Former Lt.-Gov. Gilbert Finn Dies, 94 Community Leader Remembered As Acadian Pioneer Allison Toogood Times & Transcript

9 jan 2015 – Times & Transcript Former Lt.-Gov. Gilbert Finn dies, 94 Community leader remembered as Acadian pioneer allison toogood Times & TranscripT

As Metro Moncton and the rest of the Acadian world mourn former lieutenant- governor Gilbert Finn, the resounding reaction comes down to a word: pioneer.

Growing up poor – one of 16 children – in economically depressed northern New Brunswick, Finn made a pledge. This pledge, as told to the Times & Transcript in a 1972 interview, was to himself and to his people that he’d spend the rest of his life helping Acadians to better themselves.

Finn’s conviction and actions throughout his life’s work transformed not only the education sector but all spheres of Acadian life in the province, including health, culture and sport.

Finn, who died on Wednesday evening at the age of 94, will be remembered, honoured and laid to rest Monday in Dieppe, where he lived many years of his storied life.

He was appointed the province’s 26th lieutenant-governor in 1987, at age 66, and held the position for about seven years. He was the second Acadian to assume the position.

But the Metro community knows him best for his work as a standout Université de Moncton president, as a business leader at Assumption Life and an advocate for health care in the language of Acadians’ choice at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont

University Hospital Centre.

“He was one of the giants,”Raymond Théberge, the president of UdeM, said on Thursday morning.“He leaves a legacy of impact on the developments of l’Acadie. He was basically involved in all major Acadian institutions during their formative years.”

UdeM was still quite young during Finn’s 1980 to 1985 mandate, a few years prior to being named lieutenant-governor, Théberge said. And during that time, one of the major intentions of the university was to develop its research component.

“Under his tenure, he established over a dozen research centres, chairs at the university,” Théberge said. “Also, I think people tend to forget he was able to put in place a financial structure to ensure long-term sustainability. In my view, he was instrumental in the research pieces, the funding piece and sustainability piece, all of which vital to how the university is perceived on the world stage today.”

Born in Inkerman-Ferry, on the Acadian Peninsula, in 1920, Finn received a bachelor of arts degree from Laval University in 1944.

His career included helping establish and expand the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont

University Hospital Centre, where he served as a board chairman for years.

Finn also served as head of Assumption Life from 1962 to 1980.

Assumption Life’s president and CEO expressed his reaction to Finn’s death on

Thursday morning, too.

“Everyone at Assumption Life, employees and board members alike, join me in expressing their sincere condolences to Mr. Finn’s family,” André Vincent said in a press release. “Mr. Finn was the driving force behind the Company’s expansion. It was during his tenure that the Company undertook its modernization, in particular its mutualization in 1969.”

Vincent said Finn also oversaw two major capital projects, the construction of Assumption Place in Moncton and Carrefour Assomption in Edmundston, which established Assumption Life as a pillar of the business community in New

Brunswick and the Atlantic provinces.

Flags are being flown at half-mast around the province, including the legislature in Fredericton, at Moncton and Dieppe city halls and other Acadian municipalities, as well as at all three UdeM campuses.

Tributes from current and former politicians, members of the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB), business leaders and residents touched in some fashion by Finn and his work poured in on Thursday.

In a statement, Lt.-Gov. Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau praised Finn as“a great New

Brunswicker, a great Acadian and a great Canadian.

“He was a champion on so many levels, leaving his mark in education, culture, business, health care and community engagement,” Roy-Vienneau said. “Gilbert

Finn will be remembered for his love of this province and its people.”

“Over the course of his lengthy career in service to his fellow New Brunswickers, he left a legacy in the development of institutions that continue to act as cornerstones to the Greater Moncton community and to the province,” Premier

Brian Gallant said in a statement on Thursday.

“Gilbert Finn has left a tremendous impression on New Brunswick,” Progressive Conservative Leader Bruce Fitch said in a statement. “His leadership of Assumption Life, L’Université de Moncton and the countless councils and community groups he served has made our province a better place.”

The City of Dieppe, where Finn and his wife, Jeannine, lived for decades and raised their children, also gave its sympathies to the family via social media and described Finn as “a person that greatly contributed to our region and Acadie.”

Dieppe Mayor Yvon Lapierre said the family is well-known in the community, and he has had the privilege of meeting with Finn on several occasions.

“What always struck me is his quiet power, his aura,” he said on Thursday afternoon. “He was very honest and straightforward but with a great vision for l’Acadie.

“He helped raise the quality of life for Acadians, to have more of a place in society, even during changing, challenging times.”

Lapierre referred to student protests in the 1960s and also the 1980s. But also to one of the most important milestones of Finn’s career and for the Acadians in the

Maritimes.

Finn’s visit to Paris in January 1968 with three other prominent Acadians, Adélard Savoie, Euclide Daigle and Léon Richard, furthered his mission of improving life for Acadians. The foursome met with French President Gen. Charles de Gaulle, and today’s French-Acadian co-operation, academic and otherwise, was launched after this trip.

SANB president and UdeM professor Jeanne d’Arc Gaudet said Finn is one of the “great bâttisseurs” of l’Acadie that the community has lost in the past few years.

She said she was a young woman and new instructor at the university when Finn came to the helm.

“From what I can remember of him, he was a serious man of such strong conviction and of principle,” she said in an interview on Thursday morning. “But, people are asking, how was he outside of it all? When he was not dealing with serious issues, and just in a one-on-one conversation, he was a nice and kind- hearted person.”

Gaudet said his sense of urgency to better the lives of Acadians was an energy present whenever he’d step into a room.

“You could just feel it. He wanted things done. He believed, ‘We need to get in and advance the community together.’”

In a statement, René Légère, president of the Société Nationale de l’Acadie, praised Finn as a great visionary, a man of conviction who was always preoccupied with the common good and growth of the Acadian people. Finn was also instrumental in the development of the Acadian identity and the promotion of the French language, Légère added.

“Gilbert Finn demonstrated with countless actions throughout his lifetime that he firmly believed in New Brunswick, Acadie and our community’s capacity to further advance our causes and institutions,” René Collette, chairman of the board of the CHU Dumont Foundation, said in a statement. Finn was one of the founders, in 1983, of the Georges-L.-Dumont Hospital Foundation, now known as the CHU

Dumont Foundation.

Finn was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1974 and was promoted to Officer in 1979. In 2008, however, he returned his insignia of the Order in protest of the appointment of Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada.

Finn’s funeral will be held on Monday at 11 a.m. at the St-Anselme Church on

Amirault Street in Dieppe.

Visitation at the Chartersville Funeral Home is scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.

Former lieutenant-governor Gilbert Finn PHOTO: TIMES & TRANSCRIPT