DRABINSKY
DRAGE
DRAIN
DRAINIE
DRAKE
DRAPEAU
DRAPER
DRAYTON
DRABINSKY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-27 published
His calling was behind the scenes
By James McCREADY
Special▼ to The Globe and Mail Friday, June
27, 2003 - Page R9
Toronto -- Jimmy
FULLER's first job in the theatre was playing
Julius Caesar at the Royal Alex in Toronto. Odd for a teenage
boy with no acting experience. But he played the post-Ides of
March Julius Caesar, lying dead in a coffin on the stage, a part
no actor wanted to perform.
His father was a business agent for the stage union the International
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and he wangled the job
for the boy. Jimmy
FULLER went into his father's trade. He was
a member of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
for 54 years and was president of Local 58 for 36 years, until
just before his death on May 22 at the age of 82.
Jimmy FULLER worked as an electrician at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre
for the opening performance of Camelot in 1960. He stayed there
for more than 30 years, as chief electrician for the theatre,
which in time changed its name to the Hummingbird Centre.
A union leader, he was also an entrepreneur. In 1976, he started
his own company, Canadian Staging Projects, which rented stage
equipment. It was successful, and he continued as president until
the 1990s. During that time, he also worked in many productions
and negotiated contracts with the likes of theatre owner Ed
MIRVISH
and impresario Garth
DRABINSKY.
The 350 members of Local 58 work behind the scenes in live theatre
in Toronto. They are the stagehands and electricians for everything
from the Royal Alex to the Canadian National Exhibition. Jimmy
FULLER was so enthusiastic about live theatre he would sometimes
invest in the shows themselves. Some were small productions,
but his most successful flutter was in the musical Cats.
James Charles
FULLER was born in Toronto on October 31, 1920.
He went to Runnymede Public School and then followed the family
trade, qualifying as an electrician after studying at Western
Tech high school. One of his first jobs, apart from playing the
dead Julius Caesar, was at a movie theatre, the Runnymede Odeon,
starting as an usher.
In 1941, he joined the army and when they discovered his stage
talent he was put to work as part of the crew for the Army Show.
He was involved with staging productions, and the one he remembered
in particular was with the Canadian comedy team, Wayne and Shuster
Just before the end of the war he was sent to British Columbia
for more serious wartime work: wiring minesweepers, which were
essentially wooden ships that used electrical signals to detect
mines. He was back in Toronto just before the end of the war,
working in his old trade as an electrician at the Odeon.
In 1950, he started J. Fuller Lighting Ltd., a freelance theatrical
lighting business. It was around that time that he became a business
agent for the Toronto Local 58 of International Alliance of Theatrical
Stage Employees. At the end of that decade he became the head
electrician for the O'Keefe Centre and stayed on there until
But it wasn't as if that were his only job. Along with running
his own company, he was running the union, negotiating contracts
with local theatre owners, in particular the Mirvishes.
"Jimmy was labour and I was management. We fought one another
tooth and nail for 30 years. We should have been the bitterest
of enemies," Mr.
MIRVISH said in a statement issued on Mr.
FULLER's
death. "We actually became the best of Friends."
He travelled with many shows, working with the Charlottetown
Festival and the military Tattoo. He also worked closely with
the Canadian Opera Company and was himself a fan of the opera.
Jimmy FULLER led a quiet home life and his family said that once
he was home he never talked business. He leaves his wife, Eleanor,
to whom he had been married for 58 years, and his daughter Susan.
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DRAGE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-22 published
THOMAS,
Jean
Gertrude
Born in Guelph, Ontario, 1904. She died peacefully in her sleep
Thursday, February 20, 2003 in Belmont House after a full life
of over 98 years. She is survived by her youngest sister Margaret
(1 of 4 siblings) and her daughter Beverley
THOMAS.
She is predeceased
by her husband Lincoln
THOMAS and daughter Barbara
JABLONSKI.
She was a loving grandma to her 7 grandchildren, Kim
CORCORAN,
Tom CHUTE, Elizabeth
DRAGE, James
JABLONSKI, Jennifer
SLUYS,
Nick JABLONSKI and Matt
JABLONSKI.
