Jerry as he was known by  was well known in the Nipigon area and a friend to everyone, he played guitar like a pro and was in some bands who played the local bars and sometimes in thunder bay, he lost his ability to play from arthritis in his fingers as he got older and it displeased him a great deal.

He worked for the forestry's at many different jobs and loved to hunt and fish.  He was brought up with hunter/ fishermen and men that trapped like Jibber, Gerald ate a wild diet consisting of moose, rabbit, partridge, ducks, geese, lake trout, salmon, pickeral, rainbow trout most of his life and did not care for meat from a grocery store.

you knew Gerald was around you could hear him whistling hundreds of feet away or singing his favorite tune of the time from artists like George Jones, Merle Haggard and Charlie Pride.

 He met his wife Catherine in the Sanitorium in Thunder Bay and when she got out he traveled up north with her and became very close with her immediate family.

Gerald and Cathy have always been a religious couple and attended church regularly  and worked with the church on a regular basis.

 

Gerald was asked by the resident band members if he would be the chief after the passing of Pays Plats Hereditary Chief Louie Mushquash. because DIA needed some proof of proceding, so they had an election where I believe Simon Moses got 2 votes and Gerald got 5. So when gerald became chief he considered himself appointed by the band members and not a chief according to the custom of the band. Gerald became the chief not far into his appointment as chief he came up with the idea of making snowshoes because he saw the skill and quality of the ones that were made by his wifes family. So after years of negotiations and planning he finally had a pretty good idea that it was going to happen, he had started to bring in the people who were going to run the operation. Now you need to understand that the people living here were not that happy to let strangers onto the reserve but gerald had told them that this business could make them a lot of money, make them wealthy. They were afraid that the people who were coming might cause trouble with them. and gerald told them if they cause trouble they could kick them out of the reserve. they are coming to work and you people will make the profits from the factory. So it was under those verbal terms with Gerald and the principal men and women living on reserve that many members came to work in the factory that was planned for pays plat the factory went great for a couple of years and then the politics of the people who were let in to the band  started wanting power and to run things, the jealousy was terrible. Now all of a sudden we have all these members that were let into the band to work that wanted Chief Gerald N Bouchard to resign and have an election.  So political infighting  resulted and it was a big issue that helped in the demise of the Snowshoe factory and in due time it would succumb to employee grumbling and then the lack of sales. I believe that the Military change from wood to plastic or fiber glass. now Chief Gerald Bouchard had never thought this would happen, he took the position that he could only be Removed by the members who appointed him and that these members could not Remove him, however after numerous bad luck things happening to his vehicles like it being axed, the church being burnt down and numerous death threats and violence from these members who were allowed into the band, he decided that he had enough of it and Resigned as the Chief of the Pays Plat Band. So he took a few years off of politics did some hunting and fishing and relaxing but then he became once again active on the Council of the Pays Plat Band.. Gerald bouchard started the campaign to get pays plat clean water, and devised some of the public relations that pushed our water plants importance and helped in the design of it, the water plant was scheduled for 1996 but was delayed because of the third party management of the Pays plat Band by the DIAND because they had refused to recognize a Chief of the Reserve. gerald N Bouchard was appointed first councillor and looked after the administration activities and signed checks for the band until the DIAND refused to recognize Chief Aime Bouchard because of a political dispute. In December of 95 Gerald was viciously beaten by a band member at a party  and would never fully recover his health Gerald N Bouchard slowly sank into depression and went on several drinking spells but it seemed after every bout he would get very sick, his health deteriorated astonishingly quick Gerald N Bouchard loved his wife Catherine Bouchard (Ach) with all his heart, through all the hard times she was always there for him never giving up on him.  They had a love worth mentioning for each other because they held on to their marrage to the end. He caught pneumonia and rested for a couple of days at the McCausland hospital where he passed away with this family by his side, all of his nephews visited him in the last days at the hospital.