Death is peering over the icy stone wall. Old age is proving to be a campground for reigniting memories of the past. I am quite certain the underlying theme of the project is something grand like the philosophic clarification of incidents which transpired too unwittingly and too rapidly for me to have properly assessed them. Perhaps now is the time to do so. And – here’s a modest but irrefutable credit – the historic account will afford a record of the inane events before my memory slips.
I qualify this sanguine and wildly succinct epistle by limiting the breadth of it to my life after the age of 14 years. Prior to that my acquaintances were mostly only with other children (like Marilyn, Bartley and some of my cousins) and I haven’t therefore readily available evidence of their subsequent notoriety. There is however one childhood contact whose memory yet lingers in a dusty corner of my mind; and that is Kenneth Stickland who I believe became somewhat of a celebrity in the Alberta farming community whence he derived. And there was also one adult encounter with Kerry or “Nobie” Wood, a published naturalist whom I recall from the same youthful era (1962) because he wrote an article in the Red Deer Advocate called “Billy’s Bird” about a Purple Martin I found on Dr. McGregor Parson’s residential property beneath an enormously tall colony nest, how I subsequently raised the fledgling to maturity then returned it to the native flock. The list below of distinguished people is equally chance yet evidence always of the defining ingredients of intellect, sociability, talent and success.
And just to be cautiously upfront hereafter is a list of those whom I recall in particular and many of whom I have known for a very long time. I will however add parenthetically that nobody (with the exception of my partner) has ever exceeded the scope of my undying love and affection for my parents and sister to each of whom I owe so much. And so, with that said, here it is as best I can now recall (SUBJECT to Art. 359 Standard Terms of Important Stuff).
Lloyd Campbell Macpherson, St. Andrew’s College, Fourth House, Housemaster, model teacher
James Carman Mainprize, St. Andrew’s College, master and dramatic leader (and yes I do mean both).
Keith Forsyth, roommate, St. Andrew’s College
Brook Webber, St. Andrew’s College, Fourth House resident
Tibor Bozzay, St. Andrew’s College, inspirational master
Dr. Frank Glassow and Mrs. Winnifred Glassow, bountiful parents of colleague, St. Andrew’s College
Ricardo Schmiechler, St. Andrew’s College, classmate, European vacation together
Buck Buchanan, deHavilland Aircraft Co., family friend who took us flying
Don and Betty MacKinnon and their daughters Susan MacKinnon MD and Madam Justice Jennifer McKinnon, family friends
Israel “Izzie” Flesher and his daughters, Suzanne Campeau and K. Patricia Flesher, great business family, Ottawa, Ontario
Bill Rutledge, friend at Glendon Hall
David Diplock, Glendon friend
Michael Perley, friend, St. Andrew’s College
Halyna Olinjk, Glendon friend
Patty Klein, Glendon friend
Jane Bow, Glendon friend
Michael Tweedie, jurisprude, Glendon Hall
Jan Graybiel, Glendon friend
Fiona St. Clair, Glendon friend
Prof. Michael Gregory, English, Glendon Hall
Henry Davis PC, father of Martha Davis, Glendon Hall
George Horan, Newfoundland artist and former law school colleague and frat/rat
Eric Balcolm MP, family acquaintance, Nova Scotia
George K. McIntosh, Justice, Superior Court, law school roommate
Daniel Laprès, Attorney-at-Law, Paris and Beijing
Heather Gunn, fiancé
Stewart McInnes PC QC, Ann McInnes’ father
Robbie Gourgon, first close friend, Ottawa
Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, encounter on the Village Green, Rockcliffe Park (Ottawa)
Jeffrey Lyman DeWitt King, President Liberal Party oof Ontario, Macdonald, Affleck, Barrs. &c., 100 Sparks Street, Ottawa
Stephen Godfrey, Chateau Laurier Health Club
François Chrétien, Health Club, nephew of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Louis de la Chesnaye Audette QC OC, social companion
Senator George K. McIlraith, Counsel, Macdonald Affleck, et sequi.
Michael J. Galligan QC, employer
Raymond Algernon Jamieson QC, predecessor to country law practice
JC Smithson, Land Registrar
Mr. Justice Charles J. Newton QC and Mrs. Betty Newton, first social outing in Almonte (accompanied by Jim Collie of Collie Woollen Mills)
John R. Cameron Jr., unanticipated encounter at art show, former nod at St. Andrew’s College, and predecessor to Sen. Henry Hicks law practice in Nova Scotia
Mrs. Gladys Currie, first business encounter, Almonte
N. Alan Jones, Barrs & c., Carleton Place crony and his longtime Legal Assistant Cindy Edmonds
Frank and Annie Honeyborne, wonderful neighbours
Arnold Craig, my initiation to Lanark County humour
John and Halcyon Bell, marvellous rural kindness and charm
Howard Sadler, highly entertaining storyteller
John H. Kerry, businessman and friend
Janet Mitchell, friend
Frank and Julia Thomas, terrific friends
Keith and Penny Blades, fun encounters, applausse to their success
Edward Harrington Winslow-Spragge and Mrs. Isabelle Winslow-Spragge, among first acquaintances in Almonte and then lovely clients
James G. Coupland, DDS, social encounter, amusing legal stuff
Brian Gallagher, client and friend
Robert Hill, neighbour and brother of the craft
Marion Graham, capable and highly entertaining piano teacher
Elizabeth Kelly, connected by Mrs. Graham, former occupant (Doc Kelly) of what became my office building
Louis Irwin, worthy and generous client
Angus and Carlotta Morrison, fun people, President of the Rideau Club, Ottawa
Air Cmdr. Donald Blaine and Mrs. Norma Blaine, family friends
Col. John R. Cameron and Mrs. Peggy Cameron, parents of Old Boys of St. Andrew’s College
W. Ross Taggart, OLS
Raymond Timmons, businessman
Franz B. Ferraris, MD, friend and brother of the craft
Gordon Pike, businessman
Peter Mansfield, architect
Wayne Finner, Eng., precisionist
John F. Fitchett
Leonard Lee, Lee Valley Tools, former subaltern of my father
Leo Jordan, MP
Wilson Basille, Entrepreneur
Desmond Houston, Clerk-Treasurer, Town of Almonte and President of Mississippi River Power Corporation
Scott Reid, MP
Stephen E. C. Brathwaite, client and friend
Bill Barrie, Sr., delightful client
Gail Edmonds, Estate Agent, Hilton Head Island
Alana and Jay Anderson, friends, Hilton Head Island and Ottawa