Isaie Prefontaine

Isaie Prefontaine, no less highly esteemed for his business capacity and enterprise than for his public-spirited citizenship, has contributed along various lines to the welfare and progress of the city in which he makes his home. A native of Beloeil, he was born in 1861 and in the pursuit of his education attended Montreal College, from which he was graduated with honors. From the outset of his career he has made his labors count as factors in general progress and improvement. He has been a close student of conditions and problems of the time and along practical lines has worked for betterment.

He has taken a warm interest in the commercial development of the city and has been prominently identified with various bodies working toward that end. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce of Montreal for the year 1908-9 and for six years was president of the School of High Commercial Studies. In 1909 he became president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce for the province of Quebec and was continued in that high and important office for three years. He has also been a member of the Board of Trade and has been a cordial cooperator in the movement for providing facilities for specialized instruction and training of those engaged in manufacturing and other industrial pursuits.

His wide research and investigation enable him to speak with authority upon many questions bearing upon the business condition of the city and its possibilities for progress along industrial and commercial lines. He is an idealist, whose methods are practical, and is a man of action rather than of theory.

In 1883 he married Miss Eliza Pigeon, a daughter of Olivier Pigeon, of Vercheres, Quebec. He belongs to both the Club St. Denis and the Canadian Club and in the city has a wide and favorable acquaintance. The Montreal Herald has termed him “a man of capacity and high character.”