I have mentioned Bob Quintin several times in this newsletter. I first met him about fifteen years ago when he had a small business reprinting old French-Canadian genealogy books. He later became the first person that I know of who entered the business of republishing old books on CD-ROM disks. His catalog expanded far beyond French-Canadian works and now contains more than 10,000 titles.
The following sad words were written by Sharon Sergeant of ancestralmanor.com:
Bob Quintin died this morning after a long battle with colon cancer.
I last talked with Bob Quintin a week ago and he was very, very weak.
In Bob's last year, he continued his workhorse efforts to make more genealogical resources available, despite the growing physical debilitation. Periodically, he thought about trying to spend more of his last days in travel or other leisurely pursuits, but remained dedicated to his work.
Moving his business to Florida, where his family could take over for him, was only accomplished through sheer will and determination. When I visited with him in June as they were packing the trailer loads of stock and equipment, he was unable to stand for any period of time. Yet, he drove one truck himself to Florida.
It took 2 months to get the bulk of more than 2 decades of business, unpacked and sorted into storage and production areas. It took another month to get their backlog of orders and production moving. Some equipment rebelled against the humidity and heat of the new environment.
As the resettlement started to settle out, Bob began letting go. He told me he could see that the transition was now in good hands. He was proud of what he and his family had accomplished.
Bob's wife Carol, sons Charles and Phillip, and others have also been working around the clock with his care and are quite exhausted. Bob's unrelenting focus and garrulous style may have been hardest to those close to him, but it is even harder to see such vibrancy be overtaken by a last illness.
Quintin's earliest work with the French-Canadian volumes was capped with Quintin Publications of books by Armand H. Demers, Jr., Peter J. Gagné, Marcel Trudel and Doug Miller - all classic modern resources, and many original English volumes for those who struggle with the French language resources.
His latest works have been turning thousands of out of print volumes into PDF files and reprints - including family histories, Irish resources and Slave Emancipation Records.
I hope that folks who have benefited from Bob's work over the years will share their appreciation with his family. http://www.quintinpublications.com
Sharon Sergeant
ancestralmanor.com
I had my first book published by your company a few years ago (re: Cornelius Melyn). I was surprised and pleased with you moving to Florida as that was also my residence and it would make my shipment that much easier for me. I now have a second book that will be in the publishing phase in a few years that I'd like your company to continue with. I'm shocked that Mr. Q had passed but had heard that he was sick.
Posted by: Richard Baskas | October 05, 2005 at 12:58 AM