Paul- Emile Joseph Yves Ricard

Bro. Paul-Emile Joseph Yves Ricard, OMI, 69, died at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, on March 15, 2014, after a lengthy illness. He was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada, on August 11, 1944, a son of the late Victor and Yvette (Grenier) Ricard. In addition to his parents, he was also predeceased by two brothers, Dennis Ricard and Jean-Claude Ricard and by a sister, Lina Ricard.
He entered the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1966 after his parents emigrated to Maine from Montréal. He had heard of the Oblates in Bar Harbor and later decided to enter the Novitiate as a Brother. He made his first vows at the Oblate Novitiate in Godfrey, Illinois, on August 17, 1969. He professed perpetual vows on November 4, 1974, in Natick, Massachusetts.
From 1969 to 1977 Bro. Ricard was on the staff of the Oblate House of Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He worked as a handyman and part time cook. He also provided various kinds of support for the theologians studying at the Weston School of Theology. From 1977 to 1979 he was on staff at the Immaculata Retreat House in Willimantic, Connecticut.
In 1979 he joined with the late Bro. Donat Daigle, OMI, to form a mobile maintenance team ready to move about the Oblates' Northern Province with a van full of tools. They provided construction and/or repairs wherever needed. This work was temporarily interrupted when Bro. Ricard returned to Cambridge as bursar, but within two years he was back on the road with the van.
When he wasn't traveling, he was a member of the Provincial House community, first in Worcester, Massachusetts, then in Lowell, Massachusetts, and finally in Hudson, New Hampshire. In 1990 he moved to the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace, Colebrook, New Hampshire, to look after the shrine grounds and help with cooking. In 1994 he joined the community of St. Eugene House in Lowell where he helped oversee the remodeling of the house.
In 1995 he joined the staff at St. Paul Retreat Center, Augusta, Maine, where he remained until the retreat ministry was given over to the Diocese of Portland. In 1998 he returned to the shrine in Colebrook, where he stayed until 1999. He was again assigned to the staff at Immaculata Retreat House in Willimantic and remained until 2005. In 2005 he received a third assignment to the shrine staff in Colebrook. Due to failing health, he retired to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence in 2011 and remained there until his death.
In addition to his Oblate family, Bro. Ricard is survived by a sister, Nicole Landry, of Trois Rivières, Québec, Canada; two nephews, Jacques Landry and Jean-Yves Landry of Trois Rivières; a niece, Nancy Ricard, and her husband, René Bournival, of Trois Rivières; a nephew, Michael Ricard, and his wife, Lisa, of Windham, New Hampshire; five grand-nephews (Ashton Ricard and Tristan Ricard of Windham; and Oliver Landry, Maxime Landry, and Samuel Landry of Trois Rivières); four grand-nieces (Madison Ricard of Windham; Melody Bournival of Trois Rivières; and Rachel Landry and Jessica Landry of Trois Rivières); and an uncle, Roger Ricard, of Nashua, New Hampshire.