Burning chapel for Paul Houde | Personalities parade at the Planetarium

An outstanding communicator, a man with an insatiable thirst for learning, a model of integrity, a star… Many citizens and public figures came to pay their last respects to Paul Houde on Friday at the Montreal Planetarium.

The idea of ​​holding a funeral chapel in honor of Paul Houde in the grounds of the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district museum was the brainchild of Francine Audette, his widow. In an interview, sports commentator Pierre Houde explained that his brother had always been an amateur astronomer. “He had his own telescope. Over time, he had also become an eclipse chaser. »

Paul Houde also brought his son Karl to Austria in 1999 to observe the last eclipse of the century, an adventure documented in Shadowhuntersa film by filmmaker Jean Marc Larivière.

After the funeral, which will be celebrated this Saturday in private at the Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur chapel in Montreal, where Paul Houde married Francine Audette in 1982, Karl Houde and his entire family will go near the ocean on Monday, in the zone of totality of the solar eclipse in Newfoundland, for an intimate ceremony.

“It’s going to be very ceremonial, this moment. I want to come full circle with a beautiful moment, a beautiful thought, I want to do what he would have done a little,” summarized the son of the deceased.

Proof of the affection that the public had for Paul Houde, viewers, who had heard Pierre Houde mention this passion for astronomy Friday morning on ICI RDI, had brought him glasses which had been distributed before the total eclipse of 1963 , the first that Paul, then aged 10, and Pierre, then aged 7, experienced.

” It’s incredible ! », exclaimed Pierre Houde, staring at the object.

“There are people who took days off to come. I saw a lady who comes from Shédiac [au Nouveau-Brunswick]… The nurse who took my brother in her arms in his last seconds also came… How can we not be sensitive to all of this? “, continued the commentator, his voice breaking with emotion.

“That’s what he would have wanted.”

Paul Houde’s family spent the day at the Montreal Planetarium. According to the people we met at the exit, the relatives of the deceased took the trouble to meet “everyone, without exception”.

Paul Houde’s urn was surrounded by white roses, under the starry Montreal sky, projected on the dome-shaped screen. On the object, a very simple inscription: “Paul Houde, a radio man”.

“That’s what he would have liked,” said Pierre Houde. Paul often said that he was a radio man. The first bite we got from the media was the radio. We had little transistor radios that our parents bought us for Christmas. We loved listening to the radio in the evening, and even at night, with the old headphones that we put in our ears. »

Despite the rain, visitors were happy to stop, outside the Planetarium, to answer questions from journalists and show their admiration for Paul Houde, who died on March 2 from complications resulting from brain surgery.

“Paul Houde has been an inspiration for several generations of communicators,” said Patrick Masbourian, host of All one morning, an ICI Première show where Paul Houde delivered reviews until the end. He embodied this Mini-Wheats type of communicator very well; with a frosty and nutritious side. He had this desire to entertain and inform. »

Patrick Masbourian had known Paul Houde since The end of the world is at 7 o’clocka TQS show on which they both collaborated at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s. The Radio-Canada morning host praised the madness that inhabited him.

A humble scholar

The journalist Claude Poirier, who had known the deceased for around fifty years, spoke of a man he respected enormously. “We lost a great communicator who did not get the credit that was due to him,” underlined the 85-year-old legal columnist.

For her part, Esther Bégin remembered a man who was “very affable, generous and welcoming” when she replaced him at the microphone of 98.5 FM, for one summer in 2008. “ I was terrified to replace Paul Houde because he was irreplaceable, said the journalist, visibly moved. He was a person of integrity and honesty. Despite his immense knowledge, he remained humble. »

Marc Messier spoke about the filming of successful comedies The Boysduring which they had “a lot of fun together”.

Admiration

Several figures known to sports fans have also expressed their admiration for Paul Houde, who particularly stood out by covering the Olympic Games several times, for Radio-Canada and for TVA.

The describer of Montreal Canadiens hockey matches on TVA Sports, Félix Séguin, who worked alongside Paul Houde in 2014, praised “his phenomenal memory” and “his great versatility”.

Designated pilot for the Montreal Canadiens from 2004 to 2006, Michel Allard made a few flights with Paul Houde among his passengers. “I remember him as a generous man who made us laugh a lot,” he said.

Journalist Alain Crête, from RDS, described Paul Houde as a “very curious man” with “a lot of humor”. “I was very surprised to learn of his death. It shook me. »

As for Paul Houde’s listeners, Diane Routhier, from Montreal, wanted to pay tribute to the memory of the man she followed for several years on the radio, on TV and in the cinema. “I have seen all the films of Boys, said the 55-year-old woman. I laughed so much with him! His death shook me a lot. »

Paul Houde died at the age of 69.

During his 48-year career, the public’s favorite worked at CKAC, as well as at 98.5 FM. Paul Houde has piloted more than 600 radio broadcasts.

With The Canadian Press