She was 'G.G.' (great grandma)
to Christian, Jordan, Caitlin, Erinn, Alexis, Allison, Nathaniel,
Jake, Nicole and Ethan, with a new one arriving any day. She
will be sadly missed by her many in laws, nieces and nephews,
cousins and all honored and valued Friends. If so desired donations
may be made to the Belmont Foundation, 55 Belmont Street, Toronto,
Ontario M5R 1R1 (416) 964-9231 in remembrance of Jean
THOMAS.
Jean wanted no funeral, or mourners but suggested a 'picnic'
with family and Friends. This event will be held in Belmont House
Sunday, February 23, 2003, from 2-4 p.m. Special thanks goes
to the staff and volunteers at Belmont House who made life there
full of happiness and comfort.
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DRAIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-03 published
Valetta May
ROSE
By Jim PATTERSON
Thursday,
April 3, 2003 - Page A22
Valetta May
ROSE
Domestic worker, farmer and comic writer's muse. Born in Warsaw,
Ontario, January 9, 1912. Died January 16, in Toronto, of a stroke,
aged 91.
On January 16, 2003, Valetta
ROSE, 91, spoke with her brother,
Ken DRAIN, and her niece, Dora
BARR, by phone from her home in
Norwood, Ontario Then she got into a limousine to go to a large
family party in Toronto, to celebrate her nephew David
PATTERSON's
birthday. On the way, she sat with her great-nephew Paul, his
partner Cathy and their six-week-old daughter, Kira, and was
delighted to have the baby beside her for the trip.
There were more than 100 people at the party, but Valetta held
court, greeting family members. Then, at 7 p.m., she suffered
a stroke, and died instantly in her daughter Beattie's arms.
Born on January 9, 1912, Valetta was the second child of David
DRAIN and Christina
EDWARDS, who farmed near Warsaw, Ontario
The DRAIN household was full of fiddle, piano and song; people
arrived by horse and sled for music in the parlour, food in the
kitchen and children everywhere. When Valetta's mother went into
labour to deliver her sister Cora, Valetta's older brother Ivan
was told to take his 20-month-old sister to grandma's house.
Ivan was 3 and the house was two kilometres away -- but those
were different times. Off the pair toddled, perfectly capable
and perfectly safe.
As teenagers, Valetta and Cora set off for Toronto to work as
domestics, eventually earning a respectable $25 per month plus
room and board.
In 1943, Valetta married the love of her life, Ted
ROSE.
They
farmed together outside Warsaw for 32 years. One night just after
they were married, they went to Peterborough to see a movie.
Afterward, walking up George Street, Valetta mused aloud about
how lovely it would be to own a bedroom suite like the one in
a store's display window. The next day, Ted came home with the
furniture. Valetta never did discover how he'd afforded it.
In 1975, Ted and Valetta sold the farm and retired to Norwood.
Ted died in 1987.
Last year, Valetta set off for Scotland with her daughters Beattie
and Judy, their husbands, Bob
BECHTEL and David
GORDON, and Judy
and David's two sons, Ian and Paul. Valetta announced, "On this
trip, I just want to enjoy being all together." For three weeks,
they drove around staying at bed and breakfasts and exploring
the islands off the north coast. She was planning another trip
this year -- to Judy's home in Vancouver.
For 40 years, Valetta followed the advice of one Dr.
JARVIS,
whose book Folk Medicine taught the benefits of lecithin, and
she followed his prescription for a daily teaspoon of apple cider
vinegar mixed with honey in a half glass of water to keep herself
free from the worst of arthritis and other afflictions. Valetta
knew that the secret of caring for others was simply to enjoy
their company and, as the family "Information Central," loved
to share stories of their successes.
She had her own place in Canadian cultural history. Filmmaker
Norman JEWISON, a cousin, mentioned Valetta to writer Don
HARRON,
who immediately claimed her for use as the wife of his fictional
character Charlie
FARQUHARSON.
Soon
Valetta was credited with
writing down Charlie's Hist'ry of Canada on those days when it
was "too wet to plough." A highlight of Valetta's 90th birthday
party was a card and framed photo from her "second husband."
