"FAR" 2003 Obituary

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FARBER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-09 published
Murray SEGAL
By Bernie M. FARBER Thursday, October 9, 2003 - Page A26
Community leader, actuary, political pundit, family man. Born September 26, 1939, in Winnipeg. Died September 1, from cancer, in Toronto, aged 63.
The Jewish prophet Jeremiah tells us of three types of behaviour that gives G-d pleasure: kindness, justice and equity. Murray SEGAL gave G-d much pleasure.
His father Jack, a truck driver, and his mother, Rae, worked hard to ensure that Murray would have the education and stability that their lives had not. Early on the boy showed a talent for mathematics and entrepreneurship. His uncle Toker, a lathe operator, made wooden candlesticks which Murray would diligently sell door-to-door.
A scholastic star in high school, he skipped grades not once but twice. At age 19, Murray became the youngest person ever to graduate from the University of Manitoba as a gold medalist in commerce and actuarial math.
With a job offer in his pocket from a small Toronto actuarial firm run by Sam ECKLER, Murray decided to go east in 1959. He had to borrow the train fare from his future boss.
The job with Sam became the only job Murray SEGAL ever held. Today, Eckler and Partners is one of the most influential actuarial firms in Canada. Lawyers repeatedly turned to Murray as an expert witness; Supreme Court decisions rested on the precise expertise of the testimony he gave.
But Murray was more than an actuary. He was also a dedicated community leader. In 1984, he was appointed chair of the Ontario Jewish Association for Equity in Education, a committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress supported by the United Jewish Appeal Federation. Equity was something Murray could understand both in actuarial and moral terms. At a time when the funding of independent religious schools was a concept no political party wanted to touch, he forced politicians to consider it.
In the 15 years he held this voluntary position, he met with every premier, minister of education, Member of Provincial Parliament and newspaper editor whom he felt would help move the issue forward.
Murray was precise to a fault. He read every Canadian Jewish Congress study, op-ed piece and commissioned report; there could be no period, comma or sentence out of place. Much to the consternation of professional staff, there were times when Murray insisted a piece be entirely re-written.
Despite the objections of staff, Murray's will won out. We were the better for it: The fact that the Ontario Conservatives brought forward a tax credit for faith-based schools is testimony to Murray's efforts.
He'll also be remembered for a wry, sardonic sense of humour. Meetings with politicians were often fraught with tension. However, a well-placed quip, followed by Murray's gap-tooth, Ernest Borgnine smile, would cut through that tension like a knife through butter.
Murray used to tell me that his anchor, the person with whom he shared his thoughts, goals and ideas, the person who grounded him, was his wife Marlene. Married for close to 39 years, Marlene and Murray had three children, Gerald, Ernest and Moshe whom they gave a sense of what it means to be humble, gracious and decent.
Judaism imposes upon the Jewish people the responsibility to work toward the perfection of the world Tikkun Olam. The Ethics of our Fathers tell us, "It is not your obligation to complete the task [of perfecting the world], but neither are you free to desist from doing all you can." Murray SEGAL did all he could.
Bernie M. FARBER is executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario region. Murray SEGAL was the first chair Bernie worked with in his career at Canadian Jewish Congress.

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FARCAS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-27 published
COONEY, Roger Peter Patrick
Died suddenly of a massive and final heart attack in the arms of Elizabeth, his devoted wife of thirty years. Roger resided in St. Andrews, New Brunswick for the past 10 years. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, he was the son of the late William and Veronica (FARCAS) COONEY. Predeceased by brothers, James and Bernard; sisters, Helen COONEY and Jeannette BARLOW. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (DICKSON/DIXON) COONEY; daughter, Kathleen sons, William and D'Arcy all at home; sister, Ruth CAVERLEY (William) of Don Mills; brothers, John COONEY (Brenda) of Markham, Gregory COONEY (Eva) of Oakville; nieces and nephews, John, Patricia, Theresa, Margot, Peter, Veronica, Marlene, Paul, Shannon, Erinn, Clifford, Karen, Steven and Renee; mother-in-law Peggy DICKSON/DIXON of St. Andrews; brother-in-law, James DICKSON/DIXON of St. Andrews. Resting at the St. Andrews Catholic Church, with visiting on Monday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9. The funeral will be held 12 noon on Tuesday from the church, with Reverend Bill BRENNAN officiating. Interment will take place at the St. Andrews Catholic Cemetery. For those who wish, donations to a charity of the donors choice would be appreciated. MacDonald Select Community Funeral Home, 20 Marks Street, St. Stephen, New Brunswick in care of arrangements. www.macdonaldfh.com

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FARMER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-03 published
Leafs trusted their doctor
Talented M.D. specialized in hand surgery. 'He had a unique technical approach. That's what made him different from other surgeons.'
