Keith LeBlanc remembers watching St. Paul Winter Carnival parades and searching for the Pioneer Press medallion as a kid in St. Paul’s North End, but he wouldn’t call himself a “carnival” person.

“My wife was a volunteer for several years, but I don’t have a Winter Carnival background,” he said.

That’s why LeBlanc was surprised when King Boreas Rex the 72nd — longtime friend Bill Foussard, owner of the Best Western Country Inn in White Bear Lake — called him up on a Friday night in October and popped the question: Would you consider being King Boreas for the 2011 carnival?

“I said, ‘Bill, you’re not serious,’ ” recalled LeBlanc from his Brooklyn Center office recently.

It took LeBlanc, of White Bear Township, a week and some conversations with his wife, Sandy — plus their financial adviser — to say yes.

“I still don’t know how I came up,” said LeBlanc, now King Boreas Rex the 75th. “They told me they’d tell me someday.”

Until then, the chief marketing officer for OlymPak, a printing and packaging company, will assume the 125-year-old role and work on sharing the legend with as many children as he can.

LeBlanc, 64, said his focus on kids was inspired by his own family — three now-grown sons and four grandchildren.

“I saw the wonderment in their eyes when they looked at princesses, at kings,” he said. “Maybe, just maybe, this Winter Carnival legend can be a bond among this whole community. Especially for kids.”

ALWAYS A ST. PAUL KID

While he thinks of himself as a St. Paul kid, LeBlanc moved to White Bear Lake in fourth grade and ended up graduating from Hill High School — now Hill-Murray — and the University of Minnesota.

After serving in Vietnam, he spent 10 years working for Ecolab before moving to New York for a marketing executive job with Sterling Drug.

He returned to White Bear Lake in 1980 and built a career as an executive at Turnquist Paper and then UniSource. When he retired in 2005, the leisure didn’t last long — just five weeks.

“Doing nothing wasn’t an option,” he said. “I really love being engaged.”

So when a friend called and asked him to head marketing for OlymPak, LeBlanc said yes.

The company, which will sponsor his reign over the carnival, also informed his decision to focus on children over the next year.

“Everything we do around here is all about kids,” he said, pointing to a line of kids’ meal bags and toys designed and printed by the company.

In addition to visiting as many local schools and community centers as he can, LeBlanc and the rest of the royal family will ride in dozens of local parades over the summer and make multiple trips out of town to other festivals.

“When I’m in that float looking down, I want to see those kids’ faces,” he said.

‘KINGS FOR DUMMIES’

The hardest part of being king so far?

Not leaking his identity as the new Boreas during the lead-up to Thursday night’s coronation.

He has had to spend the past five months planning events, buying costumes and coordinating the upcoming year “all through intermediaries,” he said.

“It was a little awkward. I like to negotiate on my own behalf,” he said.

Now, though, the secret’s out, and LeBlanc will be seen as Boreas by thousands today as he rides on his first parade float — ever — during the Grand Day Parade.

He should be well prepared for the waving and glad-handing that accompanies the job: He has received extensive pointers from former kings as part of a carnival mentoring program and has a binder he calls “Kings for Dummies” within quick reach at work.

“It’s daunting,” he said.

And, while he’s greeting the public and feigning a feud with Vulcanus Rex — “It’s not personal,” they’re actors in a play, he said — he knows the next year is a gift.

“As a kid, you never think you’re going to be King Boreas.”

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.

Copyright 2011 Pioneer Press.