Valetta made the best of every minute. She spent her last night
on the bed that Ted had bought for her so many years before.
Her spirit will delight family and Friends for years to come.
Jim PATTERSON is Valetta's sister Cora's youngest son. He was
helped by Beattie, Ken, Cora
HENDREN and Stephen
PATTERSON.
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DRAINIE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-22 published
He founded Readers' Club of Canada
Nationalist visionary struggled financially to publish Canadian
writers
By Carol COOPER
Special to The Globe and Mail Tuesday, April
22, 2003 - Page R7
In the early 1960s, when writers asked Peter and Carol
MARTIN
where to publish their manuscripts on Canada, the couple realized
how few choices there were. Inspired, the Martins, both voracious
readers, staunch nationalists and founders of the Readers' Club
of Canada, decided to start their own press. In 1965, Peter Martin
Associates came into being. Last month, Peter
MARTIN died of
lung cancer in Ottawa.
In an industry overshadowed by American companies, Peter
MARTIN
Associates was among the first in a wave of independent publishing
houses to open during a time of rising Canadian nationalism.
Launched in a downtown Toronto basement on a shoestring budget,
skeleton staff, idealism and enthusiasm, the company flew by
the seat of its pants. Its employees were often young and new
to the business. But many, including Peter
CARVER,
Michael
SOLOMON
and Valerie
WYATT, went on to become Canadian mainstays.
"It really was a time of Canadian nationalism and those of us
who believed in that cause could see what Peter and Carol were
doing," said Ms.
WYATT, a children's editor who spent four years
with the company in the seventies.
During the 16 years before its sale in 1981, Peter Martin Associates
published approximately 170 works, mainly non-fiction. Its presses
put out I, Nuligak, the autobiography of an Inuit man; The Boyd
Gang by Marjorie
LAMB and Barry
PEARSON;
Trapping is My Life
by John TETSO; and the Handbook of Canadian Film by Eleanor
BEATTIE.
Others who came through their doors included Hugh
HOOD,
Robert
FULFORD, John Robert
COLOMBO, Douglas
FETHERLING and Mary Alice
DOWNIE -- all to have their works published.
Started with small amounts of seed money from private investors
and no government funding, Peter Martin Associates constantly
struggled financially. At one point, for a bit of extra cash,
the office became the designated nuclear-fallout shelter for
the street. Pat
DACEY, once the firm's book designer, lugged
suitcases of books up the street to sell at Britnell's bookstore
with summer employee Bronwyn
DRAINIE.
Working at Peter Martin Associates was always fun, Ms.
WYATT
said. "You went in to work happy and you stayed happy all day."
Still, in a time when Canadian works received little recognition,
she remembers finding it difficult to get media interviews for
the author of Martin-published book.
Yet another title caused trouble with its subject. The company
was putting out a collection of previously published sayings
of former prime minister John
DIEFENBAKER, called I Never Say
Anything Provocative, edited by Margaret
WENTE. Mr.
DIEFENBAKER
heard about the project, called Mr.
MARTIN and threatened to
sue. Mr. MARTIN stood firm.
"He handled it with such élan," said writer Tim
WYNNE-
JONES,
then in the art department. "He was suitably dutiful, but not
in awe. Mr.
DIEFENBAKER was just over the top, as was his wont."
The book went to press and Mr.
DIEFENBAKER did not go to court.
Once listed along with Peter
GZOWSKI in a Maclean's magazine
article on "Young Men to Watch," Mr.
MARTIN was born on April
26, 1934 in Ottawa to a dentist father and a mother who drove
an ambulance in the First World War. The younger of two sons,
he attended Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario and
the University of Toronto, where he earned a degree in philosophy.
During a year in Ottawa as the president of the National Federation
of University Students, Mr.
MARTIN met his first wife
Carol.
