OXFORD — Pete Lowe, the Oxford man who perished in a house fire Wednesday,  is being remembered as an adventurous, fun-loving soul who would do anything to help his wide circle of friends.

“He was quiet and reserved on the outside, but he was a hot ticket on the inside,” his sister, Deb Emery, said Friday afternoon as she took a short break from salvaging belongings from his home on Hogan Pond Lane.

“He was the guy who everybody would call when they got in a bind; he was there,” she said. “He bailed me out of emergencies more times than I can count.”

Lowe, 55, loved boating on Hogan Pond and snowmobiling at his camp in Eustis. He “lived large” and had as much fun as he could while he was doing it, said close friend Jim Sullivan, who was helping clear out the small house. 

“I’ve known Pete pretty much all my life,” Sullivan said, “loved him like a brother.”

Sullivan said he grew up with Lowe and he was the best man at his wedding. Lowe was the type of person who would take an impromptu road trip and decide on a final destination when he got there, Sullivan recalled.

Lowe grew up in New Gloucester and attended the Gray-New Gloucester school district. For years, he entertained his enthusiasm for automobiles, working in different car parts stores before buying his own business, Pete’s Junkyard, in Durham about 12 years ago, Emery said. 

More recently, he was the landlord of two apartment buildings he purchased in Lewiston.

When it came to his personal life, Lowe was very private, but loved his friends and would do anything to help them, Emery said.

“It didn’t matter where you were or what you were into, he was always there to lend a hand and help you out with whatever it was that needed to be done,” Sullivan said.

Emery recalled a time when her van engine blew out while she and her family were traveling near Howland, a town north of Bangor. She called Lowe and he took off from his business in Durham to pick the family up and drive them back to New Gloucester.

“He just instantly jumped in his car — he went about 90 mph I think, because he got there in about two hours — then picked us up and took us all home,” Emery said. 

“That was the type of stuff he’d do. He wouldn’t think twice about it,” she said.

Jim and Delores Paine, who live a few doors down from Lowe’s home, said he was a great neighbor who always had time to chat and never turned down an opportunity to lend a helping hand. 

“You couldn’t ask for a better neighbor,” Jim Paine said. 

Emery said Lowe’s approach to life, and how he will be remembered best by family and friends, is summed up by the epitaph she intends to put on his tombstone: “Had a ton of fun along the way.”

“He made it clear to everyone that, word-for-word, it has to be that, and I’m going to put that on his stone, just as he wished,” Emery said.

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