The Very Best
of
Westport Matters
hosted by Claude Ledoux
Who is Claude Ledoux?
May 26, 2007
Claude
immigrated with his family from French Canada in 1949. At age thirteen, he was the oldest of eight children
and had no knowledge of English at that time. The family settled on a small
twelve-acre farm in North Westport, Massachusetts. Claude promptly started working
at farms located in Westport, Swansea, and Dighton. He was also hired by a grain supply business which at the time handled 100-pound bags.
Then, after a
short stint in a Fall River sweatshop, Claude joined the Marine Corps at age
sixteen. He was in the Corps from 1952-1955 and served in the Korean war.
Claude has been active in town affairs over the past forty-two years. He has
significantly
contributed to Westport’s permanently preserved area of over five thousand acres of open lands.
He's conducted a cable access show, Westport Matters, since 1993. Claude also co-authored a book
with Carmen Maiocco entitled
A History of Westport in the 20th
Century. In collaboration with the Town Clerk’s office, Claude
was instrumental in converting the official town records dating from 1787 to the
present into computer files.
Claude served 32 of the past 42 years on 9 separate boards, committees and
commissions.
His work career from the age of fourteen continued without interruption for
forty-six
years. It covered farm work, sweatshops, military service, pulpwood cutting, textile machinery repair,
electronics, instrumentation, and hydraulics, ending
with thirty-four years of progressively complex underwater acoustics. All of
this was made possible
by continuous educational progression.
Claude is seventy-two years old and has been married for forty-nine years. He
and his wife Clarisse have four self-sufficient
children and four grandchildren. Clarisse contributed to their
livelihood by working as a registered nurse over a period of forty years. Claude
continues to be active in the woodland and farm areas, assisting in land surveys
and wind
turbine research, development, and installation.
Claude is a member of the Historical Society, American Legion, and Mass Forestry
Association.
Claude's dedication to use of renewable fuel has been proven for thirty years.
Through
use of wood and solar energy, his household needs for fuel oil have been reduced
to less than one hundred gallons per year for the last thirty years. Use of small
diesel-powered cars has increased his transportation mileage from 45 to 52 MPG
over
the last twenty years.
Claude's promotion of renewable forestry practices has been carried out on family
land for the past forty-five years, including management for conservation and wildlife.
