dirtyduck

Quasi-Eulogy for Robert Rouvreau aka “Frenchie” By definition a eulogy is delivered by a close friend or family member. I only ‘re-introduced’ myself to Frenchie in 2004, when Gord White said he was in the Hospital with a serious infection. I knew who he was, but had never engaged him in conversation. I told him who I was and that I’d seen him every year from 1980-90 in Zephyrhills. I’ve since then seen him a few dozen times, but I only scratched the surface in knowing the man. I realized when I saw the names on this email list that many do not know him at all, or that in his younger days he was a member of the French Foreign Legion. He still got his pension from them, his brand of French was from France, not Quebec. Gord was telling me today that for one Foreign Legion project, he would carry rockets on their backs, and walk them over the Himalayas, the FFL are on par with the Green Beret or British Secret Intelligence Service for clandestine and covert operations. Apparently Gord met him 42 years ago, half of his life ago. Before he spent the last five or six winters in Crossfield he spent 27 of them consecutively in Florida. Before that he spent years in Lake Elsinore,CA, another early skydiving mecca. Gord said he was the also a Good-will ambassador/mascot of the Canadian Parachute Team when they won Gold in France in the early 80’s. Gord has plenty o’ Frenchie stories. I’m sure that the number of jumpers that ‘know/know of’ him has to number in the tens of thousands, or more. I’ve heard tales of jumpers running into him overseas at meets. Later in 2004. he was in the Rockyview for his prostate problems. I visited and had to tell him that the eye of Hurricane Charley went right over the DZ at Lake Wales, destroying his trailer, along with his 200+ t-shirt collection. He spent years with George & Betty Kabeller, first at Zephyrhills/Phoenix, then later at Lake Wales after they and their plane Southern Cross were moved. Frenchie always gathered the ‘WHood’ (fire wood) every day for many years at the DZ in Z-hills, Lake Wales, too I assume. I’ve also been in what seemed like dozens of DC-3s over the years, where they’d do a pass at 6,600’ only for Frenchie. I just learned from him in August that he had about 2,400 jumps. Stopping at the Senior’s home in Crossfield to see Frenchie, I’d sit in the dining room at first at a full table, and would mention to the fellow inmates what a storied life Frenchie had, and he would want no part of disclosing his past. Just like dealing with whuffos on a grander scale…. More bother than it’s worth. He’d look at me disapprovingly. In the Hospital in 2004, he asked me to find ‘Soldier of Fortune’ magazine, and eventually I got a subscription instead of looking in vain, and it’s delivered in plain white paper for people like Frenchie. They certainly didn’t need to know. They wouldn’t understand. Mum’s the word. He was well travelled, even recently he’d go to Reno, and Florida last year, and other places for mercenary-type conventions. He had a sister and house in France. He was also fascinated with Steven Hawking, and all things Astronomy. He knew I was an Engineer, and had this affinity for learning Calculus. I’d taken four Calculus courses, and he was always stuck on page 2 of the introduction in his Calculus book, but he was going to get to that soon. He was a somewhat private individual. I feel like I barely knew the guy. Perhaps someone else can ‘Reply to All’, and some of the older jumpers like Tom Kelly pay tribute/tell stories/lies. I thought that with such a storied life, it deserves some acknowledgement. Maybe let’s form a Wikipedia page for Frenchie. I feel honoured I got to give him a ride to CPCs 50th Anniversary party shortly before he passed on. Blue Skies, Frenchie! ,Gerry Dyck

I have a photo of the wall at Head's bar taken by Pierre, complete with Tom Piras & crew. Pierre issued numbered photos of that shot with Pierre sitting leaning against the wall for scale.

Every skydiver on that tailgate scene was a skydiver who used to be alive. The one in the middle facing out the back in the middle was Tom Piras.

Tony Uragallo knew DJR from the UK,and Gerry Dyck knew him from Z-hillls from way back and have the 2 largest DJR art collections.... both with several DJR classics. Gerry was talking to he & Jennifer this year by phone. DJR painted inside Tony's house. Priceless.

Frenchy is in a retiremant home in Crossfield, Alberta, Canada. In 2005(?), I visited him in the hospital in Calgary and told him that his trailer and the dropzone in Lake Wales were toast. He had a severe infection and had 3rd-degree barfing and diarrhia at the time. Then a few months later they carved out his prostate. In that retirement home now, he's surrounded by whuffos, 4/5 of them female, and he has no interest in telling them that he'd jumped out of planes or that he was in the French Foreign Legion, and the storied life he led. It's awfully lonely there. Anhh-hanhh.