Page 30 - The Bell Tower - Summer/Fall 2015

S P O T L I G H T O N AL U M N I
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Maine Health Care Association (MHCA) “Remember ME” project awarded a cer- tificate of lifetime achievement this past spring to UMFK alumnus from the class of 1960 Carroll J. Bouchard. The MHCA held
a recognition ceremony and Bouchard’s nephew attended the event to accept this prestigious award on his behalf. The proj- ect features black and white photographs, including a brief biography of honorees, which is on exhibit at the Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta, Maine.
Maine native Carroll Bouchard made a difference in his student’s life as a teacher at Community High School of Fort Kent dur- ing the ‘60s. While teaching, he joined the Fort Kent Jaycees, an organization of young men dedicated to promote leadership training through community development, which opened many doors to serve the Jaycees on the state, national, and interna- tional levels in various capacities. Because of his knowledge of French, many new opportunities came his way.
Bouchard continued his international development efforts through Foreign Service for Africa’s Peace Corps as region-
al director and as executive officer for African Development Foundation, from
U.S. Presidential Appointments. His duties included manag- ing 37 national pro- grams and several hun- dred staff.
Bouchard’s life faced
many interesting chal-
lenges, one of them was
having non-Hodgkins
lymphoma in 1989, but
this did little to stop his
efforts for continuing to
improve our world and
local surroundings. The
university awarded him
the UMFK Alumni Association Outstanding Alumni Award that same year. In 2005, Bouchard retired and faced another chal- lenge, this time a stroke, which left him to reside at Crosswinds, an assisted living facility in Fort Kent. Currently, he remains active in his community and attends many
events in the St. John Valley.
Bouchard reflected on his life, saying,
“What an experience. And all because I was not hesitant to speak the French language I learned as a child in Fort Kent, Maine.” Family and friends planned a small gather- ing to honor of him in May at Crosswinds Residential Care facility.
Alumnus Writes Book on Bullying
Daniel Tanguay’s (‘86, ‘15) life changed when he was five years old and a car struck him in the small village of Daigle, south of Fort Kent. The accident left him in a coma for six weeks, and, when he emerged, the accident left him paralyzed for a year on the right side of his body.
He soon returned to school where an 28 | The Bell Tower
awkward gait and other issues set him apart and attracted bullies.
“Because I was different, kids always found it easy to pick on me,” Tanguay said in a June interview.
The bullying, with the taunts and physical abuse, continued throughout his time in public school until he graduated. “It was a terrible feeling. Some days I didn’t know if I was going to come home.”
After public school, Tanguay pursued an associate’s degree at UMFK. Nearly 20 years later, he finished his bachelor degree.
In 1990, another automobile accident crushed his right leg, and the subsequent fire covered his body in third-and fourth- degree burns. “As a result of that accident, I underwent 18 surgeries to put me back
together,” said Tanguay.
Despite the injuries and disabilities,
Tanguay continued striving forward in his life.
In the late ‘90s, when he was describing the way his life had gone, he received the nudge to write his story. “Somebody said, ‘and you’re still alive and walking? That’s something that should be in a book.’ That night I started writing.”
Daniel Tanguay recently published “A Day Like No Other,” available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Authorhouse. In
it, Tanguays descriobes his struggles with health and disability issues, but focuses
on how he dealt with a relentless string of bullies. “I know how much of an impact dis- ability has on how people treat them. It’s terrible.”
“I use my life to tell about a subject that I’m very well versed in,” he said.