It was under the starry sky of the Planetarium that the colleagues and friends of the late host Paul Houde paid a final tribute to the man who marked them with his rigor, his knowledge and his joie de vivre.
“It’s really a very touching moment. The room is magnificent, it’s very zen, it’s very calm,” underlined his brother, sports commentator Pierre Houde, touched by this immense wave of love.
Paul Houde’s brother, sports commentator Pierre Houde.
Ben Pelosse / JdeM
“He is still alive through our hearts,” said Johanne Houde, who said she was proud of her brother.
- Listen to the interview with Olivier Hernandez, director of the Planetarium on Alexandre Dubé’s microphone via QUB :
The family received condolences at the Planetarium, where the radio man was in state on Friday.
Paul Houde was on display at the Planetarium under the starry sky representing each day of his life.
Anouk Lebel
The place in the heart of the Olympic Park was ideal for saying goodbye to this lover of the stars and astronomy, who remembered every detail of the 1976 Games.
A great communicator
Several former colleagues came to greet the man who died suddenly on March 2 at the age of 69, following complications arising from brain surgery.
“He was passionate about communication, he was crazy about communication,” said Patrick Masbourian, host of All one morning.
He nostalgically recalled times spent with him in the late 1990s at The end of the world is at 7 o’clockat TQS.
Patrick Masbourian rubbed shoulders with Paul Houde on Tout un matin, but also in the 1990s, on La fin du monde est à 7 Heures.
Ben Pelosse / JdeM
“We know his passions, the sky, figures, sport, American politics. They sometimes became obsessions, but he was able to laugh about it,” he said.
The economic columnist François Gagnon, who has known him for 30 years, regrets that he left so young, a month before the total eclipse of April 8.
“He had everything planned. Its location was even done. He’s going to see her from up there…”, said, emotionally, the one who always kept in touch with him after having worked with him at CFGL-FM, the ancestor of Rythme-FM.
For the columnist at Newspaper Gilles Proulx, Paul Houde was a comrade-in-arms in his early days, on private radio.
“What I liked about Paul was his taste for surpassing himself. As a geographer, he flirted with science,” he confided.
Nearly 50 years of career
Versatile, Paul Houde was even an actor, playing the goalkeeper Fern in The Boys.
“He was a very funny, nice guy,” remembers actor Marc Messier, who played Bob Chicoine.
The actor Marc Messier.
Ben Pelosse / JdeM
The crew liked to tease him when they were filming the funny scenes, saying that he would have no credibility left if he ran for politics.
Paul Houde would soon highlight nearly 50 years of career on the air.
He notably worked at CKAC, as well as at 98.5 FM, in addition to making himself known in several variety television shows and thanks to his role as goalkeeper Fernand, alias Fern, in the films The Boys.
His funeral will be held privately on Saturday.
-With VAT News