By Carol COOPER Special to The Globe and Mail Saturday, May 3, 2003 - Page F10
Nothing about Jim MURRAY's hands indicated that he was a surgeon. Large and gnarled with undulating fingernails, those hands played bagpipes, patched up Toronto Maple Leafs and Team Canada players and restored form and function to other hands.
Dr. MURRAY, a plastic surgeon who was the first Canadian doctor to devote his practice to hand surgery, died last month at the age of 82.
"His hands looked more like those of a prize fighter than a surgeon. His fingers were bent, "said Robert McFARLANE, a retired plastic surgeon with a special interest in hands and a close friend of Dr. MURRAY. "It didn't seem to make a difference. He had tremendous skill."
In 1983, Dr. MURRAY brought together plastic and orthopedic surgeons to form a hand unit at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, the city's first. "His concept was to pull together the expertise of different surgeons, "said Paul BINHAMMER, once a student of Dr. MURRAY and now a plastic surgeon at the hospital, now part of the Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. MURRAY assembled a highly skilled team. Among them were orthopedic surgeon Robert McMURTRY, who went on to become dean of medicine at the University of Western Ontario, and plastic surgeon and nerve expert Susan MacKINNON, who is now a professor in the United States.
But before rising to prominence in the field of hand surgery, Dr. MURRAY gained fame in hockey circles. Serving as one of the Toronto Maple Leafs team doctors from 1948 to 1964, he was greatly trusted by players. When cut during games on the road, they left their wounds unstitched until he could tend to them at home.
"He'd come at you with those fingers and they were just so big, you'd wonder how he was ever able to stitch as neat as he did," said former Leaf defenceman Bobby BAUN, who played professional hockey for 17 years.
Mr. BAUN estimates that Dr. MURRAY put in half of his 143 career stitches.
Under instructions from Leaf owner Conn SMYTHE, injured players were not to be rushed back into the lineup, according to Hugh SMYTHE, another Leaf doctor and Mr. SMYTHE's son. "This was a heavy and not always popular role, "he said.
During the 1964 Stanley Cup finals, it became especially challenging.
Entering Game 6, the Detroit Red Wings led the series against the Leafs 3-2. Playing in Detroit on April 23, with the scored tied at 3-3 in the third period, Mr. BAUN first was hit on his right leg by a slapshot from Gordie HOWE and then, after a faceoff, spun on the leg, which gave way.
X-rays delayed at Mr. BAUN's insistence showed a small broken bone, just above the ankle. He spent six weeks in a cast.
But that came after the series ended. During its sixth game, Mr. BAUN was tended to by Dr. MURRAY and other team doctors. After being carried off the ice, he asked Dr. MURRAY if he could hurt his leg any more. The doctor replied no. "Having someone like Jim tell me that, I could believe him, "Mr. BAUN said.
With his leg taped and frozen, Mr. BAUN continued playing. Within the first two minutes of the first overtime period, he scored the winning goal and kept the Leafs in the series.
Mr. BAUN didn't miss a shift during Game 7, and neither did teammate Red KELLY, who had torn knee ligaments during the previous game. The Leafs won the seventh game 4-0 and the Stanley Cup, their third in a row and their fifth during Dr. MURRAY's time with the team.
That year, Dr. MURRAY resigned and 20 years later joked to The Toronto Star that it was he who had led them to the five Stanley Cups.
If he took the connection between his presence and the Leafs' wins lightly, Punch IMLACH, then the team's coach, did not. Mr. IMLACH had become convinced that Dr. MURRAY brought the team good luck, the doctor told the Star in a 1972 story.
The newspaper was interviewing Dr. MURRAY about his appointment as a doctor to Team Canada for the Canada-Russia hockey series. In the article headlined "Good luck charm for Team Canada, " he recalled how during the 1967 Stanley Cup playoffs, Mr. IMLACH invited him to a Leaf game in Chicago, believing that he would bring the team good luck.
"If it had been anybody else but Punch, I'd have dismissed it as a joke. But he really needed to win and he honestly believed my presence would make a difference, "Dr. MURRAY was quoted as saying.
The Leafs won not only that game, but, with Dr. MURRAY in attendance for the remainder of the series, the Stanley Cup. The Leafs haven't won a Stanley Cup since.
And the Star's headline proved prophetic. Team Canada won the Canada-Russia series when Paul HENDERSON scored with 34 seconds left in the eighth game.
Born in Toronto on May 14, 1920, James Findlay MURRAY was the youngest of three children. His father ran a store at Yonge and Queen Streets in downtown Toronto and died before the birth of his third child.
Dr. MURRAY attributed his curvy fingernails to his mother's malnutrition when she was pregnant with him, said his youngest son Hugh. Within a few years, she had remarried, and his stepfather helped to raise him.
