Roland J. Thibault passed away on December 4, 2011 at the St. Vincent de Paul Healthcare and Rehab Center, where he had been a resident for ten years. One of 19 children, he was born Feb. 15, 1912 in Berlin to Zepherine (Fournier) and Arthur Thibault. When he was 6 weeks old the family moved back to their farm in Ponteix, Saskatchewan. By the age of 6, Roland was branding cattle and driving a team of horses. In 1929, during the Great Depression, Roland left Ponteix, riding freight trains and working on cattle drives across the prairies from Medicine Hat, Alberta to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, riding the rails again, he made his way first to Oklahoma, where he worked posting billboards, and then on to Chicago driving truck for the Christian Industrial League. After returning to Berlin in 1933, Roland started working in the lumber camps on the Swift Diamond River in the Dartmouth College Grant, where he drove horses hauling logs out of the woods. From 1936 to 1939 he was a cook for the log drives on Umbagog Lake and down the Androscoggin River for as many as 275 people at one time. Then in 1940 he joined the United States Army as a cook serving with the 103rd Infantry, 43rd Division. In 1942 he was stationed at a detention camp in Arkansas to cook for Japanese, German and Italian prisoners. He returned to Berlin in 1945 to work his last log drive, and then on to the Colebrook House to work again as a cook. It was there he met his future wife, Florine Landry; they were married in 1946. Roland changed careers in 1947, learning the plumbing trade in Colebrook from Hebert Plumbing. From Colebrook, Roland moved his family to Berlin, where he worked for C.N. Hodgdon Plumbing and Heating until his retirement in 1972. Roland was a wonderful father and husband. Kind to man, woman, and beast alike. When not wearing a huge smile under his jaunty rail road cap, he would be whistling a cheerful tune. Roland will be sorely missed by his loving family and all who knew him.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Florine; his daughter Marlene Russ and husband Jon of Errol, NH; his son Roger of Berlin; his granddaughter Johanna Kent of Wolfeboro, NH; his great grandchildren Nicholas and Lillian Davenhall of Wolfeboro, NH; one sister Yvonne Scott of Victoria, British Columbia. He was predeceased by his parents and by his sisters Clara, Annette and Emma; and by his brothers Alfred, Joe, Aristide, Emil, Henry and Paul. Other siblings died very young.
The family extends an enormous thank you to the dedicated past and present staff of St. Vincent de Paul where Roland resided for ten years. They treated Roland with the best care and utmost compassion and respect. As he said many times, “This is my home now and they are a great gang.”
SERVICES: A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday Dec. 9, 2011 at 10 AM in the Chapel of the St. Vincent de Paul Healthcare and Rehab Center, 29 Providence Ave., Berlin. Interment will follow at the Mt. Calvary Cemetery. Relatives and friends may call at the Bryant Funeral Home, 180 Hillside Ave., Berlin on Thursday from 2 to 4 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Nursing Fund.