Ludger Cloutier is a man of many talents.
Born in Timmins, he's the ninth of 14 children — 11 boys and three girls — in his family. Cloutier, 66, says his oldest sister was about 27 by the time the youngest sibling was born.
“It’s different to live in a big family. At Christmas, we rented a hall because it was too much for one house,” he recalls.
He studied at Cambrian College in Sudbury and returned to Timmins to start his career as an audio visual technician at École Secondaire Catholique Thériault in 1974.
On the weekends, he would work as a photographer shooting weddings and sports. He says he used to shoot about 25 weddings per year.
His experience in photography allowed him to teach a 10-week, 30-hour night course in photography at Northern College for about five years. While he worked at Thériault, Cloutier was also an advisor for the yearbook club helping students learn how to take photos.
He starting with a Pentax 500 35 mm camera, then moved to Mamiya 645. It took him a while to switch from film to digital, he says, but eventually he went with Nikon.
“From film to digital, it’s much easier. Now you got a card, you can do 2,000 pictures. Batteries weren’t as good as they are today. We had to use different lens because zoom lenses weren’t as good. You had to have a lens for wide angle, a normal lens and a portrait lens.”
Cloutier mentions how the ceiling in his basement was built higher, so he would be able to use the basement as a darkroom where he would process and print photos. About three years ago, he retired from photography.
In 1995, Cloutier left his job at Thériault and opened Pizza Pizza on Third Avenue.
“When I left Thériault, it wasn’t because I didn’t like my job. I needed more challenge and restaurant business is a big challenge,” he says. “My photography was always great but never enough to live on.”
To own the franchise, he had to go through a so-called Pizza Pizza University in Toronto. He did 12 weeks of school and 12 weeks of training in stores in Toronto, North Bay and Sudbury.
“When you’re 40 years old and you change and you have to go to school, for me, you had to pass with 90 per cent to open a franchise. You have to go from A to Z, learn the finance, the advertising and you have to know how to do pizza,” he says.
He owned the business for nine years before selling it.
Cloutier was also an executive director at Centre Culturel La Ronde and says the organization used to have a monthly newspaper which would feature his photos.
He stayed in his position at La Ronde until 2010. He still volunteers and is helping lead the construction project of the new building.
Now, Cloutier co-owns Gem Electric Motor Service on Wilson Street together with Richard Secord and Garry Secord.
“They were all enjoyable,” he says about his past jobs. “Thériault was a lot of fun. Pizza Pizza was financially the best. La Ronde was very challenging because of the financial problems but a lot of fun. This is a job which was very social, too, because of the shows.”
He was La Ronde Little League Baseball's volunteer treasurer for 25 years and was also a treasurer for a recreational hockey team. On top of that, Cloutier is now a volunteer director at Notre Dame de la Paix and is a past president of its finance committee.
“My biggest quality is finance. I’ve always been strong with finance, it’s natural for me," he says.
For his involvement in French culture, Cloutier received l'Ordre de la Pléiade in Toronto in 2012. A year later, he was awarded with Cercle Horace-Viau from Club Richelieu. He also got a Crystal Glove Club award from Little League Canada.
“I was very privileged, I was very honoured. It was special, I felt that thankful."
“For me, my culture is important,” he says, showing a green-and-white Franco-Ontarian bracelet.
Cloutier is also into sports. He was nicknamed Mr. Floor Hockey as he's been in Les Boys Jeudi Soir team playing floor hockey for 43 years.
“We had fun, it was very social. I played ice hockey, too, but this was my fun. I always kept busy," he recalls.
To succeed in life or business, Cloutier says there are three key elements: communication, respect and honesty.
He has also been married for 44 years to a high school sweetheart and has two daughters, who both live in Timmins, and six grandchildren.
