Written by Jim Smith
Our Congregational Treasure this month is someone who has been involved with many aspects of UUFBR for over 30 years. He was immediately elected treasurer as soon as he signed the book, served three separate terms as president of the congregation, and is active in the ukulele group, tai chi and Qigong. If you haven’t guessed yet, here’s another hint – his name is not pronounced the way it’s spelled, if you’re saying it correctly.
Yes, it’s Robèrt Duchemin, our resident French-Canadian congregational treasure. Pronounced “Ro-Bear” , Robert’s steady, mild-mannered presence makes others comfortable and welcome. He views life with unfailing good humor, and gets along with everyone.
When Robert Duchemin was growing up in Shawinigan in southern Quebec, his father and mother were launching a radio/TV/records business and sent him to a Catholic boarding school, which he said he enjoyed.
“In his business, my father had to talk to a lot of people,” Robert said, “so I learned quickly how to be nice to people – otherwise you don’t get their business.”
Robert went to college in Shawinigan for two years and then transferred to the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. In 1973, during his first summer there, he met his future wife. Laurie was an American living in Toronto; they met in a Montreal “Boite a chanson.” She couldn’t understand him because “I didn’t speak English, only a little bit,” he said. She didn’t know any French but who needs language when you are in your 20s? He learned quickly and she quickly learned French.
A long and winding road brought him to Florida. Robert graduated with an electrical engineering degree in 1976 and went to work for a mining company in a small town in Quebec Province 500 miles east of Montreal; he stayed six years. “Winters are colder up there than Montreal,” he said with a laugh, “and Montreal is pretty cold.” Robert and Laurie married in 1978 and had their first and only child the following year.
In 1983, Robert took a job with a Montreal-based chemical company (CIL), and stayed for three years. He had segued career-wise to become a computer programmer and was doing side work for a Montreal firm whose owner referred him to a friend. That friend needed help for his consulting firm based in Lewiston, N.Y. “I came up with something he could use,” Robert said, “and he sent me to Chicago once a month for a year to do some consulting work with his clients.”
Robert wound up having a 25-year working relationship with the man, who established an office in Boca Raton; the Duchemins relocated here in 1987.
Robert said he had enjoyed playing hockey and football as a youth and was kept busy by nuns and brothers at the boarding schools. But after going to Mass every weekday morning, he knew all the Catholic stories by heart and said he had had enough of the religion. His wife’s mother had been a Unitarian Universalist and Laurie told him, “There must be a UU congregation somewhere.”
In 1990, they visited our Fellowship and were invited to a barbecue in the park next door. “They asked us to help cook chicken wings, and that’s how I got involved,” Robert said. “I told them I had a job in computers and they said, ‘You must be good with numbers.’ They asked me to be treasurer. I was an office manager by then, so they assumed I was familiar with numbers. I knew what a spreadsheet was and Excel was just starting. The church had been using a member’s bookkeeping business. I put everything in a spreadsheet, they were impressed and I signed the book as the treasurer.”
Robert said at the beginning “nobody could understand clearly what I was saying” because of his French accent. He said he was treasurer for four years and then became president for the first of three stints totaling eight years. Later, Rev. Harris Riordan was hired and provided stable and inspiring ministerial leadership until her retirement this past spring. Meanwhile, Robert opened his own computer programming business and ran it from 2010 to 2019.
When his wife’s health failed and she died in 2016, Robert said many congregants reached out with offers of help. “It was a very tough time for me,” he said.
A few years later, he was hired as a staffer by FBR and helped the congregation weather the COVID-19 pandemic, a capital campaign and a renovation. Last year, Robert underwent an elective quintuple bypass heart surgery. He says he again felt supported by the congregation during his recovery.
“It’s the group interaction,” Robert said. “It is good for your health, good for your mind. It makes you think about having a positive outlook. I try to look on the bright side. I read books, articles of interest and I go to church on Sundays; that is something I like to do.
“Actually, I don’t do much for fun, I like to work. I have a very simple life. I keep informed about what’s going on in the world…I like the sense of community here, with people doing something good for the world, good for Boca Raton, and all of that with a sense of humor. To me, Unitarian Universalism is important. It is very crucial to have a voice in this world. Since I do not have a lot of family here, it’s the closest thing I have to it.”
Robert, a vegetarian, says he likes cooking, reading a newspaper, doing tai-chi and Qi-Gong, playing ukulele and eventually expects to return to the UUFBR choir. He says he would like to take more vacations, see some of the world and especially travel to Quebec to visit his two sisters and brother. Robert works 15 hours a week for us, working closely with treasurer Paul Libert.
“There was a need,” he said of coming on staff in 2019, “and I am somebody that knows enough about everything, so I offered to take the position. I knew the software and the Fellowship’s finances… I think it is wonderful to have a group of dedicated people who wanted to pass through that stage where we had financial difficulties. There is a new spirit here, that is for sure, some new people coming to church on Sunday. The building looks new and much better. I am very happy about that.”