Joe Theriault

Joe Theriault has been an invaluable member of the Harvard community as a historian, preservation activist, author, editor, and speaker

Joseph Ralph Theriault has contributed much to the town as a historian and active preservationist. He served as board member and president of the Historical Society and as chair of the Harvard Historical Commission. In 2014 he created ‘Forum for Historic Harvard’ website and continued as editor, expanding the site over the next 10 years. He has now turned over that material to the Historical Society for use on its website. In 2023 he undertook the enormous task of editing an unpublished manuscript, “History of Harvard, Massachusetts: Enter the New Century, 1880 to1940,” which had been created by Historical Society member Ida Harris in the 1940s. His research into his family’s roots in Acadia resulted in two published books and formed the basis for an HHS program on the history of Acadia.

Short biography taken from J.R. Theriault’s two books about his Acadian ancestors, “Destination: Madawaska” and “Mills of Madawaska.”

Joseph Ralph Theriault became interested in his family’s genealogy and the history of Acadia after he received a letter from Father Louis Cyr of St Basile, New Brunswick, Canada in 1969. Father Cyr told him of the lineage of his family going back to their progenitor, Jehan Terriot in 1601. Jehan was one of the early settlers of Acadia around 1632. During the early years of the Internet, the author designed and published a website (www.terriau.org) to promote the history and culture of the Terriot family and in 1999, he founded the Terriot Acadian Family Society to help integrate the hundreds of branch genealogies that had been developed by individual members of the family so far. The Society was also able to identify the DNA definition of the Y-chromosome for the male members of the Terriot family.
In 2009, the author published his first book, “Destination: Madawaska” which presents the history of the migration of the Acadians to the Madawaska territory, and which tells the story of his 3rd great-grandfather Charles in that migration as the first to settle present-day St Jacques, NB. Otherwise, the author was extensively involved in historic preservation in his town as President of the Harvard Historical Society and as Chair of the Historical Commission of Harvard, Massachusetts. The author is an Electrical Engineer who served in the United States Air Force first as an enlisted technician working on America’s first jet bomber, the B-47 Stratojet and later, on the nuclear Minuteman ICBM in the 1960’s and as an engineering officer working to develop computer-based systems in the 1970’s. His last project with the US Air Force was the Air Force Space Shuttle and NASA’s STS-1 mission, the first launch of the Space Shuttle on 12 April 1981. After retiring from the US Air Force in 1981, he started his civilian career with Raytheon in Marlborough, Massachusetts as a Senior Principal System Engineer to develop international air traffic control systems. He led
the development of Germany’s Deutsche Flugsicherung P1 system which continues to manage its air traffic today.
The author is a graduate of the University of Wyoming with a BSEE in 1971 and the US Air Force Resident School of Engineering in 1973 with an MSEE. He has lifetime teaching credentials from California. Born in 1940, to Theodule Angus and Elsie Dubé Theriault, the author was raised in the ancient parish of Sainte Luce in Upper Frenchville, Maine. His father was a Canadian lumberjack, and his mother was an American of FrenchCanadian descent. He attended the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Convent elementary school and taught by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
The author is married to the former Miss Rosemary Ann Vicino. They have two daughters, Nicola Ann, and Jill Andrea. Together they enjoy their family which includes a son-in-law Ron Wical, two grandsons, Joshua, and Matthew and one great-granddaughter, Charlotte.