Rodolphe James Vallee, known to nearly everyone in Franklin County simply as Rod, died peacefully at his home in Georgia, Vermont on March 12, 2026. He was 88 years old.
Vallee was the third of five Rodolphes in a family line stretching back to French Canadian immigrants with roots in Beauport, Quebec dating to the early 17th century. He was born on May 27, 1937, in St. Albans, the son of Rodolphe L. and Shirley Vallee.
His childhood in St. Albans eventually gave way to a move to a dairy farm in Sheldon, where his connection to Vermont’s outdoors took root. He and his beagle, Penny, spent their time hunting rabbits in Sheldon and Fairfield Swamp alongside his closest friend, Terry O’Brien. The two eventually built a log cabin for deer hunting in the Northeast Kingdom’s town of Lewis. Later in life, Vallee purchased a logging camp in northern Maine that continues to serve as a gathering place for family hunts.
Before he became a businessman or conservationist, Vallee was a football player. He started at center for the BFA squad and was selected to play in the 1955 Shrine game, which Vermont won. That same athletic chapter brought something more lasting into his life: he fell in love with the coach’s daughter, Betty White. The two married on July 11, 1959, and spent 66 years together as partners.
Vallee built R.L. Vallee, Inc. across those decades, growing a home heating and propane service company into a gasoline operation and eventually into the Maplefields convenience store chain, a name familiar to anyone who has driven Vermont’s back roads. In that capacity, he served as President of the Vermont Oil Heat Institute, as a board member of the New England Fuel Oil Institute, and as keynote speaker at Mobil’s national fuel distributor convention.
His civic record in Franklin County was equally substantial. He served as President of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and President of the St. Albans Rotary Club, where he received the Paul Harris Award. He sat on the board of the Franklin-Lamoille Bank and served on the Georgia School Board. His early support for the St. Albans Skating Association came at a time when the predecessors to the area’s celebrated hockey players skated in an old railroad building, dodging pigeon droppings on the ice.
A degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Vermont shaped the second dimension of his public life. Vallee chaired the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board, a position that carried particular meaning given his grandfather had served as Commissioner. He also participated in the Georgia Conservation Commission and worked with the Lake Champlain Land Trust on land preservation efforts.
It was the camera, more than the rifle, that defined his relationship with the natural world in his later years. Friends and family described a man who moved through the outdoors looking and listening, not just pursuing.
Calling hours will be held at the Heald Funeral Home, 87 South Main Street in St. Albans, this evening, Friday, March 20, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. A celebration of life service follows Saturday, March 21, at 2:00 PM at Georgia Plains Baptist Church, 1493 Stone Bridge Road in Georgia, Vermont.
Vallee leaves behind a legacy built across several distinct spheres: commerce, conservation, and community. Rarely does one figure manage to anchor all three with equal sincerity. In St. Albans and across Franklin County, the Maplefields signs, the preserved shoreline along Lake Champlain, and the generations who skated without pigeon interference stand as quiet markers of a long life spent investing in the place he called home.