An avid athlete, Dr. MURRAY played football during his high school and university days, so much so that once, when forbidden by his mother to play for his high-school team because he had had pneumonia, he practised and played in secret.
That lasted until his picture appeared in the Star running for a touchdown. He was immediately placed on the disabled list.
Awarded the George Biggs trophy for sportsmanship, leadership and scholarship, Dr. MURRAY graduated from medical school in 1943 and spent two years in the Royal Canadian Medical Corps, finishing as a captain.
After a year of general practice in Belleville, Ontario, he trained in plastic surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto with A. W. FARMER, whom many consider to be the father of Canadian hand surgery.
A humble man, who drove less-than-fancy cars, Dr. MURRAY was known for his ability to relate to everyone. "He was a doctor and an esteemed member of society, but it didn't matter to him," Hugh MURRAY said. "He considered himself an everyday person. He was as comfortable, if not more comfortable, dealing with just working guys."
In 1953, Dr. MURRAY joined the Toronto East General and Orthopedic Hospital as head of plastic surgery and organized a specialized hand clinic, according to Bernd NEU, another former student of Dr. MURRAY and now a plastic surgeon at North York General Hospital.
"It's because the hand is such an important part of the body, not just physically, but aesthetically, "Dr. MURRAY, a specialist in soft tissue and the reconstruction of flexor tendons, said in 1984 to explain the dedication of hand surgeons.
In 1983, Dr. MURRAY left Toronto East General, where he had been surgeon-in-chief since 1976, to head the hand unit at Sunnybrook Medical Centre, taking a cut in pay to do so.
At the time, plastic surgeons could earn $2,000 for a face-lift and $106.50 for a carpal-tunnel release.
Dr. MURRAY derived great satisfaction from the help his hands gave others. Once in a clinic at Toronto East General, he and Dr. NEU came upon a patient with only a thumb and little finger on one hand.
"This is a wonderful hand, "he told Dr. NEU. " Look at how dirty and callused it is."
After several surgeries, Dr. MURRAY had restored the worker's hand to the point where the man could use it once again to earn a living.
"What to other people would look like a devastating loss, to Dr. MURRAY and the patient, this was a hand to be proud of, Dr. NEU said.
As a hand consultant beginning in 1974 at the Downsview Rehabilitation Centre of the Workers' Compensation Board, Dr. MURRAY treated those injured in industrial accidents, often surmounting language barriers to do so.
"He could speak to them [the patients] in basic English, so they could understand how seriously he took their problems, and how everything was being done that could be done for them, "Dr. NEU said.
In a 1996 letter to Dr. MURRAY, another of his former residents recalled how once on rounds, the doctor lifted the sheets to examine a paraplegic patient, only to find the man soiled. Instead of calling for hospital staff to clean the man, Dr. MURRAY performed the task himself.
"That little lesson reminded me that being a doctor is not just being a cutter, "the physician wrote.
Not only did he have a natural way with people, Dr. MURRAY was a gifted surgeon.
"He was a talented person with original ways of doing things," Dr. McFARLANE said. "He had a unique technical approach. That's what made him different from other surgeons."
Appointed a lecturer at the University of Toronto in 1953, Dr. MURRAY was first an assistant and associate professor, becoming a full professor in 1979. He developed the first hand surgery fellowship training program in Canada in 1981, Dr. NEU said.
As well as teaching at the university, Dr. MURRAY trained surgeons during two trips to Southeast Asia as a volunteer with Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere, Inc. Medico and led a group of hand surgeons to study techniques in micro-surgery in China during the late 1970s.
At the medical meetings Dr. MURRAY often attended, he impressed Dr. McFARLANE with his ability to discuss surgery. "He had a very common-sense approach to a surgical problem, and when everyone had something to say about a problem, he would get up and clarify it very nicely, "Dr. McFARLANE said.
A founder of MANUS Canada, a society of hand surgeons, once a president of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Dr. MURRAY was honoured by the U.S. society at "Murray Day" in 1990 with tributes from past presidents.
Stricken with Alzheimer's disease toward the end of his life, Dr. MURRAY died in Collingwood, Ontario, on April 4. He leaves his wife of 57 years, Shirley, and his children, John, Bill, Claire and Hugh.

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FARMER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-07 published
Brockville man dies alone in hospital as severe acute respiratory syndrome keeps family out
By Martin MITTELSTAEDT Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - Page A8
As Thomas FARMER lay dying, the elderly and frail Brockville man made one phone call from hospital to his daughter, telling her that he was fading fast, was all alone and wanted his family at his side.
It was a phone call that will haunt his daughter, Aynne FARMER, forever.
She begged hospital staff on the night of April 27 to be allowed to see her father, but it was to no avail.
She was denied entry because of severe acute respiratory syndrome quarantine restrictions on family visits to the Brockville General Hospital.
