Adrien Girard retired in 1991 as the general maintenance service manager for Northwood Pulp and Paper. He brought his family to Prince George in 1967 with the intention of only staying here for a period of two years. Here is a brief history of how that all turned out.
Adrien Girard, the second of ten children, was born in 1929. He was educated and grew up in Normandin, Quebec, a French speaking city situated on the proximity of Lake St Jean in Northern Quebec; at the age of 19 Adrian did not speak English.
He explained it like this, "I didn't speak any English and I had to learn the language at work because I didn't have a girlfriend to teach me."
Dolly (Denault) Girard, one of seven children, was born in 1934 in Waltham, Quebec; an English-speaking part of Quebec and an area where every other village either spoke English or French.
She went to elementary school in Waltham but high school was a different story. All the kids had to take a Canadian Pacific Railroad car to school in Campbells Bay which was an hour ride each way to attend high school. Dolly said, "We got on the train for school at 6 a.m. and 13 hours later we arrived back home at 7 p.m. It was a long day and thankfully the long train ride was always a lot of fun."
Adrien said, "I was 24 when I met Dolly. When I look back I can say that I was so young at the time. Dolly was 19 when I met her. She was so pretty and I went after her. I don't think I was the only one after her but I won the race and 65 years later I can still say that when I won Dolly I really won a great prize."
Dolly's version of this was, "It wasn't love at first sight but Adrien grew on me and when he asked me to marry him I said yes and I am sure glad that I did. That was in 1953 but it seems like just yesterday."
At the age of 19 Adrien left his home town to work for the Foundation Company of Canada, a diverse construction and infrastructure development company. He worked for the company for 13 years in a supervisory position on many interesting projects.
He first worked at the Chalk River atom factory, under oath of secrecy, doing work of a very special variety to satisfy an atomic reactor at the new Chalk River Laboratories facility. This atomic reactor was to be used for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
It was while he worked at Chalk River that he met Dolly.
Dolly was working in the office for a catering company that prepared the meals for the Chalk River plant construction crew.
His pulp mill maintenance experience started with the construction of a chlorine plant for a pulp and paper mill in Northern Ontario on the shore of Lake Superior.
Through his company he supervised the laying of pipes for an underground refueling system at the Dorval International Airport which is now called the Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport.
The company moved them to India for two years and Adrien worked on the CANDU nuclear reactor in India. The CANDU nuclear reactor got its name because this heavy water reactor design was developed in Canada; CANDU stands for Canada Deuterium Uranium. Deuterium is the primary element in heavy water and uranium is the fuel used in this reactor class.
When Ottawa agreed in 1956 to build India's first nuclear reactor, one of the conditions was that it would be used for peaceful purposes. It was designed to generate electricity produced by nuclear energy.
Dolly said, "Our oldest son was born in India and the two years that we lived there were very interesting. I loved the way of life and it was easy to get used to the life of servants which is the custom in India"
Adrien supervised, under oath of secrecy, on the construction of the Diefenbunker. The Diefenbunker was an underground nuclear war bunker designed to withstand the force of a nuclear blast. It was built in Carp, Ontario, during a peak in Cold War tensions between 1959 and 1961. The Diefenbunker was named after then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and is now the location of Canada's Cold War Museum.
In the meantime, management at the Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George recruited Adrien to come to Prince George for a maintenance department service manages job at the pulp mill. The mill was a new mill with unproven equipment that needed a lot of adjusting and staff effort to keep it all working harmoniously. Eventually it all worked out and production has been in full swing ever since.
Adrien promised Dolly that they would only stay in Prince George for two years and then return to Quebec so they packed up their family and moved west in 1967 and like many others they are still here today.
They have six children; four sons and two daughters who in turn gave them 12 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
When the children started to arrive, Dolly became a stay at home mom and volunteered in everything to do with her children. One of her favorite volunteer activities was her work with the Brownies and Girl Guides of Canada.
She said, "The children were all in school and I started to think about them all growing up and leaving home. I was leery of the empty nest syndrome so I took early childhood education courses in the evenings at the College of New Caledonia to prepare for a working career of my own.
She first worked as the assistant to Doris Holzworth for four years at the St. Andrews United Church kindergarten class on the corner of Tenth and Douglas Street.
Sister Margaret Quinn, a Sister of Mercy from Ireland hired Dolly for a full time part-time kindergarten teaching position at St Mary's school on Gillett Street and 14 years later she retired.
Dolly said, "It is always nice when a former student remembers me from those many school days from so long ago."
Adrien and Dolly both retired in 1991. For the next 25 years they would travel and spend each winter in the warmer climates of either Arizona or Kelowna.
Dolly has been a member of the Catholic Women's League since 1968 and Adrien served as the chairman of the Prince George College school board, founded in 1956 by Bishop Fergus O'Grady of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate for nearly eight years.
Over the years they have volunteered at the St Vincent De Paul Society both at the thrift store and at the drop-in centre.
Adrien reflected back and said, "When we first moved to Prince George we bought a house from the Northwood housing inventory on Irwin Street and we lived there for the next 50 years.
"When we retired we took a long road trip from Prince George across Canada and then south into the states. Then we drove southwest through the states and ended up in Arizona. We spent the next 25 winters in a warmer climate and returned to Prince George to enjoy a nice summer and fall.
"Now we are living here at RiverBend and we will spend our winters here.
"We will soon celebrate our 65-year wedding anniversary. We have had a good life and together we raised a great family. We have good friends and we are enjoying a wonderful retirement."
