Charles Ouellet
Charles Ouellet

Charles Ouellet was born on January 22, 1952, in a French Canadian community of northern New Brunswick. In 1970, he moved to Campbellton where he married his wife Linda as he got into a lifetime DIY project in 1980 of designing and building his own two-story house, including plumbing, electricity, moldings, furniture, cabinets, and cupboards, and making his own decorative woodwork. Charles and Linda always maintained a very active involvement within their community as their son Luc grew up. They joined various organizations where he went coaching hockey and President of the local Minor Hockey Organization, President of the Sugarloaf Park Ski Club along with Patrol Leader of the Canadian Ski Patrol, while also actively involved in the coaching of the local ski racing team, and taking on Snowboarding.

A self-taught and accomplished Cabinet Maker and Furniture Maker, he earned his Certification as a Journeyman Cabinetmaker from the Province of New Brunswick, and he also obtained a certification in Computer Aided Design II (CAD). As a cabinetmaker / furniture maker in the industry, he was very much an All-Round man, performing all sorts of duties as a Millwright, Machine/Tool Operator, Toolmaker/Sharpener, Jigmaker, Set-up man, Assembler, Finisher, and Painter, and Training Instructor. During that period, he complemented his mechanical skills with Hydraulics. He began getting his woodworking experience at age 18 working for West Hartford Stairs and Cabinets, then at Northeast Pine Furniture and Craftique Furniture in Northern New Brunswick. He spent over 16 years as operator, general manager and training instructor for MQ Windows, with one of their main accomplishment being the improvement of the 70-MM series of window and door production modified to withstand Hurricane-force winds, with impact-resistant construction which awarded the company the Dade County Approval in Florida.

Charles is also a Certified Electronics Technician from the Campbellton Trade School, and Technician for disabled patients Equipment, certified from Bruno Independent Living Aids and also from Pride Mobility Products, both manufacturers of equipment for disabled patients. As a Technician, he spent a few years working at Radio Engineering Product as he excelled at calibrating, testing, troubleshooting, and repairing electronics for a company producing components and electronic devices for the military. At times he did work as a service technician for local electronic shops. As a technician for disabled patient types of equipment, he did the installations, programming, setups, modifications, troubleshooting, and repairs on mobility scooters and power chairs lifts for vehicles, platform lifts for the homes, straight and curved stairlifts, electric wheelchairs, mobility scooters, power lift recliners, articulated beds, patient lifts, and ceiling lifts, and other related equipment.

As a Certified Teacher in adult education, Charles spent 12 years teaching and elaborating a woodworking program in cabinetmaking and furniture making, simultaneously teaching both in French and in English and elaborating all the course content in both languages. It was during his teaching career when a whole new perspective of industrial woodworking was emerging, giving him the opportunity to develop his own theoretical teaching contents, and later on, to revise all the outdated modules, tests, and exams of the Block Release program and the Journeyman Certification at the Provincial and National levels. It was during that same period that he learned the use of various computer software such as Lotus, MS Word, Excel, Access, and Auto CAD, the Computer Assisted Design that he incorporated into his classes. All his research and elaboration gave him the opportunity to further expand his knowledge and expertise in electronics and electro-mechanical controls, toolmaking, Kiln Drying, joinery, machining, assembly, and finishing techniques, as well as planning and organizing production and production lines in an orderly and productive manner. All this rewriting and elaboration for many years somehow triggered in him a copywriting interest which he was to pursue later on. Semi-retired since 1980, Charles, always a teacher at heart, looked into another passion of his where he could pass on his experiences and knowledge to benefit others and got into freelance copywriting, which he absolutely loves to do, as much a hobby as part time-work from home. Along with his wife Linda, they rekindled another interest of theirs taking classes in social and ballroom dancing since 2006, they now both teach their dancing skills and knowledge at their local Dancing Club, organizing dance classes and Social/Ballroom dances through the year for the members of their club, in order to encourage a more healthy and affordable social and active lifestyle for their friends and other retired couples of the surrounding communities.

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