Sometime that night, Mr. FARMER, who was 85 and suffered from a number of medical conditions, died.
After hospital staff discovered the death, Ms. FARMER was called and told she could view his body in his hospital bed, the first time in more than two weeks the family was able to see him.
Fighting back tears, Ms. FARMER said she has been unable to clear from her mind the haunting memories of her final words with her father as he begged for his family to be at his side and of her inability to persuade hospital staff to allow them entry into the hospital.
" 'I'm dying and I'm all alone.' That's what he said. He said: 'You have to come.' "
Ms. FARMER said senior nursing staff refused both a request made over the telephone and one made that night outside the hospital doors to be given permission to enter the medical facility.
"Nothing is going to take away the pain from the last conversation with my father, " she said.
"This man was a wonderful man. He didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve to be denied his last wish."
A spokeswoman for the hospital, Karen MATTE, vice-president of patient care, said the institution is reviewing the case.
Under the protocol developed in Ontario to stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, visits at hospitals have been severely restricted, with entry allowed only to the immediate family of patients near death or for parents visiting their sick children.
There is confusion at the hospital over Mr. FARMER's status.
Ms. Matte said the FARMER family was supposed to be on a list of people who were allowed into the hospital on compassionate grounds based on the seriousness of their father's condition.
However, Ms. MATTE also said that nursing staff felt Mr. FARMER wasn't that sick because he was well enough to be able to use the telephone to call his family.
"They didn't feel he was that critical, Ms. MATTE said of the nursing staff.
Mr. FARMER had a long list of medical conditions, according to his family, including severe aortic stenosis and pneumonia.
Mr. FARMER's son, Robert FARMER, said that the hospital bungled the request to visit through a process he is calling "complete bureaucratic stupidity."
The family had been told repeatedly from April 17 to April 24 that they couldn't visit their father in hospital because he wasn't included on the list of critically ill patients.

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FARMER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-23 published
WIESMAN, Brahm
Died peacefully and with dignity July 20, 2003. He leaves his wife Madge, brother-in-law Alan BERNSTEIN of Montreal, nephew Robert and his wife Judy of Ottawa, niece Janet MENDELSON and her husband Stephen and their family of Nepean, Ontario, nephew Mark MADRAS and his wife Eva of Toronto, niece Karen MADRAS- STOPA and her husband Ed and family of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, brother-in-law David McCULLOCH and his wife Janet of Glasgow, Scotland, brother-in-law George McCULLOCH and his wife Ina and family of Glasgow, niece Helen FARMER and her husband Stewart and family of Glasgow, and nephew Gordon McCULLOCK and his wife Linda and family of Glossop, England. Born on June 13, 1926, Brahm lived his rich life with the greatest consideration and care for others. He studied architecture and community planning at McGill University in preparation for what was to become a distinguished career in the field of city planning. After taking on senior management positions in the Cities of Edmonton, Victoria, and Vancouver, he was asked to join the faculty of University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning in 1967. He went on to serve as Director of the School for 12 years. In that position, he was much loved as a colleague and teacher, and provided internationally admired leadership to the planning profession. In retirement, Brahm continued to actively promote good planning by advising universities in Asia on planning curricula, consulting to cities in China, and speaking out forcefully as a citizen on Vancouver area issues. A service will be held, 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 23, at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster, 2345 Marine Drive. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to ''Prostate Cancer Research at Vancouver General Hospital'', Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Columbia Hospitals Foundation, 855 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, V5Z 1M9.

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FARNON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-12 published
Moms always liked him best
The Happy Gang's popular lead singer had a good reason for saying hello to his mom whenever the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio classic was on air
By James McCREADY Special to The Globe and Mail Saturday, July 12, 2003 - Page F10
The double knock on the door occurred every afternoon at 1.
"Who's there?"
"It's the Happy Gang."
"Well, come on in!"
Then Eddie ALLEN, Bert PEARL, Bobby GIMBY and the rest of the cast of Canada's most popular radio program would break into "Keep happy with the Happy Gang."
Mr. ALLAN, the show's main singer, accordion player and sometimes emcee, died last week, leaving Robert FARNON as the gang's sole surviving member.
Every day as many as two million Canadians tuned in The Happy Gang, which led the national ratings for most of its run on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1937 to 1959. Until television came along in 1952, Mr. ALLEN and his cast mates were among the most famous people in the country.
The show was the creation of Mr. PEARL, who'd come to Toronto from Winnipeg (his real name was Bert SHAPIRA) to study medicine. To pay for his education, he started playing piano on radio with a band that included violinist Blain MATHE, organist Kay STOKES and Mr. FARNON, a trumpet player who would go on to be the most successful of them all.
The band morphed into the Happy Gang and Mr. PEARL was the driving force behind it. Eddie ALLEN was hired as the fifth member of the troupe and stayed with the program until it went off the air.
