Robert Prévost (1918–2007) was a Canadian journalist, historian, and author from Quebec.
Biography.
Robert Prévost had three careers, as a journalist, civil servant, and historian. His preferred activities over more than sixty years were historical research and, especially through writing, popularizing historical facts, notably to stimulate pride among Quebecers regarding their origins.
A journalist and columnist in Montreal for "Le Petit Journal" and "La Presse" for 17 years, then a civil servant for 32 years, particularly in France, Robert Prévost dedicated his life to promoting Quebec. As director of the Provincial Advertising Office, later renamed the Quebec Tourist Office, and subsequently Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Tourism, Hunting, and Fishing, he significantly contributed to the growth of Quebec tourism abroad. Notably, as the former Commissioner General for Quebec Tourism in Paris, he received the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to deepening cultural and human relations between Quebec and France.
Starting in 1990, he participated in founding the Association of Prévost-Provost Families of America, which worked towards erecting a commemorative stele honoring the pioneering couple of New France, Martin Prévost and his Indigenous wife, Marie Manitouabe8itch, an Algonquin educated by the Ursulines of Quebec. This stele, a cantilevered structure made of reinforced concrete and colored aggregates bearing a bronze plaque, was designed and executed by his son Alain, a sculptor. It was inaugurated in June 1994 on the land once inhabited by this couple, now known as Martin-Prévost Park, near Courville church (in the Chutes-Montmorency neighborhood).
The name Manitouabe8itch contains the numeral "8" instead of the letter "w" because at the time a Jesuit priest undertook to write an Algonquin-French dictionary, the letter "w" did not yet exist in the French language. The phoneme closest to it at the time was represented by the pronunciation of the number "8."
Following acts of vandalism, the stele was moved a few years later to a better-lit location near Larue Street.
In his second-to-last book, Mon tour de jardin ("My Tour of the Garden"), written in 2000–2001, he did not mention that the creator and craftsman of the stele was his own son.
A long-time resident of the Montreal region, Robert Prévost chose to spend his retirement, beginning at the age of 80 in 1998, in the vicinity of his paternal ancestor, Martin Prévost, in Beauport, where he died at the age of 89 in 2007.
He was the younger brother of Arthur Prévost (1910–2004), a journalist (1936–1969) and audacious improviser known for his appearances on the television show "Les insolences d'une caméra".
Robert Prévost Collection.
Robert Prévost divided his archival legacy among several organizations tasked with preserving them and making them publicly accessible.
Canadian-French Genealogical Society, Montreal.
The Robert-Prévost Collection (P18), preserved since its creation in May 1997 by the Société généalogique canadienne-française, contains a collection of photographic documents (among 0.06 meters of original documents) and especially slides (9739 slides of 35 mm) from the donor's travels, classified numerically and identified by themes listed in a summary inventory. They were taken in France, Quebec, and the United States between 1980 and 2000. A list of the slideshow conferences given by the author is included in the second part of the inventory.
Montreal Archives Centre, Montreal.
The archival collection of journalist and civil servant Robert Prévost is preserved at the Montreal Archives Centre in the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
This collection covers the period from 1748 to 1992 and includes 1.71 meters of textual and photographic documents as well as 109 sound recordings (16-inch discs). These archives reflect Robert Prévost's enduring interest in research and the popularization of French-American history. Additionally included is the series Sciences et aventures ("Science and Adventures," a magazine aimed at popularizing recent scientific and technological progress), several episodes of which were broadcast by radio station CKAC of Montreal. The Films 1958–1969 series of the collection notably illustrates half a century of representation of the county of Deux-Montagnes by Arthur Sauvé and his son Paul Sauvé; among others, photographs in the series Photographs 1940-1990 include Acadian-Quebec politician and genealogist Bona Arsenault.