Benoît Boulanger, who led Mont Sutton as the Quebec ski resort’s president and CEO for 29 years, died on April 12, 2016 at the age of 85.
Born in 1931, Benoît moved to Sutton with his family in 1945 when his father, Harold, co-founded a dairy company. Sutton Dairy Products was typically busy for four or five months during the summer, but in winter was forced to lay off employees, which led Harold and his partners to think about a seasonal business that would provide winter jobs for local residents. At the time, people were wilderness skiing on the forested slopes around Sutton, and Harold’s four sons (Réal, Robert, Benoît and Hercule) became passionate skiers.
In 1959, after many trips to Stowe and Jay Peak in Vermont and consultation with the Sno-Engineering consulting firm in New Hampshire, the brothers started surveying trails on land the family had purchased on Mont Sutton. In December 1960, the resort opened with a base lodge, ski school, T-bar and a team of trained patrollers; a double chairlift opened a few months later. Under the energetic leadership of Réal, Sutton was known for its early investments in snowmaking and intermediate and gladed terrain.
While the family resort continued to expand, Benoît built a successful 30-year career in the dairy industry. Following the death of Réal in 1983 and Robert in 1986, Benoît took over as Sutton president and CEO, a position he held until the Boulanger family sold the resort in March 2016. During his tenure, Boulanger oversaw the consolidation of its assets and modest expansion of Sutton’s terrain; upgraded lifts, grooming and snowmaking; and the construction of a 6,000-square-foot ski and equipment shop at the base. He is survived by his wife, Sylivianne, and three sons: Bruno-Gilles, Louis and Sylvain. —Kathleen James
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