They married in 1956 and moved to Toronto. Three years later,
they founded the Readers' Club in Featuring one Canadian book
a month, it distributed works by Mordecai
RICHLER,
Irving
LAYTON,
Morley CALLAGHAN and Brian
MOORE among others, and supplied its
members with coupons. While continuing to run the Readers' Club
(sold in 1978 to Saturday Night Magazine and closed in 1981),
the MARTINs started Peter Martin Associates.
Throughout his career, Mr.
MARTIN spoke out for Canadian publishing.
Alarmed by the sale of Ryerson Press and Gage Educational Press
in 1970 to American firms, he called a meeting of publishers
to discuss problems in the industry. Named the Independent Publishers
Association, the group started in 1971 with 16 members and with
Mr. MARTIN as its first president. In 1976, it was renamed the
Association of Canadian Publishers and continues today with 140
members. As a result of the group's efforts, Canadian publishing
began to receive federal and provincial funding.
In the late 1970s, the
MARTINs went their separate ways. Afterward,
Mr. MARTIN published a small newspaper, The Downtowner, and owned
a cookbook store with his second wife, Maggie
NIEMI. In 1983,
they moved near Sudbury, Ontario, where Mr.
MARTIN did freelance
book and theatre reviews, then moved to Ottawa in 1985 to work
as president for Balmuir Books, publisher of the magazine International
Perspectives and consulting editor for the University of Ottawa
Press.
After a spinal-cord injury in 1997, Mr.
MARTIN was left a quadriplegic,
except for limited use of his left arm. Even so, he remained
active, maintained a heavy e-mail correspondence and spent time
in the park reading while seated in a bright-yellow wheelchair.
Mr. MARTIN leaves his children Pamela, Christopher and Jeremy
and his wife
Maggie
NIEMI. He died on March 15.
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DRAKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-30 published
Notice To Creditors And Others
All▼ claims against the estate of Aston Ignatius
GREEN, late of
the City of Toronto and Town of Flesherton, who died on or about
the 19th day of February, 2002, must be filed with the undersigned
personal representatives on or before September 15, 2003, after
which the estate will be distributed having regard only to the
claims of which the Estate Trustees then shall have notice.
Dated at Toronto, this 25th day of July 2003.
Barbara E.
GREEN
James MATHER
Wayne L. HOOEY
Estate Trustees with a Will
by: Hooey - Remus
Suite 400, Box 40
One University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 2P1
Attention:▼
W.▼
Bruce▼
DRAKE
Solicitors for the Estate Trustees
Page B8
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DRAKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-06 published
Notice To Creditors And Others
All▲▼ claims against the estate of Aston Ignatius
GREEN, late of
the City of Toronto and Town of Flesherton, who died on or about
the 19th day of February, 2002, must be filed with the undersigned
personal representatives on or before September 15, 2003, after
which the estate will be distributed having regard only to the
claims of which the Estate Trustees then shall have notice.
Dated at Toronto, this 25th day of July 2003.
Barbara E.
GREEN
James MATHER
Wayne L. HOOEY
Estate Trustees with a Will
by: Hooey - Remus
Suite 400, Box 40
One University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 2P1
Attention:▲▼
W.▲▼
Bruce▲▼
DRAKE
Solicitors for the Estate Trustees
Page B12
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DRAKE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-13 published
Notice To Creditors And Others
All▲ claims against the estate of Aston Ignatius
GREEN, late of
the City of Toronto and Town of Flesherton, who died on or about
the 19th day of February, 2002, must be filed with the undersigned
personal representatives on or before September 15, 2003, after
which the estate will be distributed having regard only to the
claims of which the Estate Trustees then shall have notice.
Dated at Toronto, this 25th day of July 2003.
Barbara E.
GREEN
James MATHER
Wayne L. HOOEY
Estate Trustees with a Will
by: Hooey - Remus
Suite 400, Box 40
One University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 2P1
Attention:▲
W.▲
Bruce▲
DRAKE
Solicitors for the Estate Trustees
Page B7
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DRAPEAU o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-16 published
His vision for Canada went sky-high
Aircraft engineer worked at Canadian Vickers during the Second
World War and helped in development of Canadair
By James McCREADY
Special▲ to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, April
16, 2003 - Page R9
Perhaps more than anyone else, Peter
GOOCH gave Canada its wings.
