Treat Williams 'Wasn't Mr. Hollywood' in Vermont: 'He Was Just Another Townie,' Says Local Friend (Exclusive)

Vermont businessman Matt Rapphahn tells PEOPLE about his experience with the late 'Blue Bloods' actor, highlighting Williams' great sense of humor and good nature

Even with Treat Williams' decade-spanning film and television career, the actor will best be remembered by his neighbors in Vermont as a down-to-earth family life.  

Matt Rapphahn, owner of the Long Trail Auto Shop in East Dorset, remembers the Blue Bloods actor as a “really, really nice guy,” a man he first met nearly four years ago when Rapphahn restored one of Williams’ Harvey-Davidson motorcycles.

“He was just another townie around here,” Rapphahn tells PEOPLE. “He wasn’t Mr. Hollywood. When we had done his motorcycle ... he would stop into the garage here, and we were actively making plans to do some work on some of his vintage cars.”

Related: Why Treat Williams Had a Deep Connection with Vermont, Where He Lived and Died

Williams, 71, had a significant vintage car collection, according to Rapphahn, which included a 1950s Chevy Apache truck and an early 1970s Oldsmobile.

“We would just run into him in town and shoot the shit with him, talk about movies and music and cars and motorcycles and trucks,” he added. “Just every time we would talk, he was just always funny and just good-natured and asked you how you're doing with genuine interest in the people that he was talking to."

Related: A Look Back on Some of Treat Williams' Most Iconic Roles

Williams’ life was cut short on Monday when the actor was struck by another car as he was driving along Route 30 on his beloved 1986 Honda VT700c motorcycle. The actor was thrown an estimated 15 feet — a tragic sight Rapphahn witness first-hand — and ultimately pronounced dead after being airlifted by emergency services to a hospital in Albany, New York.

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Rapphahn is among many family members, former colleagues and friends who have paid their respects to Williams in the days after his sudden death.

“It has been said that we are all just passing time and occupy our chair very briefly,” Tom Selleck, 78, wrote in a statement to PEOPLE. “My friend treat was aptly named and occupied his chair so well. I will miss him but I will not forget him. Well done, my friend.”

Williams is survived by his wife, actress Pam Van Sant, and their two children, Gill and Ellie. 

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