James & Ellen Labrie

James A. Labrie, District Governor 1989-1990


Last District Governor to serve 779 before it split into 779 & 778.

Jim was born in Concord, New Hampshire.  He received his primary and secondary education in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was graduated from St. Anselm College with a B.A. in Business Administration in 1958.

He began his business career managing a newly formed building supply business in Portsmouth, and then served for 18 years in various capacities in the Regional Headquarters of Diamond International.  In 1970, he diversified and formed a national real estate development company, Forum Development, which he presently operates as the parent company for apartment complexes in three states as well as a fishing fleet operating out of Boston, MA.

 

Jim, having been very active in community affairs, is on the Board of Directors of Indian Head Bank and Trust Co., of Portsmouth, is a founding member of Portsmouth Crime Line; Director of the Greater Portsmouth Community Foundation; Honorary Squadron Commander at Pease Air Force Base; Pas Commodore of the Portsmouth Yacht Club; Incorporator and fundraiser for Seacoast Family “Y”, is a member of the Port of Portsmouth Maritime Museum and the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and was chosen “Citizen of the Year” for 1988, by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

 

He joined the Portsmouth Rotary Club in 1976, se3rved as member of the Board of Directors, Past President (1985-1986), Representative to Portsmouth-Rotary Charitable Fund; and chairman of several successful fundraising projects.  He served a Governor’s Aide for two years.

 

Jim’s wife, Ellen, is a Registered Nurse who has contributed her time to nursing organizations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  She is at present on the Board of Directors of the Portsmouth Regional Visiting Nurses.  As a member of the Board of Intercultural Nursing, Ellen has worked for four years caring for the poor in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  Jim has accompanied the Board of Intercultural Nursing to the Dominican Republic to assist them in finding sites which would bring their nursing volunteers into closer proximity with the poor served by District 779’s well digging project, which is the District’s World Community Project this year.

 

Jim and Ellen live in Rye, New Hampshire, where they have raised their five children.

They have raised their five children.