An aeronautical engineer, he helped to build the company that
went on to become Canadair, the aerospace division of Bombardier
and the foundation for Canada's success as an aircraft manufacturer.
Like many young men of his generation, the Second World War had
thrust him into the job of his dreams: chief engineer of a vast
aircraft plant building flying boats for submarine patrols and
converting military transports into commercial aircraft.
Mr. GOOCH, who died in February at the age of 88, joined Canadian
Vickers at the outbreak of the war. The company was building
ships in the east end of Montreal but expanded to build sea planes,
including those that landed on floats and skis as well as amphibians,
so-called flying boats, which could take off from water or land.
Canadian Vickers moved its aeronautical arm to Cartierville airport,
then a three-kilometre streetcar ride from the edge of Montreal.
In May 1942, the federal government got involved by helping to
build a 150,000-square-metre plant. Within three months, Mr.
GOOCH and his team turned out the first
PBY, or Canso, an advanced
flying boat which saw extensive service in the war. The technology
behind the Canso's ability to take off and land using the fuselage
as a hull is still used in Canadair's water bombers.
The assembly line produced 340 Cansos. Then a young man who was
not yet 30, Mr.
GOOCH supervised a complex engineering project
with dozens of engineers and thousands of workers under him.
As the war came to an end, the factory expanded to convert military
C47s into civilian DC3s.
At one point, Mr.
GOOCH was also sent to England to work on the
development of the legendary de Havilland Mosquito, an all-wood
fighter-bomber that was later made in Canada and used by the
Royal Canadian Air Force.
Mr. GOOCH was not only a clever engineer but a man of quiet charm
and an accomplished linguist. Both these traits smoothed the
path for his winning the contract for Vickers to build Montreal's
first subway cars. Because he was fluent in French, he was able
to deal with the mayor of Montreal, Jean
DRAPEAU, something few
English-only speaking businessmen of his day could manage.
By 1964, Mr.
GOOCH was vice-president of engineering at Canadian
Vickers. He convinced the mayor that his firm, located in a working
class, French-Canadian district, could do the job of building
the subway cars. Shortly after winning the contract, Mr.
GOOCH
was promoted to president of Canadian Vickers.
Peter William
GOOCH was born on February 18, 1915, in Toronto.
His father was a successful businessman who owned and ran a window-manufacturing
company.
He attended Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto,
graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1936. A year
later, he earned a masters degree in aeronautical engineering.
His first job in aviation was with de Havilland and he transferred
to the company's home base in England. He worked at its plants
until the outbreak of the war when he started at Canadair, which
was then owned by Canadian Vickers. After the war, the government
wanted to encourage the development of an aviation industry using
Canadair as a base. After one postwar re-organization, Canadair
was bought by an American firm with the odd name of The Electric
Boat Company. It formed the basis of General Dynamics, the defence
giant.
Mr. GOOCH opted to stay with Canadian Vickers and moved to its
operation on the St. Lawrence River. He left the firm in 1967
and moved to Toronto as president and part owner of the firm
that became FluiDynamic Devices Inc., a company that turned exotic
inventions developed at the National Research Council in Ottawa
into commercial products.
A man of immense curiosity, he would get caught up in many projects,
including a windtunnel. Called Airflow, it helped measure industrial
emissions as part of an environmental initiative put together
long before most people had heard of the word. The firm sold
its first wind tunnel to Volvo, in Sweden, to test the aerodynamics
of its cars.
In his spare time, Mr.
GOOCH read in many languages and in addition
to French, he spoke Russian, Spanish, German and Italian. When
visiting businessmen arrived from Europe, he was always called
upon to entertain them. At the age of 60, he decided to learn
Japanese since his firm, FluiDynamics, had picked up a Japanese
client.
A devoted family man, he spent his free time at the cottage he
built at Lac Oureau, north of Montreal. A patient fisherman,
his son remembers him catching just one trout on the fished-out
lake in the southern Laurentians. The family would head further
north on fishing trips every summer.
