Dollard Senécal

Dollard Senécal (1912–2002) was a Canadian naturalist.

Dollard Senécal was born in 1912. He became a Jesuit in 1931. In 1936 he founded a “circle” of young naturalists which he named after Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesus Society. He directed his circle for over 18 years. With the help of its members, he organized an important natural sciences exhibition which drew the attention of the directors of the Canadian Society of Natural History. Subsequently, from 1950 to 1960, he participated in a program supported by the Department of Public Instruction and taught botany to elementary school teachers so that they could found young naturalist circles (Cercles des Jeunes Naturalistes) within the schools they represented. He created a lot of written material such as books and magazines in order to help the directors of “young naturalists circles” organize activities. He also founded the “Club Provincial des Jeunes Naturalistes” and its adult counterpart “Les Amis de la Nature”. Between 1970 and 1976 he published the magazine “Le Naturaliste”. Throughout his career Dollard Senécal was involved in many organizations such as the following;

• the « Conseil québécois de l’environnement »
• the « Fédération québécoise du plein air »
• the « Fédération québécoise pour la protection de l’environnement »
• the Montreal Science Centre
• the « Communication – Jeunesse » organization
• the « Association des professeurs de sciences du Québec » which he founded
• the « Fédération Nature Canada »
• the « Société zoologique du Québec »
• the « Société d’astronomie du Québec »
• the National Science Teachers Association (US)

He has written over a 100 “feuillets du Naturaliste” and published the “Faune de mon pays” and participated to the publication of the “Faune de l’arrière-pays”. He also participated to many local radio and TV shows and translated some literary work related to natural sciences.