Albert Hebert

Albert Hébert, deceased, who for many years was one of the best known business men of Montreal, was born in this city, February 28, 1864. He was educated in the Jesuit College and the Archambault Commercial School, from which he was graduated. At the age of seventeen years he entered the firm of Dufresne & Mongenais and a year later became a member of the firm of Hudon, Hébert & Company, wholesale grocers. Later, when his father, C. P. Hébert, retired from the firm, Albert Hébert became the general manager of the business and so continued throughout his remaining days, directing the policy and stimulating the progress of the business, which became one of the important commercial concerns of the province. A man of resourceful ability, he was a director of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank and succeeded his father as treasurer of Notre Dame Hospital. He was a prominent member of the Board of Trade, serving as a councillor in 1904 and 1905, a governor of Laval University and a governor of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society. Mr. Hébert was married in Montreal to Miss Loulou Barbeau, a daughter of the late E. G. Barbeau, who was the first manager of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Hébert had one daughter, Joséphine, now the wife of Mr. LsRaoul de Lorimer, of Montreal. While traveling in Europe Mr. Hébert died at Lucerne, Switzerland, June 21, 1911, although when he left Montreal for this trip he was in the best of health. He was but forty-seven years of age at the time of his demise, yet he stood very high in the opinion of the leading business men of the wholesale district of Montreal and was also appreciated and esteemed in financial circles. When Notre Dame Hospital was threatened with a financial crisis in 1909 it was Mr. Hébert, the treasurer of the institution, who opened the subscription and by his energetic campaign raised the two hundred thousand dollars which saved the day. One who knew him well and was, therefore, qualified to speak of his sterling traits of character wrote to the Montreal Star:

“There were many sympathizing and sad hearts in Canada after it was known that Albert Hébert, Esq., of your city died in the prime of life, far away from home in Switzerland. In the death of Mr. Hébert Montreal has lost the prince of the many princely merchants. He was known far and near not only by reputation but personally and wherever he was known he was respected and beloved. I have had business dealings with the late Mr. Hébert for over a quarter of a century and during that long period I have had many opportunities of forming an opinion of his worth as a man and of his splendid abilities as a business man. At the annual business meeting of the Wholesale Grocers Guild, of which he was a prominent and respected member and at which meetings I have often had an opportunity of attending, it was always a pleasure to hear him speak in his faultless English, with a slightly French accent. His opinions and advice had a spirit of fairness and good sense that invariably carried conviction with them. No better argument in favor of a joint English and French training could be had than to hear him address a meeting in English. The late Mr. Hébert will be missed in Montreal. He will be sadly missed by the many English speaking friends in the west when they visit Montreal. It is men of his type that are needed to build up Canada as a nation.”