His hobbies included carpentry and a whole range of sports from
skiing to golf. He was fit even in his later years and last summer
was the first time he used a cart instead of walking the course.
Mr. GOOCH died in Toronto on February 27. He leaves his wife
Evelyn and his four children.
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DRAPER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-01 published
Died
This
Day -- William Henry
DRAPER, 1877
Saturday, November 1, 2003 - Page F12
Politician and judge born in London, England, on March 11, 1801
1836, as young lawyer, entered politics to turn the old Family
Compact that ran Upper Canada into a political party; served
as attorney-general for Sir Charles
METCALFE and Lord
CATHCART
1847, forced out of power by right wing of his own party and
appointed to judiciary; ideas adopted by Disciple John A.
MacDONALD
credited with founding Conservative Party.
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DRAYTON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-18 published
Nova Scotia's marathon man
Cape Breton boy was Boston's most surprising victor
By Kevin COX
Wednesday,
June 18, 2003 - Page R5
Halifax -- Johnny
MILES was first the determined champion, then
the gentle grandfather of Canadian distance running.
His first major running prize was a sack of flour in North Sydney,
Nova Scotia, in 1922 -- he finished third in the three-mile race
but was first to sprint by the store. After four years of training
including sprints behind his grocery cart, the humble, unknown
20-year-old Cape Breton delivery boy and Sunday-school teacher
stunned the running world by defeating its best athletes to win
the prestigious Boston Marathon.
It was a win that Mr.
MILES and his father had calmly predicted
to a policeman and a race official the day before. But even Johnny
MILES had his doubts on that chilly April Monday as he pounded
along the 26.2-mile course on his 95-cent shoes from the Co-op
store in his hometown.
At the 22-mile mark, Mr.
MILES was running stride for stride
with leader and Finnish running legend Albin
STENROOS when he
looked over and saw a blank and exhausted expression on his rival's
face.
"I knew right there that I had him and I had to make a move,"
he recalled with the gleam of a fierce competitor in his eye
in an interview 54 years later. "He was rubbing his side and
he had a stitch, so I didn't look back. I speeded up and I think
that took the heart out of him."
He is still widely hailed among running raconteurs as the most
surprising victor in the 107-year history of the event. Mr.
MILES's
time -- then a world marathon record -- was so unbelievable that
race officials measured the Boston course -- and found it 176
yards short of the classic 26-mile, 385-yard distance.
"I don't know what all the fuss is about," he said in an interview
in 1995. "I had a God-given gift and I used it."
Mr. MILES, his father and his mother arrived in Boston by train
a few days before the marathon. The day before the race, father
and son walked the course, got lost and ended up asking a burly
Irish policeman for directions and received some advice that
was not exactly a vote of confidence.
"My son needs to know the route because he's entered in tomorrow's
race." The friendly officer smiled and said, "Tell your son to
just follow the crowd."
On race day, Mr.
MILES wore a red, homemade maple leaf on a white
undershirt. His performance shattered the 1924 record held by
the other race favourite, Clarence
DEMAR, the four-time winner
of the event.
"That boy ran the best marathon since that Indian [Canadian Tom
LONGBOAT] in 1907," a stunned Mr.
DEMAR was reported to have
said.
A year later, he again challenged the gruelling course but suffered
an embarrassing setback when he had to withdraw from the race
with serious burns to his feet. His dad had taken a pair of his
95-cent sneakers and shaved down the soles with a straight razor
so they wouldn't be so heavy. His feet -- tops and bottoms --
had bled.
It was a rare retreat. Mr.
MILES, who trained on rural Cape Breton
roads, dominated Canadian distance running through the late 1920s
and early 1930s. He captured the Boston crown again in 1929 and
won a bronze medal at the British Empire Games in 1931 and also
ran the marathon in the Olympic Games in 1928 and 1932.
Born in Halifax, England, on October 30, 1905, Mr.
MILES moved
with his family to Cape Breton the following year. He worked
as a grocery delivery boy at the time of his big win. But his
first job as a young teen was in the Cape Breton coal mines.
He went to work there to help support his family when his father
went off to fight in the First World War.
