Robert Gauthier of the Raquet Club in San Juan Cosala died July 9 at the home of his niece in Sudbury, Ontario, after a short bout with cancer. He was 74 years old.
Born June 25, 1939 in Sudbury, Gauthier was the second youngest of four brothers. He graduated from Sudbury High School in 1957 and went on to North Bay Teachers College, after which he taught elementary school in Sudbury for three years.
In 1961 he sailed to Australia on the maiden voyage of the Canberra. There he taught in Bendigo, then at a training college in Melbourne, and later at a Christian Brothers School in Melbourne.
Gauthier returned to Sudbury in 1967 and got his degree at Laurentian University, after which he taught in North York, Ontario for several years.
He moved to Victoria, British Columbia and taught high school in Esquimalt and Victoria, and on the side became a collector and preserver of Indian artifacts. He moved to Vancouver in 1980, where he worked at Vancouver Community College as an teacher and later as an administrator. Later he was involved in the video business and a cranberry farm.
In 1987 he bought a house in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, where he spent many winters. He taught at the American School in Puerto Vallarta for several years. He taught English and French but his specialty and passion was history.
In 2009, after his house in Delta, British Columbia was expropriated for a highway, he bought a house in the Raquet Club above Lake Chapala. He was active in St. Andrew’s Anglican church in Riberas.
Gauthier is survived by three brothers: Hazen (Pauline), Douglas (Myra) and Gary and six nieces and nephews, all of Sudbury, and by his long time partner John Burns of the Raquet Club.
Gauthier handled his final challenges with dignity and good humor. His friends remember him as a kind and compassionate gentleman.
His ashes will be interred in St. James Anglican Church in Vancouver. A funeral service will be held there at a later date.