He was born Edward George ALLEN on December 24, 1920, in Toronto, and came from a family of musicians. His father, Bill ALLEN, played the trombone and was in a military band in France during the First World War. When Eddie was 10, his father asked him what instrument he wanted to play. The boy thought about it for a while and made up his mind after seeing a huge piano accordion in a music-store window.
"It was bigger than I was," Mr. ALLEN remembered, "but dad bought it anyway."
In a couple of years, he was entertaining at small events with his accordion, making $5 or $10 a week. Better than a paper route. He also won some local singing contests. When he was 17, he started singing and playing three nights a week on a radio program called The Serenader. Bert PEARL heard it and called him in.
"I auditioned him with Bert PEARL, and we liked him right away," Mr. FARNON says from his home on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. "He looked about 12 years old and could barely see over the top of his accordion. He was terribly shy, no self-confidence like the rest of us. He was very popular with the ladies, a very good-looking little chap."
What impressed most was his voice. "There really wasn't a singer in the Happy Gang until he came along. I really liked his voice."
Mr. FARNON remembers an incident from a Happy Gang rehearsal. "Eddie was about to sing a song called, I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen, and I came up behind him and said, 'If you bring the gasoline.' He laughed so much he couldn't sing it when we went on the air."
The Happy Gang was old Canada, when the country was more rural and white skinned. It is impossible to imagine the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation mounting something so corny and wholesome. How corny was it? The host, Mr. PEARL, was known as "that slap-happy chappy, the Happy Gang's own pappy."
He also knew that sentiment sold. Mr. ALLEN would sing The Lord's Prayer on the program, two or three times a year, such as Good Friday, and during the war he sang it as an inspiration for mothers and their boys overseas.
By that time, the show's "appeal was enormous," wrote Ross MacLEAN, the late Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer and media critic who began listening as a child. "During the war years... its influence on the nation was profound. Its almost daily performance of There'll Always Be An England helped maintain home-front resolve and stirred at least this school kid into a frenzy of tinfoil collection, war certificate sales and the knitting of various items for the navy."
Among the cast, Mr. ALLEN was the kid. He was slight, about 5-foot-6, and looked as though he were too young to shave. A newspaper reported that while he was on his honeymoon in 1942, a hotel clerk in Hamilton didn't believe he was old enough to be married and refused to rent him a room. Even some of his fans were quoted by writer Trent FRAYNE as saying, "Oh my goodness, don't tell me that little boy's married."
On air, he always sang old-fashioned ballads. "Every mother would love the stuff he sang," said Lyman POTTS, a retired broadcaster who crossed paths with some of the gang. He recalled that one of the songs Mr. ALLEN performed on a Happy Gang recording was I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch. It was popular on the program, maybe because it was the perfect example of the Happy Gang's sort of cornball humour.
Another example is the line Mr. ALLEN used almost every day in the early years of the program. Mr. PEARL had told him not to let fame go to his head -- "Don't ever get the idea that you're too big to say hello to your mother." So, for his first six years, Mr. ALLEN's opening words were "Hello mom."
During the war, they dropped the shtick for fear of hurting the feelings of mothers with sons in uniform. It sparked a letter-writing campaign. "Don't let Eddie stop saying 'Hello mom,' " Liberty Magazine reported in May, 1945. "He reminds me of my own boy overseas. I wonder if he could think of all of us mothers when he says hello."
Over the years, the show appeared 195 times, always live (tape had yet to come into use when it began), in the course of an annual 39-week season, most of the time with the same cast. Its time slot was moved when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation began running a 1 p.m. newscast, but the shift to 1: 15 EST didn't hurt the ratings. At first, it was produced in a studio on Davenport Road in Toronto and later in front of an audience of 700 to 800 on McGill Street near College and Yonge.
The program's mainstay was not talk or jokes but music, and the signature double knock on the door was an old-fashioned radio sound effect provided by Blain MATHE, who would move up to the mike and rap twice on the back of his violin.
Working together so closely did create some personality conflicts. There were practical jokes, usually aimed at the most uptight cast member: Mr. PEARL, a control freak who loved to plan the program in detail and had his own small office at the McGill Street studio.
One day, Mr. ALLEN and the other Happy Gang members set all the clocks forward by a few minutes. "We're late," they announced to Mr. PEARL, who raced into studio. After the opening, a couple of performers started to whine: "I don't want to do this."
Thinking they were actually on air, Mr. PEARL was shocked -- and didn't feel much better when he learned it was all a joke. It might have been one of the reasons he suffered a nervous breakdown (called "nervous exhaustion" for public consumption) and left the show in 1950 after 18 years and moved to the United States.
