Walter Boudreau, coffee roaster, CCC worker
As a teenager, Walter J. Boudreau Sr., made a dollar a day serving in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program set up to give work to unemployed young men across the nation from 1933 to 1941.
Mr. Boudreau and the other workers took jobs to conserve the environment, including planting trees, building public parks, and restocking rivers with fish.
As an adult, he worked as a coffee roaster in a Somerville warehouse. Coffee roasters used gas-fired roasters to remove moisture from the coffee beans.
Mr. Boudreau never made a lot of money, and he didn't like to waste it, unless it was going toward treats for his family. He believed that having the whole family sit around the table to enjoy his wife's cooking every evening was more important than money.
"He would say to me, 'Margaret, I hope you'll always be around because I don't know what I'd do, probably eat out of cans," said his wife of 57 years, Margaret (DiPanfilo). Her husband had a fondness for her Italian cooking.
Mr. Boudreau died Dec. 15 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge from complications of emphysema. He was 86.
Mr. Boudreau was a Boston native. He worked at the former
He and his wife lived 56 years in Somerville, where they raised their three sons.
"The kids would say to me, 'Dad was good to us,' " his wife said. "We didn't have a lot of money but we'd make sure to take them to a show now and then and give them nice clothing. He was a good husband and a good father."
During the 1960s, he volunteered as an auxiliary policeman in Somerville, where he would direct traffic and otherwise help out in the community.
"He really enjoyed his life together with the kids and me," she said. "There's something missing here now."
In addition to his wife, he leaves three sons, Walter Jr. of New Hampshire, Robert of Charlton, and James of Braintree; a sister, Lorraine Carney of Florida; and three grandchildren.
A funeral Mass was said Dec. 18 in St. Ann's Church in Somerville. Burial was in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett.
