Table of Contents
Félix Desrochers
b. April 13,1886 Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu, QC; d. April 2,1969 St. Hyacinthe QC
Education:
1908 BA, LL.L, University of Montreal
Positions:
1908–1930 Lawyer, Montreal
1930–1933 Chief Librarian, Montreal Civic Library
1933–1956 General Librarian, Library of Parliament, Canada (NB: The General Librarian collaborated with the Librarian of Parliament and was always a francophone)
1938–1944 Parliamentary Librarian and General Librarian after the death of Martin S. Burrell
Professor of library science and President of the Lecture Society at the University of Ottawa.
Publications:
Desrochers, Félix (1937). “Retracing the Origin of Our Canadian Libraries,” Ontario Library Review 21, 3 (Aug.): 113–115.
Desrochers, Félix (1944). “A National Library for Canada,” Canadian Historical Review 25, 1 (March): 105–106.
Desrochers, Félix (1945). “La Bibliothèque nationale comme projet d‘après guerre dans l‘Association des bibliothécaires du Québec,” Compte rendu du congrès 1èr Congrès annuel / Quebec Library Association, First Conference, 1945, Proceedings, 10–18
Desrochers, Félix (1946). “Pour une bibliothèque national.” Revue de l’Université d’Ottawa 16, 4 (oct.-déc.): 432–448
Associations/Committees:
President of the Young Conservatives in 1917.
President of the Cartier-Macdonald Club in 1928.
President of the National Athletic Amateur Association from 1925 to 1929.
In 1948 Mr. Desrochers was a Canadian delegate to the third session of UNESCO in Beirut.
Vice president of the Historical Society of Ottawa and a member of the Institute Canadien-Français.
Member of the Catholic Circle of Commercial Travelers
Accomplishments/Honours:
He took an active part in politics for 25 years as a Conservative. He contested St. Hyacinthe County for the Provincial House in 1916 but was defeated. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for alderman in Montreal in 1928 and 1930.
He hosted more than a hundred conferences against blasphemy.
After his retirement from the Library of Parliament in 1956, he was the librarian of St. Hyacinthe Seminary.
He played clarinet with his two brothers in the trio Desrochers.
Sources:
Ross Gordon (2000). “Félix Desrochers: General Librarian 1933-1956.” Canadian Parliamentary 23, 3 (Fall).
Ottawa Citizen April 2, 1969 (obituary)
Biographies canadiennes-français. Montreal: Raphael Ouimet, 1926.
Les biographies françaises d'Amérique. Sherbrooke: Éditeurs: Les journalistes associés, 1950.
On May 6, 1885, a resolution was passed in the House of Commons that “the officers and servants of the Library of Parliament should consist of two officers, one to be called the General Librarian, the other the Parliamentary Librarian, and to hold a joint commission as ‘Librarians of Parliament” and to have equal powers…”
ELA biography compiled by Ross Gordon