Eddie ALLEN took his place as emcee, but the incident rated an article in Maclean's by June CALLWOOD, the country's top magazine writer at the time, entitled: The Not So Happy Gang.
By then Mr. FARNON was long gone. During the war, he had joined the Canadian Army Show's band, and later led the Canadian band with the Allied Expeditionary Force, just as Glen MILLER led its U.S. ensemble. After the war he became a top arranger, working on Frank Sinatra albums and scores for such movies as Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck.
Sinatra, however, was a little too flash for Eddie ALLEN, who preferred Bing Crosby. He was a sharp dresser, but his style was understated, almost always a conservative suit and muted shirt in a business where the shirt easily could have been orange.
His love of clothes gave him something to do when he left show business. Eddie ALLEN owned a men's clothing store in the west end of Toronto after he left the program. He later retired and moved to London, Ontario

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FAROOQ o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-25 published
WYKES, Percy Herbert Arthur (B.A.; M.A. Balliol College, Oxford)
Died peacefully at the Lenadco Home, Napanee, on Thursday, October 23, 2003 in his 97th year. He will be sadly missed by Elizabeth (Betty), wife of 65 years; son Colin (Georgene), Nanoose Bay, British Columbia and daughters: Janet (Ghazi FAROOQ,) Nanoose Bay, British Columbia and Sally (Mike DOLLACK), Napanee, Ontario seven grandchildren: Heather, Mark, Navaid, Adeel, Bryan, Ian and Anne and five great-grand_sons: Jacob, Coleson, Braydon, Devon and Jackson. Percy had a long career in education which took him from MillHill (England), Ravenscourt (Winnipeg), Ridley College (St. Catharines), to the library at McMaster University (Hamilton). The cottage at Rock Lake, Algonquin Park, provided him with years of enjoyment. His many interests included reading, birdwatching, canoeing, gardening and Scottish Country Dancing. Percy will be best remembered as a true and generous gentleman, who had the amazing ability to recall historical facts and to quote ''The English Masters''.
''Sunset and evening Star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea...''
Alfred Lord Tennyson
At Percy's request, there will be no visitation; a private family service will be held at a later date. Donations to the charity of your choice would be appreciated by the family and can be made through the Wartman Funeral Home, 448 Camden Road at Newburgh Road, Napanee K7R 1G1, (613-354-3722).

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FAROUGH o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-13 published
KEITH, Jean Campbell
On September 12, 2003, in her 90th year, Jeannie, whose light brown hair had long since turned to silver, died after a third bout with cancer. She was a proud graduate ''with honour'' of University College, at the University of Toronto, in mathematics and sciences, in 1935, a time when these fields of study did not always welcome women. Employed in the actuarial department of Canada Life Insurance Company, she married Arthur George KEITH on May 1, 1940, after a long engagement, immediately before he went overseas with the Second Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Engineers. After his safe return and many years together in Port Credit and Toronto, Art and Jeannie retired to the Bowmanville area, where both were active in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Jeannie was predeceased by her brother, Howard, in 1994 and by Arthur in 1996. She will be tenderly remembered by her children and their partners: Maggie KEITH and Robert STACEY; Gordon KEITH and Shanna FAROUGH; and Louise WATSON and Don LOREE; and by her sisters-in-law Marian BEATTY of Saint Mary's, and Louisa KEITH of Toronto. Her family thanks the staff of the Altamont Nursing Home for their care and compassion and her Friends and minister at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and Wilmot Creek for the love and support that enabled Jeannie to live her last years with grace and dignity. Friends may call at the Northcutt Elliott Funeral Home, 53 Division Street North, Bowmanville, on Sunday, September 14 (2: 00-4:00 P.M. and 7:00-9:00 P.M.). The funeral will take place at the funeral home at 1: 00 P.M. on Monday, September 15, 2003, followed by tea at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 47 Temperance Street, Bowmanville. In place of flowers, the family would welcome donations to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Accessbility Fund or the Alzheimer's Society.

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FARQUHAR o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-06-11 published
Arthur Thomas H. BREATHAT
In loving memory of Arthur "Art" BREATHAT, a resident of Evansville, died at the Mindemoya Hospital on Thursday, June 5, 2003 at the age of 50 years.
He was born in Sudbury, son of Gerald BREATHAT and Pauline (CRANSTON) VANEVERY. He worked as a machine operator at the Lafarge Quarry, Meldrum Bay for the past 9 years. Art enjoyed hunting, fishing and a good game of cards.
Dearly loved husband of Marilyn (DAMPIER) BREATHAT of Evansville. Loving father of Cheryl Lee BREATHAT and Aaron PHILLIPS and Arthur James BREATHAT. Dear brother of Robbie and Judy BJORKLUND of Spring Bay, Bonnie and husband Dave PATTERSON of Hornepayne and Peggy FARQUHAR and Jim DAVIES of North Bay. Also survived by several nieces and nephews. Friends and relatives were received at the Culgin Funeral Home on Monday, June 9. There will be no funeral service and cremation will follow.

