‘He was like a father to all of the kids’: Sun Youth co-founder Earl De La Perralle dead at 73

The hallways in the Sun Youth building on Saint-Urbain Street were bustling Wednesday morning, but the office door to one of the organization’s founding fathers remained closed.

Executive director and co-founder Earl De La Perralle passed away Tuesday night at the age of 73.

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“We knew it was a matter of time,” Sun Youth Executive Vice President and co-founder Sid Stevens said.

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De La Perralle had been sick for the past year.

“We always feel it’s going to happen next week or next month we didn’t expect it to happen a couple of hours after we visited him,” Stevens said.

In 1954, De La Perralle, nine, and Stevens, 13, founded the Sun Youth Organization.

The two of them also started their own newspaper called The Clark Street Sun. While De La Perralle would run and participate in the sporting events, Stevens would write about it.

“We were just preoccupied with keeping ourselves busy,” Stevens said.

From the handwritten newspaper to one of Montreal’s best known charitable organizations, the duo ran a tight ship.

“Brother in business and family members do not last 65 years but we had a good working relationship,” Stevens said.

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Stevens admitted they didn’t always agree on everything.

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While he could be found in the offices of the Sun Youth Organization, De La Perralle was always either on the court or the field — so much so that he would sometimes forget to come home to his family, Stevens jokingly said.

That time on the court and field was spent with the children in several sports programs.

Stevens remembered De La Perralle always said “there is no such thing as a bad kid, just a bad up bringing.”

“He was like a father to all of the kids and most of them owe their career today to Earl,” Stevens said.

De La Perralle, who was affectionately known as ‘Coach Earl’ by members of his football team, was brash and didn’t mince words.

“He was very vocal about the way he felt.” Joseph Munro said.

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“If he thought you did something wrong he let you know and not in the nicest way possible but it was kind of a tough love mentality and it worked.”

Munro played for De La Perralle and even worked alongside him at the Sun Youth Office. He said he owes his success to the man who never stopped pushing him.

“He taught me that education is important and that I had to finish things,” Munro said.

A whole wall of fame is up with the countless stories of athletes who owe their success to their coach, but Stevens says the wall isn’t big enough to show them all.

Details for the funeral have not yet been made public.