Students and staff at École Desrochers took time to remember the man behind the school's name during a memorial service held at the school Oct. 8.
Louis A. Desrochers was proud of his French-Canadian roots and was a tireless champion of French language education. He peacefully passed away at the age of 87 on Sept. 28.
“Everything he did was to promote the Francophone community,” said Paulette Trottier, a Grade 2 teacher at Jasper Elementary School.
“He was a tremendous man. He had a sense of humour, was intelligent, witty, giving, every quality you could think of he was,” said Trottier, who knew the man personally when she was growing up.
Born in Montreal in 1928, Desrochers and his widowed mother moved to Jasper in 1939. With no French schools in town, he moved to Edmonton three years later to study at Collège des Jésuits.
“He would be back here every year for summer holidays, Easter, Christmas, this was sort of his home base,” said Trottier.
After graduating from high school, Desrochers attended what was then Le Collège Saint-Jean d’Edmonton until 1947, before moving to Ottawa to complete his undergraduate degree.
He eventually returned to Edmonton to attend law school at the University of Alberta in 1949.
After graduating from the Faculty of Law in 1952, he took a job articling with the McCuaig law firm, which opened the door to the next phase of his life.
In 1960, he was appointed by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to the Northwest Territories Council, which he served on until 1963.
That same year he was appointed to the University of Alberta’s board of governors where he worked to strengthen the ties between the University of Alberta and “The U of A en français,” according to a press release by the university.
As the president of L’Association de Tous Les Francophones de L’Alberta (ACFA) from 1962 to 1964, he played a leading role in the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Radio in Alberta (CHFA), the Association of French Speaking Jurists of Alberta (AJEFA) and the French theatre in Edmonton.
Seven years later, in 1970, he was elected chancellor of the U of A, the same year the Collège Universitaire Saint-Jean was established at the university. The school offered university and high school level programs in French. Today it is known as Campus Saint-Jean.
His accomplishments and devotion to Canadian public life were honoured in 1994 when he was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada and in 2001 into the Alberta Order of Excellence. He also holds honorary degrees from the U of A, University of Ottawa and Laval University.
In 2002, Desrochers visited the Jasper Junior/Senior High School on the opening day of the first French immersion classes offered in Jasper. At the time it was just two classrooms, but he beamed with pride nonetheless, explained Marie-Claude Faucer, a Grade 7 to 12 teacher who was there that day.
“He valued the people,” said Faucer. “He always tried to find something nice to say, he was really positive, always smiling. When you were around him you really felt that he liked to be with people.”
Twelve years later, he returned to Jasper for the opening of the new Jasper Joint School Facility on Sept. 26, 2014 and was in complete awe of the new building, except for one thing, recalled Faucer.
“He said there’s only one thing that I think is really ugly and he pointed to his own picture on the wall,” said Faucer, with a smile.
“He was always trying to find a joke to make you feel comfortable.”
In recognition of his enormous contribution to the Franco-Albertan community and his recent passing, the school designated Sept. 26 La Journée Monsieur Desrochers.
In addition, the Jasper Junior/Senior High School and École Desrochers have started a joint project to create a path between the two schools, with stepping-stones made of small pebbles that are collected by the students.
The idea behind it is a play on Desrochers name, which translates to “of the rocks”.
“The students didn’t necessarily know Desrochers was a person and that’s something we wanted to bring alive for them. That the school is named after a person and this person is great person to follow,” said Hélène Gendron, the school’s principal.
Paul Clarke
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