François Trépanier, a retired journalist with La Presse, passed away in Montreal at the age of 86. He was the son of Jacques Trépanier, war correspondent and parliamentary columnist for the now-defunct La Patrie newspaper, and the grandson of historian and journalist Léon Trépanier. His wife, Yolande Tremblay, passed away in 2017. They had been married for 55 years.

He is survived by his daughter Natalie, son Nicolas (Serena Capplette), grandchildren Skyler Capplette, Owen and Coralie Trépanier, sisters Hélène, Josette and Micheline and her niece Julie Foisy  and nephews Joé Marcoux and Kayou Lepage, (Chantal Guy) son of his late brother Maurice and the late Jocelyne Lepage.
He began his career in journalism with the Quebec City daily L'Action catholique, before pursuing it as parliamentary correspondent for Broadcast News and then La Presse from 1963 to 1973. He described this period of journalism as the most interesting of his career, because of the changes brought about by the Quiet Revolution.

From 1963 onwards, he held various positions in La Presse's news department, responsible for General News, Sports, Arts and Letters, and desk editor. For some fifteen years, he was also a travel columnist and author of the guide Auberges et relais de campagne du Québec. In retirement, he organized exhibitions on his father Jacques, the legendary Lower St. Lawrence yachtsman, at the Musée maritime Bernier in L'Islet, and at the Musée de la Mémoire in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli.

Deeply attached to the brotherhood of journalists, recognized as a unifier and a merryman, he loved to gather friends to feast and comment on current events. He was a daring trickster who didn't hesitate, even when it came to a prime minister. Historian Jocelyn Saint-Pierre, author of the history of the Press Gallery, described him as the greatest trickster in the Quebec Parliament.
A farewell ceremony reserved for his family will mark his passing at an undetermined date, when his ashes will be interred in the family plot in the old Saint-Port-Joli cemetery, a stone's throw from the wharf.

Please do not send flowers. Send donations instead to the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation, 5000 Bélanger St., Montreal, H1T9Z9.