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FARQUHARSON 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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FARQUHARSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-30 published
witnesses: are silent as the slain weep
By Christie BLATCHFORD, Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - Page A1
Even on its face, what unfolded in two parts of the Beechwood Cemetery at noon yesterday is a gripping story.
There, in Section 7, the family of Godfrey "Junior" DUNBAR -- including his three astonishingly beautiful children, aged 12, 8 and 7 -- were holding a vigil for their lost son, brother and father at his grave. Mr. DUNBAR and Richard BROWN, respectively 27 and 29 years old, were gunned down precisely four years earlier at a North York nightclub jammed with upward of 800 people.
The case went cold and has stayed that way -- Toronto police offered a $50,000 reward yesterday as a last resort -- not because it isn't solvable, not for a lack of potential witnesses, but rather because none of those witnesses, including many Friends of the two men, is talking.
Among those who were at the Connections II club that night and who would not tell detectives what they saw was one Kirk SWEENEY.
And who was being buried yesterday in Section 17 of the cemetery, about 400 metres away from the vigil? None other than young Mr. SWEENEY, himself the victim of an execution-style killing just before Christmas at a downtown club called the G Spot.
There was a big crowd of mourners at the mound of fresh earth by his grave. Funerals for the young black men who form the city's largest single group of homicide victims are always well attended, as Mr. DUNBAR's terrific older sister, Trisha, noted yesterday. At her brother's, for instance, she remembered, people did what they could to console the family. "But money is not what we wanted," she said. "We wanted for one of them to come forward." It is the cruellest irony, she said, that her brother, who so "valued Friendship," should have been betrayed by those who were with him the night he died.
At the vigil, the crowd was tiny, composed only of relatives, media (invited because the DUNBARs are hoping renewed publicity will see someone belatedly speak up) and other black mothers who have lost sons to gun violence.
One of them was Yvonne BEASLEY. I'd been told her son had been killed, and after introducing myself, asked if the case had been solved. She looked at me as though I was mad. "Oh," she said, "they're all unsolved."
"What was your son's name?" I asked, apologizing for not remembering. "I don't blame you," she said. "There have been so many."
Her boy was Sydney HEMMANS. One day shy of his 19th birthday, in July, 2001, he was shot and killed in his old downtown neighbourhood. "Were there witnesses?" I asked Ms. BEASLEY. " There are always witnesses," she said. "That's why all us moms are here."
Another was Julia FARQUHARSON, whose 24-year-old son, Segun, was shot and killed on May 17, 2001, the victim of what began as an attempted robbery and ended in an utterly senseless murder.
Mr. FARQUHARSON was carrying his basketball at the time of his death, and, realizing the gravity of the situation he was in, had called his own cellphone's voicemail to secretly record the voices of the two men wanting to rob him. That two-minute call, played publicly by homicide detectives not long after Mr. FARQUHARSON's murder, is a terrifying mélange of Mr. FARQUHARSON clutching his basketball and pleading for his life, and one of his attackers shrieking, "Yo, let me fucking kill you, dude."
Police were hoping someone would recognize the voices on the tape, and call them. That was more than two years ago. They continue to wait, and despite a recent $50,000 reward, Mr. FARQUHARSON's slaying remains unsolved.
That is one of the other stories here -- that police, despite dogged work and the fact that so many of these killings take place in public places, cannot successfully close these cases without witnesses: willing to testify and that, on the rare occasion they are able to get a case to court, the witnesses: are by then demonstrably unreliable, having given several versions of what they saw before belatedly telling the truth.
All of this goes to undermine the administration of justice.
But the other, broader story is that because of the intimate connections that often exist among the slain and their killers and the mute witnesses: to their deaths -- and the fact that so much of the gun violence in Toronto is committed by young black men upon other young black men -- there is a growing cynicism, captured in an e-mail I got yesterday.
In Monday's paper, I'd written about the case of Adrian Roy BAPTISTE, a handsome 21-year-old who was shot five times, in broad daylight, last Saturday, just eight days after he was found not guilty by a properly constituted jury, and freed, in another shooting in Hamilton almost two years previous.
This is what the note said: "Let them all shoot each other. Leave the rest of us in peace. And let God sort it all out. Enough said."
I understand the weariness there, but strongly disagree.
The killing spree now going on in the city -- not the first one, merely the latest -- is not a problem confined to the lawless, and it ought not to be left to the black community to solve.
There are often perfectly innocent victims, and even those with lengthy criminal records die so young that they never get the proverbial second chance that ought to be a given in a civilized society.
