Family and friends of a North Yarmouth motorcyclist who died last week in a Freeport traffic accident remembered him as a caring man and said they were shocked by his sudden death.

Matthew MacMillan, a 2011 graduate of Freeport High School, died Friday. He was 24.

Matthew MacMillan in 2013 near the summit of Mount Washington. Sara Jo Vickery, MacMillan’s fiancée, said he loved to hike in the mountains throughout Maine and New Hampshire and hiked Mount Washington 5 times. Family photo

MacMillan was driving a 2006 Kawasaki northwest on Desert Road around 3:15 p.m. Friday when he struck a 2014 Toyota pickup that was hauling a trailer and turning onto Desert Road from the southbound ramp of Interstate 295, according to Freeport police reports.

The driver of pickup, Jonathan Thomas, 63, of Cumberland, was not injured. MacMillan was transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he died of his injuries.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better son,” said his mother, Melody Seymour of Lisbon Falls. “If I could have picked all the qualities I wanted for the perfect child, it would have been Matthew. He always cared about others. He never put himself first. He was strong, courageous, smart and fun. There was nothing he couldn’t do. We all thought he was invincible.”

MacMillan was a star on the football team and was picked to play in the Lobster Bowl in 2011. His mother said it was a proud moment for him and the family.

“He was unstoppable,” his mother said. “In every picture, he’s in motion. He was always smiling too.”

He was engaged to longtime girlfriend, Sara Jo Vickery of North Yarmouth.

Vickery sobbed Wednesday recalling the day MacMillan walked into her workplace at Aeropostale at the Maine Mall.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to be the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.’ A week later, he came back in and gave me his number,” she said.

The pair started dating Dec. 13, 2012. “We were so in love,” she said, breaking down in tears.

MacMillan loved hiking and canoeing. Vickery said he hiked mountains throughout Maine and New Hampshire and hiked Mount Washington five times.

MacMillan worked at Johnson & Jordan, a contractor based in Scarborough, for the past three years. He began his career as a plumber’s apprentice and recently submitted paperwork to become a journeyman plumber.

Jim Tarbox, who works in safety and employee relations at Johnson and Jordan, said MacMillan was a great employee.

“He was a very bright young man,” Tarbox said. “He was an excellent worker. He was very conscientious about his work. He never failed to do what we asked of him … We are all very shocked and saddened.”

MacMillan enjoyed weightlifting and woodworking. He liked watching New York Giants games with his father, Thomas MacMillan of North Yarmouth, and was close to his sister Rebecca MacMillan and brothers, Shane Clarke and Michael Seymour, according to his obituary.

His mother said her son planned to restore a barn on her property that would eventually house her day care business.

“He would pick up the kids and run around with them,” she said, referring to the kids in daycare. “They loved him. He was physically fit. He would do all these things like walk on his hands. … He was a good soul. He was my rock.”