Mr. MILES left the mines a few years later and entered his first
contest -- a three-mile race in Sydney, Nova Scotia -- with the
hopes of winning some fishing supplies.
He is revered in his home province of Nova Scotia even though
he moved to Hamilton, Ontario, to train and take a job with International
Harvester in 1927.
After his victories, some parents even named newborn children
after the marathon hero. One of those babies, Johnny Miles
WILLISTON,
went on to become a driving force in establishing the Johnny
Miles Marathon in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
The victories on the tracks and roads by a local boy who had
worked as a child coal miner at the age of 11 injected some joy
and hope into Cape Breton's coal-mining towns at a time when
the industry was going through tough times and work underground
was brutish and dangerous.
After he hung up his thin-soled racing shoes in 1932, Mr.
MILES
became an ambassador for fitness and clean living. He became
a manager at International Harvester and worked in many parts
of the world for the company after being told by a company executive
that he could make something of himself if he put the same effort
into his work that he exerted in running.
When running regained popularity in the 1970s, he was startled
to become a celebrity among the new set of competitors who recognized
his accomplishments. While Quebec runner Gérard
CÔTÉ would dominate
the Boston Marathon in the 1940s, winning it four times, Johnny
MILES's time of 2: 25:40 stood as the Canadian record for the
event until Jerome
DRAYTON ran 2: 14:46 in 1977.
He was taken aback in 1967 at being named to the Canadian Sports
Hall of Fame.
"That I should now be in the same illustrious company as the
great stars of hockey, football, track and field, and other Canadian
sports was a bit mind-boggling," he told author Floyd
WILLISTON
in the biography Johnny
MILES: Nova Scotia's Marathon King in
He was also caught off guard by being named to the Order of Canada
in 1983.
"It's not going to change my life -- same hat size and shirt
size," he told the New Glasgow Evening News.
Mr. MILES, who regularly attended races in the Hamilton area
as a spectator in the 1980s, wondered how well he might have
run with the technology offered to runners today.
"I think now I wouldn't eat steak before a race and I'd get these
cushioned shoes and I'd know how to train," he said in an interview
in New Glasgow at the marathon that was created and named after
him in 1975 and still bears his name.
Mr. MILES and his wife
Bess were fixtures at the Johnny Miles
Marathon, which took place this past Sunday shortly after his
death. Runners best remember him for his personal attention,
anecdotes, quiet kindness and his enthusiasm for the sport.
Jerome BRUHM, a long-time Halifax runner and historian, remembered
his first encounter with the running legend at the Johnny Miles
Marathon in 1981.
"He was there and I'm nobody -- I'm just a runner. He came over
and I said it was my first marathon and I was kind of nervous.
He took me aside and talked to me and he said, 'Do you think
you'll win the marathon'? Mr.
BRUHM recalled this week. "I
said, 'No, I'm a slow runner.' So, he said, 'Then go out there
and do that -- finish the race and enjoy it.' He came over to
me after the race and asked me how I did and how I felt. I thought
that was fantastic that he would talk to me before the race and
come over and check on me after the race."
He was a humble, personable man, Mr.
BRUHM said.
"When he was inducted into the Canadian Running Hall of Fame,
I went over to talk to him and he only wanted to talk about other
people, not about what he had done."
Nova Scotia Premier John
HAMM praised Mr.
MILES for bringing
international attention to his home province.
"We will always remember with pride his athletic accomplishments
at the Boston Marathon and numerous other competitions as well
as his success in business and accomplishments in life," the
Premier said Monday.
In 2001, Boston Marathon officials celebrated the 75th anniversary
of his startling 1926 win -- but at the age of 95, Mr.
MILES
said his health prevented him from attending the festivities.
However, he promised to try to attend the 75th anniversary of
his last Boston triumph.
Will CLONEY, long-time Boston Marathon official, had only praise
for Mr. MILES. "
There hasn't been a Johnny
MILES in Boston since
Johnny MILES."
Now there never will be.
Kevin COX is Atlantic correspondent of The Globe and Mail. He
has completed 50 marathons -- including the Johhny Miles Marathon
and the Boston Marathon.
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