Distinguished people

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