death_place death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name
edmonton , alberta 19 july 1997 st. albert , alberta 1934 hec gervais
 hec gervais
hec gervais

hector j. `` the friendly giant '' gervais -lrb- 1934 -- july 19 , 1997 -rrb- was a canadian curler from edmonton , alberta .
he was a two-time brier champion and former world champion .
gervais broke into the curling scene in the late 1950s , and in 1960 he teamed up with curling great matt baldwin to play in the alberta provincials that year .
despite being considered a `` super squad '' , the team did n't make it out of the province and split up after the season .
gervais would form his own team of ron anton , ray werner and wally ursuliak .
this team would win the alberta provincials , and also won that year 's macdonald brier .
the team -lrb- with vic raymer in place of anton -rrb- closed the season by winning the 1961 scotch cup , becoming world champions .
at the time , the `` gentle giant '' weighed 270 pounds .
-lrb- `` regina leader-post '' , march 22 , 1961 -rrb- the gervais rink would return to the 1962 , but lost in a playoff to ernie richardson 's saskatchewan rink .
gervais would not return to the brier until 1970 .
at that brier , his team of bill mitchell , wayne saboe and bill tainsh posted an impressive 8-2 record , but it would only be good for second place , finishing behind manitoba 's don duguid .
gervais made his last trip to the brier in 1974 .
he re-united with anton and teamed up with warren hansen and darrel sutton .
the team finished with an 8-2 record once again .
this time however , it was good enough to win the brier .
the win sent them to the 1974 world championships .
the team finished in fourth place , after losing its semi-final matchup to sweden 8-7 .
gervais had heart problems for much of his later life .
in 1987 , he had undergone heart surgery .
he succumbed to a heart attack and died in 1997 .
