Born and raised in Camden, Maine, Gene was named after his uncle, Gene Rich, nicknamed “Daddy Gene,” who founded Viking Lumber with his father, Jud, in the mid-1940s. Gene is one of six siblings, four of whom work at the company. His sister, Erin, is located at their Warren lumberyard; Maureen and David are in Belfast, with Gene in Lincolnville, where he has a sweeping view of Penobscot Bay. One of Gene’s favorite pastimes is to photograph a sunrise or interesting cloud formation over the ocean and then send it to his children at an early hour, ensuring that he wakes at least one of them up.
Gene remembers going to work with his father at an early age, where he started playing on lumber piles in Belfast, and when he was older, he stacked strapping, swept the warehouse, and dusted paint cans. After earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston, he joined Grossman’s contracting and industrial sales in Braintree, Mass., where his sales territory stretched from Providence to the North Shore.
Maureen (left) and Erin (right) Flanagan honor their brother Gene Flanagan (all of Viking Lumber) as RLDAM Lumber Person of the Year.
In the late 1980s, Gene married his wife, Becky, whom he had met on a blind date in college. Shortly after their first child, Kay, was born, and feeling the pull of the Pine Tree State, Gene transferred within Grossman’s to the Portland facility, where he continued working in contractor sales for the next few years. In 1992, Gene had the opportunity to build houses in southern Maine, as children William, Andrew, and Rose joined the burgeoning family, and they settled in Falmouth. In 2001, after conversations with his siblings, Gene was welcomed “back home” to Viking Lumber as he, Becky, and the children moved up the coast to Camden, where they still reside today.
After moving to the Midcoast, Gene joined the Megunticook Golf Club, a small, family-oriented golf course where he had learned to play as a teen. He can still be found today on most Saturday afternoons and even on some Sundays during the warmer months enjoying a round or two of golf, and he happily drives the same golf cart, “the JUD,” that his father owned close to 50 years ago.
Gene joined the Retail Lumber Dealers Association of Maine (RLDAM) board of directors in the fall of 2005, ultimately serving as board president in 2015-16, and concurrently serving on the NRLA board of directors. He continues to serve on the RLDAM board to this day along with serving on its nominating, annual meeting, and golf outing committees.
Gene is humbled and gratified to follow in the footsteps of his father, brother, and sister to be honored with this award. He is pleased that his son William, niece, Isabel, her husband, Brian; and his nephew, Connor, have chosen careers at Viking, where they are shepherding the company into the next generation.