Biography
Louis Druehl Author Biography
A survivor of rural living in the coastal village of Bamfield, B.C., Canada with his wife, Rae Hopkins, Louis continues his various kelp projects as Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University (SFU), in addition to writing and grandparenting. He was educated in the United States, Germany, and Canada, where he earned his Ph.D. under the tutorage of Professor Robert Scagel. He taught marine botany at Simon Fraser University for 36 years, conducting kelp research at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, which he was instrumental in establishing in 1968. His contributions to the research of kelp have been recognized through the naming of a diatom genus, Druehlago, and a kelp species, Saccharina druehlii. In 1982, Louis and Rae established Canadian Kelp Resources Ltd., an organization that produces kelp vegetables and supports kelp farmers and marine conservationists working in the challenging, changing marine environment. His work was published in the September 4th edition of Time Magazine in 2020
Louis turned to serious, non-scientific writing after his retirement in 2000. The revised issue of his best-selling book Pacific Seaweeds Updated and Expanded, written in conjunction with Bridgette Clarkson, has received U.S. recognition (National Outdoor Book Awards, Honorable Mention 2016; Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal, 2017). His first novel, Cedar, Salmon and Weed, has earned a place on BC Book’s Map of Literary Fiction . His subsequent book, The Kawai Scrolls (Tidewater Press, 2017), won him the Inaugural Whistler Book Prize for Independent Authors, adding to his growing list of literary achievements. Presently, he continues to put out the local paper, The New Bamfielder, and is struggling with an epic poem on his true love, Pure Botany.
"Gaz was a celebrity among young people. He could build anything and people relied on him."
Next came my university years-Washington State College, Universität Bonn, University of Washington, University of British Columbia—and a Ph. D. in marine botany and my wife, Joanna. I joined Simon Fraser University when it was experiencing the student movement that swept Berkeley: the liberated faculty lounge became the Snake Hill Daycare, administrative offices were occupied, many students arrested, young faculty unsure of their alliances. It was exciting and scary. The archaic system that had trained me collapsed. The bumpy years of liberation passed; Joanna gave me daughters Jennifer and Eva, and we parted.
Cedar, Salmon, and Weed would make a great movie." Rae Hopkins in Port Desire Photo: Solly Elman
In 1968 I discovered Bamfield. It felt right. Winters at SFU and basement suites, summers in Bamfield cabins and shacks. When a freighter, the Vanlene, went on the rocks near Bamfield, I took a class to study the oil spill. John David George Boom was in that class and we became friends. We shared lodging in Vancouver and Bamfield, even after Rae and her son Eric joined me. He would often sit on our deck, wearing his ratty bathrobe, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer, and giving solace to the children of our blended family. His death by hypothermia in 1998 pained me. Boomer's spirit drove me to create Cedar, Salmon & Weed.
As my academic career geared down, I turned to popular writing. With Pacific Seaweeds (Harbour Publishing, BC Canada), now in its third printing, I experienced the joy of informing and entertaining the public. The gnawing desire to concoct tales based on my life and fantasies led me to the world of literary fiction. My early efforts were inspired and undisciplined-like a colt experiencing spring fields- and I loved the process. Victoria School of Writing workshops with Pauline Holdstock and John Gould and later a Vancouver Manuscript Intensive mentorship with Shaena Lambert gave my writing discipline and flare. I experienced an epiphany and learned how to listen to my inner self in Pauline's course. Half a year of rewriting Cedar, Salmon & Weed under Shaena's tutorage taught me to respect the reader's intuition and to let no word or phrase or scene go unchallenged.
“Marine Botany is a respectable and satisfying occupation. Louis,
Rae and Catherine Elliot at Bamfield kelp farm.
Photo: Tom Koppel”