Rev. Alphee Marquis, 94, dies Veteran Roman Catholic priest a longtime mentor to youth

FORT KENT – The Rev. Alphee Marquis, 94, a Roman Catholic priest for 64 years and a chaplain for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for decades in Maine, died Wednesday after a long illness.

The Most Rev. Joseph J. Gerry, bishop of the Portland diocese, will officiate at a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. today at the St. Louis Roman Catholic Church in Fort Kent.

Ordained a priest in Saskatchewan in 1939, Marquis came to Maine in the early 1950s and served in temporary assignments in eight parishes, was pastor in nine other parishes, and was chaplain at two medical facilities until he retired in 1994.

“He was a very inspiring man,” the Rev. James Albert, pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Church at Madawaska, said Friday. “His humility was very impressive to me.

“He had a down-to-earth way of approaching people, making everyone feel very special,” Albert said. “He had a holy way about him, and was very devoted, very generous, and was an inspiration to us in the priesthood.”

Albert also remembered Marquis’ love of the saints, that he was always reading about them, and his “tremendous” sense of humor.

For decades, Marquis was chaplain of the Katahdin Area Council of Boy Scouts and the Abnaki Council of Girl Scouts. He was a regular at Boy Scout and Girl Scout outings and camporees until ill health forced him to stop attending.

He also was a member and chaplain of the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus at Fort Kent.

“If there ever was anyone who exemplified Christianity, it was Father Marquis,” Kenneth Liberty, a longtime executive of the Katahdin Area Council of Boy Scouts, said Friday. “He was the closest man to God I ever met.

“He exemplified what any Scout should be, always giving his all,” he remembered. “He loved people and people loved him. He was a very fine man, and a fine Christian.”

A lover of the outdoors, Marquis especially loved the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, a river he canoed dozens of times with Boy Scouts, fellow priests, nuns, and scores of friends.

In his own book, “Among My Souvenirs,” he wrote of the Allagash River, “I like the beauty of the country, the song of the breeze in the pines and the spruce trees, the music of the loons calling in the night … even the hooting of the owls on the ridge has a mellow peaceful effect on your nerves which no pill can give.”

His last major canoe trip was a 175-mile run upriver from Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Madawaska in 1985 with Boy Scout Troop 270 as they retraced the route taken by Acadians when they settled the St. John Valley in 1785.

It was clear to friends who over the years had the opportunity to canoe and visit with Marquis along the shores of the Allagash River, the expanses of the St. John River and the lakes and streams of the Fish River chain of lakes that he loved his people dearly, God reverently, and the wilderness, where he was at his best, completely.

He spent his last years at the Northern Maine Medical Center and Forest Hill Manor Nursing Home, both at Fort Kent, giving solace to the sick and dying.

“You are an inspiration for faith and life, and you are a good human being,” a fellow priest, the Rev. Leopold Nicknair, told him on his 60th anniversary as a priest.

Marquis was a native of Baker Brook, New Brunswick, one of eight children of Joseph and Anastasie Marquis. As a young man, he worked in the northern Maine woods as a lumberjack, with his father. He was predeceased by his parents and seven of his brothers and sisters.

He studied at Lavall University in Quebec City, Quebec, and studied theology in Richelieu, Quebec, and Lebret, Sasketchewan.

Ill health brought him to Maine after he served the religious needs of Canadian and American First Nations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Minnesota.

In Maine, he served in parishes in Greenville, Calais, Fort Fairfield, Ellsworth, Eagle Lake, Stratton, St. John Plantation, North Caribou, Stockholm, Limestone, Grand Isle, Frenchville and Fort Kent.