Mentor. Statesman. Hero.
Family and a wide community of friends will bid their final farewell on Thursday to Roy Brassard, former Mountain View school trustee, Olds-Didsbury MLA, cabinet minister and chair of Chinook’s Edge Public School Division. Brassard, 78, died of leukemia on Friday.
Based in Didsbury, Brassard had started public life as a trustee for Mountain View County and in 1986 ran under Don Getty’s Progressive Conservative banner for what was then the Olds-Didsbury riding. Starting with the 1986 election, he served three terms under Getty and his successor, Ralph Klein, but decided not to run again in the 1997 provincial election.
Brassard was a loyal team player who knew how to achieve goals without ever becoming cross or bitter, former premier Don Getty said on Tuesday in reflecting on the life of a man he knew as both a cabinet colleague and friend. Brassard’s portfolios included a position as associate minister of Family and Social Services. “He was an outstanding MLA and an outstanding cabinet minister,” Getty said.
“He helped me dramatically with the creation of the Premier’s Council on Persons with Disabilities, and he really worked to be my liaison with them, to set them up with Gary McPherson, who was their first chairman.”
With his career in the legislature behind him, Brassard focused his political ambitions on the newly-created Chinook’s Edge School Division. He was elected to its first board in 1998 and made chair, a position he held until 2007. Brassard helped foster creation of the Community Campus at Olds College and an entry scholarship had previously been created in his name to honour that contribution. In addition, the Chinook’s Edge board had also nominated Brassard for an award from the Alberta School Boards Association.
A funeral service has been set for the Zion Evangelical Missionary Church in Didsbury at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