Junior DUNBAR's mother, Jamela, bent low in the rain yesterday and whispered to her son's tombstone, "You had so many Friends. None of them came forward to speak on your behalf; no one has the decency. Where are your Friends now?" His older son, Marquel, left a little drawing of him and his dad holding hands.
The baby son, D'angelo, stood with his small face utterly stricken, his big sister, Deondra, keeping an arm around him.
Aside from a few reporters, the only white face at the vigil belonged to Gary BRENNAN, the detective who was one of the original investigators of Mr. DUNBAR's killing; he has moved to another squad now, but still was good enough to show up.
It's rarely the cops who have to be motivated to give a damn. It's the rest of us.

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FARR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-12 published
James Alexander GIBSON
By David FARR, Wednesday, November 12, 2003 - Page A30
Secretary to a prime minister, teacher, university builder, scholar. Born January 29, 1912, in Ottawa. Died October 23 in Ottawa, of natural causes, aged 91.
The sudden death of James Alexander GIBSON has taken from the scene a man who served a great prime minister during the crowning moments of his career. James GIBSON was the last survivor of the small group of men and women who toiled at the side of Mackenzie KING throughout the Second World War.
GIBSON joined KING's personal staff in 1938, seconded from the Department of External Affairs to Laurier House, KING's home and office. Prime Minister KING was also Secretary of State for External Affairs and GIBSON's job was to liaise with the department. The lonely prime minister, totally dedicated as he was to his office and to the place he was forging in Canadian history, revealed himself to be a severe taskmaster. GIBSON had been married only a few months after he started work at Laurier House but KING paid little attention to the family circumstances of his staff. His absorption in his work was almost total, even including nights, weekends and holidays.
GIBSON met these demands with an even temper and a willingness to subordinate his time to that of his master. It cannot have been an easy role but GIBSON rarely showed impatience. Shortly after he joined Laurier House, GIBSON was plunged into the mass of arrangements connected with the Canadian visit of King George Virgin Islands and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. Later, during the Second World War and after, he travelled with KING to conferences in Quebec City, San Francisco, London and Paris.
GIBSON was aided immensely, through an extraordinarily crowded life, by a phenomenal memory. He could tell you something about each of more than 50 trips, by sea and air, that he had made across the Atlantic. He could recall when he had read a book or met a person; when someone had held office, diplomatic or political or when someone had died. One of his most striking feats of memory, expressed casually, was to point out to the Parks Canada staff at Laurier House, when he revisited his old quarters after 30 years' absence, that they had moved many of KING's pictures! When he taught at Carleton University after leaving External Affairs in 1947, his fund of knowledge on Canada's constitution and politics amazed his students. His prodigious memory remained with him, clear and accurate, to the last.
Unfortunately James GIBSON never wrote the "big book" that was in him on his life with Mackenzie KING. He completed a number of short articles on war-time incidents in KING's time in office which revealed the prime minister's manner of dealing with matters of state. His recollections are also to be found in taped interviews. Sadly his conversations are no more for, in a city of notable raconteurs, he was superb.
His historical interests were mostly directed toward the office of governor-general, especially to those governors-general around the time of Confederation. His Oxford thesis was a study of Sir Edmund Head, whose wife painted the water colours that persuaded Queen Victoria to settle Canada's capital in a remote lumber village. His knowledge of the careers of our governors-general won him the Jules and Gabrielle Leger Fellowship in 1980, a fully merited honour.
Behind GIBSON's formidable knowledge and long experience dwelt a gentle soul, a kindly and considerate man who remembered families and occasions without fail. He was always a delight to be with, a companion who gave more than you were ever able to return. Vigorous to the end, his death leaves a sad emptiness in many lives.
David FARR is a friend of James GIBSON.

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FARREN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-26 published
CLOSE, Mary Mills Donald
Died peacefully, in her 95th year, in Markham, Ontario, on Sunday, March 23rd, 2003, the beloved wife of the late Edward Robinson CLOSE. She is greatly missed by her son Allan and his wife Sandra, her son Donald and his wife Clare, and daughter Johanna and her husband Bert SPENCER. She is survived and missed by her adoring grandchildren Erin and Grant SPENCER, Alexandrina CLOSE and her husband Ravo LAINEVOOL, Andrew CLOSE and his companion Kristina SMITH, Sarah WRIGHT, Nathalie GLEESON, Paula HUDSON; and her sister Alexandrina (Mrs. P. B. F. SMITH) of Halifax. Mary was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Alexander DONALD of Hamilton and Burlington, sister of the late Mrs. W. E. BOAKE (Ivadell,) the late Mrs. Paul FARREN (Jane,) and the late George E. DONALD. A family service will be conducted at the graveside, Woodland Cemetery, Hamilton, Ontario on March 28th, 2003 at 2: 30 p.m. As an expression of sympathy, donations to the Canadian charity of your choice would be appreciated by the family.

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