• Home
  • Cyrus Eaton
    • Anne Eaton
  • Images & Stories
  • Charles Aubrey Eaton
  • Joseph Rotblat & Nobel Peace Prize
  • Bertrand Russell
  • Sandy Butcher
  • 1957 Pugwash Conference & Participants
  • 1958 Pugwash Conference
  • Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs
  • Documentaries
  • Thinkers Lodge Historic Site & Lobster Factory
  • Hiroshima & Peace Movemenet
  • Pugwash Students
  • Staff & Volunteers (1940s to 2017) Share Stories
  • Friends
  • Blog
  • Calendar & Book Events
  • Photographs
  • For Educators
  • Climate Change 2017 Thinkers Lodge
  • Climate Change 2018
  • Climate Change 2019
  • Climate Change 2020
  • INTERVIEWS
  • virtual audio tours
  • 2020 Podcasts
  • Index - Revised 2021
  • Bertrand Russell & Cyrus Eaton
Thinkers Lodge Histories

Raymond Bourque

Picture
Raymond Bourque and Glenda Kent
Picture
Raymond supervising cocktail gathering at Thinkers Lodge
Raymond Zacharie Bourque (September 11, 1917 – May 31, 1998) was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Yarmouth in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1953 to 1956. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. Raymond Bourque was born in 1917 at Sluice Point, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia.  He married Bernadine Mary Belliveau in 1940. Bourque entered provincial politics in 1953 when he was elected in the dual-member Yarmouth County riding with Progressive Conservative William Heartz Brown. Both Bourque and Brown were defeated when they ran for re-election in 1956, losing to Liberals Willard O'Brien and Eric Spinney. Bourque also worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Raymond and Bernadine moved to Northfield, Ohio and had seven children.

Cyrus Eaton donated the property of Thinkers Lodge, the Gate House, and the Lobster Factory to a Nova Scotia non-profit incorporated by an act of the Legislature introduced by Raymond Bourque.  Cyrus Eaton contacted Bourque, who agreed to come work for Eaton in Northfield, Ohio.  In the summers, he worked at Deep Cove, Nova Scotia, and he oversaw the details of the staff at the many conferences at Thinkers Lodge in Pugwash, Nova Scotia.  He was so much more than a butler who served meals.  He was pivotal to the success of the conferences, helped hire staff, oversaw the wait staff, created menus, and made sure the guests were comfortable and treated royally.  He played the guitar and sang and participated in skits at the Lobster Factory with the rest of the staff.  In the evenings after work, he often worked on model clipper ships.  One that he built resides in the Great Hall at Thinkers Lodge.  He stayed in The Staff/Gate House on the property usually with one of the chefs.
​
He was loyal, dedicated, and a friend to Cyrus Eaton. Raymond had a marvelous sense of humor and was a constant companion of Cyrus Eaton.  After Cyrus Eaton died, he worked for Anne Eaton at The Last Resort in Florida.  Bourque died at Northfield, Ohio on May 31, 1998. 
Picture
Back Row: Morash, Raymond Bourque, Jeiggs Allen
Middle Row:Marilyn Reid, Myrna Dixo, Glenda Newson, Kinch
Front Row: Norma Smith, Shirley Dingle, Beverly Dingle, Eileen Dixon, Marjorie MacKay

​Thinkers Lodge 1959

Picture
Marjorie MacKay, Eileen Dixon, Myron Nixon, Beverly Dingle, and Norma Smith
Picture
Beverly Dingle and Raymond Bourque
Picture
The chef and sou chef
Picture
Raymond carrying food of the Cyrus Eaton's C&O DC 3
Picture
Norma Smith and Raymond Bourque
Picture
Raymond Bourque and his guitar
Picture
Leo Jamieson far left, Raymond on right, getting costumes for evening entertainment, often original skits that staff and guests performed in
Picture
Raymond serenading grandchildren at Deep Cove singing "Mary Ann Oh Mary Ann, Won't You Marry Me."