Richard Guenette

Throughout his life Richard Guenette had a singular ability to instantly connect with people. His friendly openness conveyed a quiet expectation that everyone had something special to offer. He always found opportunities to converse with strangers about their lives, genuinely interested in everyone he met. His ability to make people feel at home truly set him apart.

Growing up in North Bay and Kirkland Lake with his older brother Pierre and younger sister Pat, Richard attended French primary school before switching to English high school, where he excelled in theatre arts. The family often gathered with cousins, uncles and aunts at his Uncle Johnny’s cottage on Trout Lake. Richard made that childhood sound like a glorious time of freedom and abandon—except perhaps for the scary nuns in primary school. His older brother’s love for music introduced Richard to a wider world, which he explored more fully after he moved to Ottawa and briefly to Montreal.

In the 1970s, working as a letter carrier, Richard became a union shop steward and began to discover his other passions, including cooking, golf, and politics. During these years, he refined his gift for storytelling, which was second to none. Whether on a road trip, at a restaurant, or at a backyard barbecue, Richard could hold forth. The stories sounded mostly true and were far too entertaining to ever be questioned.

During his years working in the hospitality industry, including a stint as Catering Manager at the Château Laurier, Richard met clients from all walks of life. He had the ability to make each of them confident that their event would be a truly special occasion. Some of his most entertaining stories relate to this time in his life. Then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a frequent guest, gave him a blue tie because Richard habitually wore a red one, the colour of the opposing liberal party. He organized sumptuous private dinners for Saudi royalty, with such delicacies as smoked trout cheeks (after which event, as Richard told it, the staff cafeteria featured trout until there was a near rebellion.) One notable year he saved Christmas for friends whose power had gone out in the middle of preparing Christmas dinner. He had the Chateau Laurier prepare an entire roasted turkey with all the trimmings ready for pickup.

Richard often said that running the catering department in a large hotel is like working in a “sausage factory.” By the late 1980s, he’d had enough and, after briefly working in hotels in North Bay, he returned to Ottawa. However, his skills in event management and hospitality carried through to his personal life, much to the benefit of family and friends. Early in their relationship, for example. Richard hand-carved pumpkin centrepieces for a banquet for people with disabilities that Rebecca was organizing.

Richard first met Rebecca when they were colleagues at the National Arts Centre. A decade later, when Rebecca helped a friend move into a shared house where Richard was the leaseholder, they met again and began their courtship over a scrabble board. Together, they built a strong marriage that lasted for the rest of Richard’s life.

Their home came affectionately to be called the R&R B &B as they opened their doors to countless friends and family over the years, putting guests up in the spare bedroom and later in the purpose designed, fully functional basement hobbit suite, which was typically occupied about 80 days a year.

Richard’s culinary skills were legend. When a neighbour suffered serious injuries in a small plane crash, Richard responded to the call for help. Despite being a confirmed carnivore, he provided vegan meals for the injured man’s wife. His food was so good that at least one of the wife’s friends made a point of visiting every Wednesday when Richard’s meals arrived.

For a brief time, Richard began visiting yard sales, picking up treasures and refinishing them for a friend’s antique store. Following this Richard went to work with another friend as a salesman in the beauty supply industry.

Throughout their marriage, Richard showed his love for Rebecca in countless ways, small and large, cooking delicious meals, travelling with her to conferences and, taking care of the many details of daily life. When Rebecca became a federal public servant and discovered work life balance, Richard continued his support, chauffeuring her to and from her government job, and supporting her volunteer work in Ottawa‘s horticultural community. His contributions to her potluck events were so popular that other volunteers would begin lining up at the buffet the minute the R&R team arrived.

With good friends, Richard organized annual music and camping weekends. He skippered curling teams at Ottawa‘s west-end Granite Club for decades. Along with other friends, he organized the Not-So-Pro Golf Association tournament which became an annual tradition. A big part of the fun during the 20 some years of the NSPGA was the pre-and post game teasing, which Richard spear-headed by way of a well-crafted newsletter.

At home, Richard supported not only his wife, but the whole local community, including a collection of spoiled rescue cats. When Rebecca‘s mother became ill with ALS, Richard spent hours creating liquified meals so she could enjoy the taste of food, one of her last remaining pleasures.

Neighbours knew they could count on Richard for a drive to a doctor’s appointment or minding the house while they were away for a weekend. One memorably snowy year, Richard led a collective snow-shovelling effort. After each snowfall, Richard would pull out his snowblower, do his own driveway, his neighbours’ on both sides, and then—gathering more shovellers at each stop— tackle driveways up and down the block.

When the war in Ukraine broke out, Richard and Rebecca hosted a young woman who came to Canada on a special Government of Canada program. Over the month she stayed with them, Richard produced a different Instagram-worthy dinner every single day. When his nephew got a job in Ottawa, he stayed in the R&R Hobbit Suite for nearly six months. Another friend, returning to Canada after an extended stay overseas, stayed at the R&R for nearly a year until he got his feet under him again.

Every year, with Rebecca, Richard made several hundred pots of assorted jams and jellies to give away as gifts and to share their love and bring a bit of joy and sunshine to everyone they knew.

In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the charity of your choice