Daniel LeBlanc Obituary

March 12, 1962 - June 30, 2022

Leominster

The celebration of the life of Daniel Adrian LeBlanc took place on the first day of Fall, a special day in the LeBlanc tribe. Family and friends gathered outside in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 1.1 miles from Burbank Hospital, where Daniel was born on March 12, 1962, to the delight of his parents, Adrian and Eve, who had been waiting for his arrival for over a decade. Daniel would have appreciated both the symbolism and the coordinates, not only because he relied on maps-he held a B.A. and M.A. in Geography from Clark University-but because he was sentimental, too.

How Daniel loved discovering things about the great outdoors! He explored it widely and closely: on foot, on sleds, in go-Karts, on bicycles, on horses (Winnepeg Bishop and Sawdust), on skis, on motorcycles, in cars (especially BMWs he repaired), in canoes and kayaks, and suspended by climbing ropes against a cliff face. Books were their own adventure. When he read Jack London's Call of the Wild as a boy, he was bewitched by London's depiction of the Yukon and devastated by the cruel treatment of Buck, the dog at the heart of the story who is kidnapped, beaten and forced to mush by men rabid in their frenzied pursuit of Klondike gold. Daniel became devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty for the rest of his life.

His first expeditions took him into Lincoln Woods, a conservation area that began at the edge of his childhood backyard. Boy Scouts took Daniel further into other landscapes, and he continued hiking whenever he could-on the trails of Mount Wachusett, along the beaches of the Cape's National Seashore, into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, through the deserts and mountains of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest. He trained to track coyotes in Montana. The natural environment gave him peace and fed his soul. One of his earliest magazine subscriptions was to National Geographic, but it was soon joined by countless others as his interests and his library grew. He read voraciously-about the animal kingdom, animal training, science, hunting, fishing, film, film theory, photography, music, sound, recording, cars, design, psychology, spirituality, carpentry, antiques, antiquing, Indigenous Art, gardening, brewing, food. If you mentioned it, Daniel knew something about it, and he enjoyed telling you what he knew.

During the years he lived in Arizona, he earned a M.A. in Educational Counseling, and took pleasure in the exploits of his students, some of whom became lasting friends. Of the many jobs he held-counselor, wilderness EMT, animal control officer, painter-teaching remained his favorite. He taught adventure education in the Environmental Studies Program at Prescott College, health to public high school students, and conservation biology and canid research and monitoring to adults. After moving back to Leominster, he used his skills-on foot and online-to help law enforcement locate illegal puppy mills and to write grants to secure funds to train volunteers in animal protection. When it became impossible for Daniel to travel, he still remained connected to the natural world: The winter before he died, he volunteered to help guide a blind climber during a rock-climbing competition via livestream from his desk.

That desk! Those who knew Daniel well can easily picture him sitting there, poring over a magazine, clipping an article that might be of interest to his girlfriend, or relate to a project on one of his many To-Do lists. And above his head, of course, a large map with push pins marking the latitude and longitude of places he'd been, and those he hoped to get to still. "Optimism is true moral courage" was one of several quotes that Daniel had posted beneath it. To the right: a poster of an Alpha wolf in Yellowstone National Park, running freely in fresh powder-spirit animal to Buck in Call of the Wild, whose howl beckons him at the novel's end.

Hospitals were the wilderness Daniel had to contend with during his final decade, and here too he became an assiduous student of this environment and its inhabitants. His vulnerability was challenging, for both himself and others, and the way forward was frightening and unclear. His family would like to thank Leominster Hospital-especially the EMTs and Emergency Room staff, who cared for our brother during his hardest hours, and also the lung transplant team of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, who did their best to prolong his life. We appreciate all those who walked with Daniel-in fact, and in spirit.

During COVID, when my brother was particularly isolated, he reconnected with a mutual friend of ours, a musher named Quince who had a team of dogs with his partner in the Upper Midwest, and they started corresponding on Twitter. The communications were lifeblood to Daniel, and he lived vicariously through the updates and images Quince shared of these magnificent animals.

Toward the end of London's novel, Buck is nourished back to health by the kindness of a human companion, which allows him to tune into the ancient song of his tribe and rejoin his fellow creatures, great and small. London writes of Buck, "Especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called-called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come."

This winter, Daniel will share the final leg of his earthbound journey with Quince and his dog team. They will carry Daniel's ashes on the Yukon Quest trail and scatter them on a frozen river between Whitehorse and Dawson City: the same stretch where Buck eventually joined the wolf, his wild brother, to run in freedom and delight.

May we all continue to find ways to help one another, and to stay connected to our capacity for tenderness and awe.

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-or send a gift in Daniel's memory via Paypal at [email protected].



View the online memorial for Daniel LeBlanc