Guy Dubay collection of Don Levesque articles

Don Levesque was born in Grand Isle, Maine, to Gilbert Levesque and Lauraine Ouellette in 1947, and never spoke English until he began primary school. He attended high school in Van Buren and later served in the US military in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969. After returning, he enrolled at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where he received a degree in social sciences, studying English, Canadian-American studies, history, and social science. Following graduation, he taught English as a second language at a community college in Edmundston, N.B. for two years. He subsequently served for a year as a regional director for a provincial bilingual program for workers across three hospitals in northwestern New Brunswick. From 1979 to 1985, he worked in advertising and reporting at La Cataracte, a bilingual newspaper in Grand Falls, New Brunswick.

Levesque began working at the St. John Valley Times in 1985. Beginning as an ads salesman, he moved to reporting in 1988 and became the managing editor/general manager in 1989. In 1996, he became the publisher, retiring from the position in 2010. Throughout this period and the following decades, he published a weekly column, Mon 5c, on Acadian and Franco-American topics. Raised in a French-speaking household, he often wrote in English and French, particularly using phrases and words unique to the St. John Valley. He began work compiling an informal dictionary of these regional variations, sometimes referred to as Valley French or “patois,” in 2000 and would occasionally add entries to his columns. He paused publishing the column in 2013 but resumed four years later in 2017. Outside of journalism, he continues to serve the St John Valley region. He served as president of the Maine Regional Organizing Committee for the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadian and on the UMFK Board of Visitors. In the mid 1990s, he joined the local musical group Les Chanteurs Acadiens, with whom he composes songs and plays the guitar. As of 2026, he serves as president of Le Club Français in Madawaska.

Don Levesque has won many awards and honors for his work across the valley. In 2002, he was inducted into the Maine Franco-American Hall of Fame. In 2010, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Maine at Fort Kent and was inducted into the Maine Press Association’s Hall of Fame. Along with fellow Chanteurs Acadiens Charles Stewart and Roger Damboise, he received the 2016 Maine Acadian Heritage Council Acadian Achievement Award.

Born in 1942 in Van Buren, Maine, Guy Dubay graduated from Van Buren Boys School in 1960 and from the University of Maine at Fort Kent in 1964. From 1970 to 1971, he attended the University of Maine at Orono, where he completed a master’s degree in education. He was employed by the Madawaska School System, a town in which he lived with his wife, Ernestine Soucy, working as a teacher and, later, principal. Throughout his life, he served as a genealogist, researcher, and local historian, volunteering with the Madawaska Historical Society and publishing numerous regional history books. His works include, among others, Chez Nous: The St. John Valley, 1983: Light on the Past: Documentation On Our Acadian Heritage; The Story of Germaine Dubé of Hamlin, 1989; With Justice For All (play about How the Valley Acadians became Americanized.) 1976. Occasionally, he returned to the University of Maine at Fort Kent to serve as a Guest Lecturer and always supported French culture and language in Aroostook County, Maine. He passed away in 2024.