Doris Theriault (BPE’83) thinks of herself as a fairly standard university graduate with an ordinary life, so she was surprised when she got an email from UNB’s alumni association to be featured.

“I read the alumni magazine, and it’s always about people who have achieved significant things. I thought, most people who go to a university don’t achieve greatness, they have mundane, regular lives like me,” she says with a laugh. 

But that’s what makes her story worth telling. 

Doris built a life shaped by curiosity and a willingness to say yes when the future was unclear. She moved across the country sight unseen, created a satisfying career teaching middle school French immersion in Coquitlam, BC, solo-travelled in the natural areas around her newfound city, and took the leap with a late-in-life marriage to her South African husband; and she retired in 2021. 

Looking back on her time at UNB, Doris says that she has fond memories of her physical education professor, Dr. Chris Stevenson; her anatomy professor, Dr. David Paris; and her psychology professor, Dr. Sandra Byers, whom she credits with helping her learn how to teach human sexuality, a valuable skill she passed along to many students throughout her career. Doris graduated from UNB during a recession. Jobs were hard to find, and all she could see was a teaching assistant position in a special education class in Fredericton. She stayed for two years. 

It was enough to change her trajectory. 

She liked working with kids. So, she decided to apply to teacher’s college, and was accepted at both UNB and UBC. She chose to move out west. The teacher training program, especially in French immersion, was intense and demanding, but she pushed through. “It was tough. Very tough. We had to pass a French oral and written language exam, as well as a written English exam.” This was followed by a master of leadership and administration degree from the University of Oregon.

She started teaching in Vancouver, then settled in Coquitlam, where she would spend most of her career. She taught primarily Grade 8, the first year of high school in B.C., for 36 years. “I love that age group. They were very enthusiastic. They were very curious. And I found they were literally the funniest humans on the planet.” Not forgetting her sporting roots, Doris helped to start a field hockey league for the middle schools in her district. 

In between teaching, she made time to continue exploring the areas beyond her newfound hometown, taking road trips through Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta. She also travelled overseas to Europe, Africa, and India, and volunteered on conservation projects in South Africa.

Doris keeps busy during retirement, and when her husband finally retires, there will be more international travel, especially to see his family abroad. In the meantime, she’s still cycling, hiking, doing yoga and enjoying dinner parties with friends. She’s even taken up piano for the first time, describing herself as “not a prodigy” but equally having fun with it.

Her advice for others approaching retirement: Go out on top and find ways to do what you never had time for in your working life. “Do it so that you have enough years to be able to be healthy enough to do certain things that you never could do before. Go after what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s spending time in nature, and also starting piano.”

So, although Doris may insist her life is ordinary, she has lived it with meaning and a fullness that many more celebrated lives never reach.