August 23, 2007

One Day at a Time

Almaden’s Art Boudreault teaches memoir writing at Villa Montalvo

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Art Boudreault has always enjoyed exploring his family tree, collecting documentation over the years and even attending a memoir-writing class. And now, as if he didn’t have enough to do, he’s teaching others how to delve into their pasts.

An avid reader all his life with a keen interest in his own genealogy, Art Boudreault will teach memoir writing with University of California Santa Cruz Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. His class starts Oct. 2 at Saratoga’s Villa Montalvo. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

Boudreault is the instructor of the Montalvo Memoir-Writing Workshop, a six-week course presented by University of California Santa Cruz Extension and part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute classes and activities for adults over 50. He also serves on the OLLI advisory board.

At the same time, the 70-year-old stays active with his membership in the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association and serves as the recently elected president of the Almaden Valley Community Association.

“I love teaching,” said Boudreault, 70, who will teach the six-week memoir-writing course for the third time starting Oct. 2 at Montalvo in Saratoga. “The classes are student-driven, and then OLLI finds the teacher.”

OLLI offers a wide-ranging choice of classes to adults over 50 who have a thirst for learning the arts, literature, sciences, history or government. Additional activities include a book club, lunchtime lectures and volunteer-led interest groups. And with no grades or exams, seniors are attending to learn, share ideas and have fun.

“Art’s memoir class was very helpful to me,” said Bob Meyer who acts as a docent with Boudreault at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum. “It is a very accepting environment and the setting at Montalvo is very conducive to writing. It was a great class.”

Jeanne Carevic agrees. “I attended the memoir class when Pat Smith taught it and told Art about it,” said Carevic who also attended an oil painting class through OLLI. “Now he’s teaching it. Art is a wonderful teacher, very complete and thorough. The class is great and he’s a wonderful man. I’m writing my memoirs on the Woodstock Festival. I plan on taking the class again.”

Boudreault’ fascination with his own genealogy began when he was a young boy in Massachusetts, questioning relatives about his ancestors. He collected the information through the years and enjoyed researching where his relatives were during various times in history.

“The knowledge of a piece of history disappears if you don’t write it down,” said Boudreault. “And your family loses that part of its history.”

Besides Boudreault’s research through nine generations of his own genealogy, he is the co-author with Mike Boulland of “Images of America: New Almaden” published by Arcadia in 2006 and soon to be in a fourth printing.

As a member of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association [NAQCPA], Boudreault has archived thousands of historical photographs and documents and also penned numerous articles tracing the history of the area as well as serving on the board.

Art Boudreault, right, and Mike Boulland wrote “Images of America: New Almaden” in 2006 and appeared at many book signings and events dressed in 19th century gentlemen’s day clothes. The photograph was taken at Pioneer Day in 2006. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

NAQCPA published the books “Guide to Wildflowers of Almaden Quicksilver Park” and “Quicksilver Reflections” by Kenneth Holmes and Boudreault helped with both, working as an editor on the former. And he also documented factual information for San Jose when fighting to save the Feed and Fuel and Casa Grande’s Opry House, where the Quicksilver Museum resides.

Earlier this year, Boudreault was elected president of the Almaden Valley Community Association, a post that he was reluctant to accept. A routine physical in February 2007 showed that his blood counts were normal but the distribution was unusual. His doctor scheduled another test two weeks later with results showing his blood platelets were down to 75 from the normal 150.

During a trip to an oncologist , Boudreault was diagnosed with acute mylogenous leukemia. He was admitted to the hospital where he stayed for 35 days starting chemotherapy and guarding against infection. Boudreault is in remission and has one more week of treatments pending in September.

Even though he was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this year and endured chemotherapy, Boudreault has continued with many of his volunteer activities. He is excited about teaching the memoir class starting in October as well as completing his own memoirs, which he plans to publish into three volumes. And he considers himself fortunate because the leukemia was caught early.

“Because of the leukemia, I refocused on what I wanted to do,” said Boudreault. “I had started my memoirs and thought I better finish them before I die. It’s important to know that you can recover from leukemia. And besides the leukemia, this was my healthiest year. It’s one day at a time.”

For more information on the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute fall program, visit http://www.ucsc-extension.edu/olli or call Brendan Rawson at (408) 861-3876 or e-mail olli@ucsc-extenstion.edu.