BLOUIN, Glen
1946 - 2020
It is with great sadness that we announce that Glen Harold Blouin, born October 10th, 1946 in Montréal, Québec, passed away peacefully at the age of 74, on December 27th, 2020, at La Maison des Collines palliative care centre in Wakefield, Québec, after several years of deteriorating health. His son and daughter were by his side.
Glen is survived by his wife Michelle (LaBarre); his daughter Stephanie and two beautiful granddaughters, Logan and Payton; his son Phillip (Tigisti) and two lovely grandsons, Taddesse and Zecharias. He will be missed and remembered by his sister Sherril, nieces and nephews, family, and friends.
Glen had a tremendous passion and interest for music and nature, both of which were the foundations for his life and career, and were passed down to his two children, who followed in his footsteps.
Glen was always known as a highly intelligent and educated person, with his impressive knowledge of politics, history, and the world. His friends remember having exhaustive, sometimes heated, political, social, and philosophical discussions with him, attempting to “resolve the pressing issues of the world”, interspersed with uncontrollable laughter. His intelligence earned him a membership with Mensa Canada in 1996, the high IQ society, made up of people with IQs in the top 2 percent of the population. He thrived on finishing the New York Times crossword puzzles at the kitchen table every weekend with the music playing in the background, a hobby that challenged his mind and fueled his ego.
Along with an infectious laugh and giggle, Glen had the most wonderful sense of humor, with his creative jokes, play on words, and silly expressions - something he continued to show even in his last moments, as he made the doctors and nurses laugh with his witty comments.
Glen lived in Montréal throughout his entire childhood, where he met some of his life-long friends in grade school. He graduated from Loyola High School, where he is remembered fondly by classmates and friends as smart, funny, gregarious, fun-loving, well-liked, and as a great athlete on the basketball and football teams. He then graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Communications.
Glen moved to Toronto to pursue an exciting music career at Capitol Records as the Assistant National Advertising & Sales Promotion Manager, discovering and working with up-and-coming Canadian talent, such as Anne Murray. This exposure to new music initiated quite the collection of sometimes rare vinyl records. One of his key highlights was meeting John Lennon and Yoko Ono and being in the studio as they recorded “Give Peace a Chance”.
Glen moved on from the music business to become the owner of the Cabbagetown Cobbler, a shoe store specializing in boots and sandals. Earning 40$ for a 64-hour work week, he was featured in an article called “Hippies at Work” that was published in the Chatelaine magazine in January, 1972.
In the mid-70’s, Glen moved to St-Paul de Kent, New Brunswick to pursue his hippie dream of going back to the land and purchased an old farmhouse with over 100 acres of land. It is there that he initiated his life-long, dedicated career in forest education and awareness. He earned a Forest Technician diploma from the Forest Ranger School and worked as a Forest Ranger with the Forest Extension Service. He pursued a Master’s degree in Forestry from the University of New Brunswick and later moved to Fredericton as an Education Officer Specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, where he made significant, progressive and recognized contributions to private woodlot management in eastern Canada. He cherished his relationships with the many colleagues he collaborated with over the years, who inevitably became great friends that deeply respected and admired him, as well as his achievements in forestry.
Glen ended his successful and accomplished forestry career in Ottawa, as the Executive Director of the Canadian Forestry Association - Canada's oldest conservation organization, which advocates for sustainable forest development, management and conservation, through public awareness and education programs.
While his accomplishments were numerous, Glen was the proud author of two tree books featuring his own original photographs: the first was “Weeds of the Woods – Small Trees and Shrubs of the Eastern Forest”, written while in New Brunswick; the second was “An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies” written and inspired from his beloved home in Mont Cascades village in the Gatineau Hills. To this day, many claim this book is one of the most exhaustive and useful forest identification guide books available. After retirement, he continued writing as a freelance writer and wrote several published articles, as well as many unpublished pieces that we will continue to discover over time, such as kids’ short stories.
Glen was euphoric and deeply touched by the number of friends and family members who reached out to him while in hospital and we wish to sincerely thank you for the memories, laughs, and music that you shared with him in his last weeks. It brought him joy, laughter, and even a few tears to know that he was cherished, loved and respected by so many.
As there will not be an official service, please consider donating towards any forestry conservation organization in support of his dedication to sustainable forest management awareness and education or towards a mental health organization of your choice to help beat mental health-related illness, through increased mental health awareness and education.
