LEWISTON — Friends and colleagues of Louis St. Pierre on Friday painted a picture of a man who worked hard, who married his high school sweetheart and who adored his family.

St. Pierre, dead in the aftermath of a fight he tried to break up, suffered a fatal heart attack, an autopsy revealed Friday.

Police were continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the 60-year-old, who died after he was taken by family to Central Maine Medical Center.

No charges had been filed as of Friday night.

A few details were emerging about the fight that started in a hallway at 738 Lisbon St. at an apartment house owned by St. Pierre. Police said punches were exchanged after St. Pierre apparently tried to break up a fight between two men.

During the fracas, St. Pierre collapsed in the driveway, unconscious, police said. The names of the other combatants have not been released.

One man familiar with the case said St. Pierre was punched in the chest and then in the face. The first blow may have been the more significant, said the family friend. St. Pierre had recently undergone heart surgery during which a pacemaker was placed in his chest.

Police said several people were interviewed about the fight and physical evidence was collected from the scene.

Meanwhile, at Performance Product Painting in Auburn on Friday, St. Pierre’s former co-workers were mourning. He was so well-liked, a company official said, that grief counselors were brought in to help console the employees.

St. Pierre had worked at the company for two decades after starting off in the shoe business with Jones and Vining in Lewiston. His life took on the tones of a fairytale.

He married his high school sweetheart, Janet, with whom he raised a pair of children. There were grandchildren, friends said, and St. Pierre couldn’t have been happier.

“He was just a tremendous family man,” Paul Lavoie, St. Pierre’s former boss at the paint company and friend, said. “He and Janet, their relationship was to be envied. They were just inseparable. Their lives revolved, truly, around their grandchildren. They were always doing something with the kids.”

Janet died in February. The couple had two children and several grandchildren, whom St. Pierre was helping to raise. At least two of the grandchildren, a family friend said, were present when St. Pierre collapsed in his yard Wednesday night.

Lavoie said he and his colleagues were shocked that St. Pierre had died as a result of violence. In his 20 years at the paint company, “I never saw him involved in so much as a heated discussion,” Lavoie said. “I don’t think there’s a single person there with an unkind word to say about Louis.”

He was a fighter, friends said, but not in a fisticuffs kind of way; he was a survivor.

Roughly a year ago, St. Pierre was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve. He went to CMMC for surgery, but there were complications. Surgeons couldn’t stop the bleeding so St. Pierre was sent to a Boston hospital. It didn’t go well at first.

“He was actually pronounced dead,” Lavoie said, “but they revived him.”

St. Pierre remained in intensive care for a month, Lavoie said. When he finally returned home from the hospital, he wanted to go back to work.

“I said, ‘Louis, you can do whatever you want,'” Lavoie said.

And he did return to work, on light duty because of his heart problems. St. Pierre seemed to finally have his life back.

And then Janet died after battling cancer. And then violence flared on Lisbon Street and St. Pierre’s own life was over.

“It’s just so senseless,” Lavoie said. “He went through hell. He struggled and struggled and then this happens.”

His co-workers were taking it hard, Lavoie said. St. Pierre was a man they respected, admired and appreciated — the kind of man who would do anything to help a friend, Lavoie said, as long as he got to go home to his family at the end of the day.

“Everybody loved Louis,” he said.

[email protected]