Jules Drouin
January 30, 1925-April 10, 2012
Jules Drouin of Port Hardy B.C. died April 10 at Eagle Ridge Manor in Port Hardy B.C. after a brave struggle with the effects of a stroke suffered in 2003.
He was born on January 30, 1925 in Montreal Quebec to Gedea and Julia Drouin. Growing up in the Great Depression, he left school at an early age to find employment. Working first as a farm labourer, then as a telegram delivery boy for Canadian Pacific, as a young man he found work in the lumber camps of Ontario and Quebec cutting pulp wood and working as a river driver.
He moved west in 1947, riding freight trains to Vancouver and immediately finding employment as a boom man, a career he pursued until 1975. He worked up and down the length of the B.C. coast from Vancouver to the Queen Charlotte Islands before settling in Port Hardy in 1953. He married Rita Laprade in Montreal in 1952 and the couple moved to British Columbia shortly before coming to
Port Hardy where they raised three children.
He had a small commercial troller from 1959 to 1964, fishing on weekends and during the summer in local waters as far as Pine Island. Even after he ceased commercial fishing he always fished for spring salmon with a number 7 brass Wonder spoon.
While working in camp in Holberg he took an interest in wood carving and competitive log rolling in his forties. He carved many cedar burl bowls and made numerous finely fashioned burl tables. He had a piece of log fitted with shafts on each end and mounted on ball bearings to practice log rolling in his spare time. He competed in logging sports across the North Island and at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver in 1970.
Jules worked at Utah Mines for the last years of his working life before retiring in 1990. After retirement he pursued his favourite endeavours with a passion; fishing for salmon, raising a rich vegetable garden and cutting enormous amounts of firewood before suffering a debilitating stroke.
Pre-deceased by his wife Rita in 2009, he is survived by his children Louise, Marc (Caireen), Michel (Juliane), grandchildren Chantal, Jessica, Jordan and Ryan, great grandchildren Clara, Hayli, Jackson and Niklas, brothers Jean-Jacques, Marcel, Philippe, Roger and sister Micheline.
The family wishes to say a special thank you to the staff at Eagle Ridge Manor for to the kind care and attention given to Jules and Rita.