 1900 – January 13, 1964) was a French-Canadian American journalist, snowshoe enthusiast, and politician in Lewiston, Maine. Born in Quebec City, he began working for Le Soleil in 1917 and moved to Lewiston about five years later, where he became editor of Le Messager, the city’s French-language newspaper. He became a U.S. citizen in 1928 and ran for ward clerk that year.

Gagné served on the Lewiston School Committee from 1930 to 1934 and later served two terms on the Lewiston City Council in the 1940s. During World War II he worked on the local Selective Service Board. He founded Le Club Montagnard, the first snowshoe running club in the United States.

He was mayor of Lewiston from 1947 to 1948. He died in 1964 and lived in Lewiston. His papers are held by the Franco-American collection at the University of Southern Maine. In 2013, the Maine Legislature posthumously inducted him into the Maine Franco-American Hall of Fame.