Charles Gauthier
Father Gauthier’s career as a great athlete, sportsman and dedicated exemplary disciple of Christ began on August 21, 1886. Born a son to Mr. and Mrs. J.N. “Nappie” Gauthier, of the Fourth of Kenyon, he was baptized eight days later at St. Finnan’s as Charles Francis Gauthier. He walked the old Military Road to Alexander separate school then Alexandria High School. Legend goes that his elders detected signs that he would both excel in athletics and follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Charles Hugh Gauthier, archbishop of Kingston and later Ottawa.
By no means a scholar, he worked studiously in school to overcome the hurdles of exams. Though at the time struck by a slight speech impediment, this minor flaw was corrected by his maternal grandmother, who also taught him some Gaelic to complement the French of his father, making him “slightly trilingual”, as he claimed.
By the time he graduated from high school and was off to Ottawa College, Charlie Gauthier was a budding star on and off the soccer and lacrosse fields. He organized a better-than-average soccer team consisting of four sets of neighbourhood brothers. In college, he made a creditable showing playing football. However, it was lacrosse that was Charlie Gauthier’s greatest forte. In 1909, he played with Alexandria in the highly rated Ottawa-Montreal Intermediate League. His rivals rated him as one of Canada’s all-time lacrosse greats, and the team were Lower Ottawa Valley Champions. In 1913, Charlie was expecting to take up the priestly soutane in December, and so it was preferred he forego the game he loved. However, nothing hindered from coaching the Alexandria team. He led them to become Lower Ottawa Valley Champions, and only a lack of funds prevented them from playing the Ontario championship against Brampton. This 1913 team was later inducted in 1989.
Following his ordination just before Christmas 1913, the now Father Gauthier spent the war years providing counsel and leadership to the disrupted community. After the war, he was appointed pastor of St. Finnan’s parish, bubbling with enthusiasm to assist in the reconstruction of his boyhood bailiwick’s sport realm. He was no stranger to the lacrosse field, often showing the way to a new generation of players. Father Gauthier was then transferred to Greenfield, where he contributed to the founding of the Glengarry Soccer League, and inspired the hamlet to enter a team that became an immediate championship contender.
Father Gauthier then moved on to Apple Hill where he was instrumental in founding minor hockey, representing Glengarry on the ODHA executive alongside Doc Gamble. Finally the beloved patriarch was appointed to Lochiel parish. There he arranged for the church’s unused grounds to be leased as a soccer field. On opening night, with the new lights being disconnected by lack of inspection, Father Gauthier simply directed an extension from the church power box to the nearest pole, and the play was begun under lights. Fittingly, the field was named the Father Gauthier Recreational Memorial Centre.
After all those years of parochial church work, Father Gauthier celebrated his Diamond Jubilee of the priesthood. Despite confinement to a wheel chair, once more the venerable Parish Priest of Glengarry sparked sufficient strength to attend mass and accept congratulations from his Bishop and legions of friends. Thereafter the once indomitable light of his distinguished career began to fade and finally went out on May 30, 1976.
