SULLIVAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-08 published
Robert E. WHARTON
Peacefully at his home in Bermuda at 8: 25 a.m., Thursday March
6th 2003, at the age of 66, after a long and courageous battle
with cancer. Beloved husband of Gerardina ('Gert')
WHARTON for
44 years. Loving
son of Mary Elizabeth ('Lil') and the late Hugh
WHARTON
Sr.
Loving father of Richard and friend Janet
PARKIN
Sandra and husband Kevin
SULLIVAN;
Bridget and husband Scott
ROOS;
Robby and wife
Katy; and daughter-in-law Caroline. Dear
grandfather of Lara and Kendra; Thomas, Jack, Zoë and Ty; Tristin,
Nicholas and Jonathan. Survived by his brother Hugh and wife
Carmen; sister Mary
TULLIS and Don
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON; brother David and
wife Christi; and sister-in-law Betty
WHARTON.
Will be sadly
missed by his nieces and nephews and many good Friends. Special
thanks to Dr.
NELLIGAN,
Dr.
GULLANE and Dr.
O'SULLIVAN, for their
incredible efforts, support and kindness. Dr.
WARRICK and the
wonderful staff at Princess Margaret and Toronto General for
their support, dedication and kindness. A memorial will be held
at The Weston Golf Club on Tuesday March 25, 2003 at 4: 00 pm.
50 Saint Phillips Road, Etobicoke, Ontario ph# 416-241- 8538.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to 'The Wharton head
and Neck Centre' at Princess Margaret Hospital c/o The Princess
Margaret Hospital Foundation, 610 University Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, M5G 2M9, (416) 946-6560 We love you and will
all dearly miss you. Rest in Peace Dad.
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SULLIVAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-06 published
From fashion to furniture
Photographer gave up the fast life in Manhattan to open a shop
in the Ontario countryside
By James McCREADY
Special to The Globe and Mail Saturday, September
6, 2003 - Page F11
Malcolm BATTY was a top fashion photographer, taking pictures
of the likes of Christie Brinkley and Andie MacDowell for big
Manhattan department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue. But for
the past 15 years, he ran an art and furniture shop in the hamlet
of Mono Centre, living in a farmhouse in the countryside nearby.
At the peak of his photography career in the early 1980s, Mr.
BATTY, who has died at the age of 57, moved in a rarefied world
of high fashion and show business in New York City. Not bad for
a kid who had started his working life as a waiter in a coffee
shop in Toronto's Yorkville district in the early 1960s.
A man as handsome as his models were beautiful, he was always
cool, in an understated way. Even when he was in the furniture
business, he had a low-key style, bringing his finished pieces
into town in an old red Toyota Land Cruiser.
Mr. BATTY dropped out of photography, and the fast life in New
York City, in part because he came to find the world of fashion
so shallow. He moved back to Canada with his new wife, Jane
FELLOWES,
and started making furniture. The first pieces they sold were
birdhouses made from things such as orange crates.
They sold their high-end birdhouses at the Pack Rat, which at
the time was the only furniture shop along the strip of Yonge
Street in Rosedale, an area now jammed with fashionable stores.
"We decided our birdhouses were not going to be the common hardware-store
style," Mr.
BATTY told an interviewer in 1994. "They would have
themes: Muskoka lodges, Santa Fe roadhouses, Indian dhows, grain
elevators. Very odd stuff. We took them down to Pack Rat and,
lo and behold, they started to sell for $220 to $250 a piece."
Malcolm David
BATTY was born of British parents in India, on
November 29, 1945. His birthplace was Nasik, just outside Bombay
near where his mother was a military nurse. His father was a
riding instructor for the British army who left the family soon
after Malcolm's birth.
When the British left India in 1947, Malcolm and his mother returned
to England. He was brought up in Wales with his mother and grandparents.
He went to an experimental school, but was never a brilliant
student. He did learn one skill that came in handy in later life:
building dry stone walls. His grandfather taught him how and
he built a series of stone walls on his farm in Mono Township,
using rocks from the foundation of an old barn.
Mr. BATTY decided to come to Canada when he was about 16. He
had relatives in Brockville, Ontario, but soon made his way to
Toronto. While working in the Peddler coffee shop, he started
to paint. He had a studio above a sail-making shop on Front Street
and just about made a living selling his paintings. He was talented
enough, but he needed formal training. He received a grant to
study in Paris.
While there, a friend gave him a 35-mm camera and he stopped
painting, for a while anyway, and started taking pictures. He
came back to Toronto, was successful and then moved to New York
City. The full page ads in The New York Times were his specialty
superstar models and spreads for the big Manhattan stores.
"It was the painting that made him a great photographer," said
Alan VENABLES, a friend and the owner of the Pack Rat. "He was
a photographer with a painter's eye. Not too many of those."
Like someone trying to quit smoking, Mr.
BATTY tried to kick
the Manhattan habit more than once. His favourite escape was
in a camper van, travelling across the United States and ending
up in Mexico, usually the Baja Peninsula.
When he came back to Canada in the mid-1980s, it was with Jane
FELLOWES, a Canadian. They spent some time in Cyprus, where Mr.
BATTY's mother had retired. While there, they kept busy training
horses. Because his father had been a riding instructor, Mr.
BATTY wanted to see if he had the same talents. It turned out
that he had a natural touch with horses.
After their furniture business took off, Mr.
BATTY and Ms.
FELLOWES
wanted to find a shop where they could work and sell some of
the things they made. They found it in Mono Centre, almost an
hour north of the Toronto international airport. They opened
a shop called Tequila Cove, across the driveway from a restaurant
and pub, the Mono Cliffs Inn.
By this time, they made more than birdhouses and had expanded
to tables with hammered tin tops, stripped cedar furniture and
seagulls carved from old white fencing. What they didn't sell
in the shop was put in the back of the Land Cruiser and went
to Toronto.
Mr. BATTY took up photography again, working for a quarterly
magazine called In The Hills. A few years ago, he landed a big
assignment as the still photographer for a film Called Spirit
of Havana, a National Film Board Production. It was one of many
trips to Cuba and he always took his cameras.
This started a collection of photography that is to be published
this fall. The book is called Cuba, Grace Under Pressure, with
the text by Toronto writer Rosemary
SULLIVAN.
There are 102 pictures,
with the theme being Cuban culture, the aging musicians, poets
and dancers of the revolutionary era. It talks about how ordinary
Cubans survive day to day.
Mr. BATTY had also started to paint again in the past few years.
And he loved music, in particular the blues. He owned a vintage
electric guitar, a 1967 Fender Telecaster. He leaves his wife,
Ms. FELLOWES, and his mother.
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SULLIVAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-30 published
Peter Gordon
CROMPTON
Son, brother, friend, athlete, businessman. Born December 5,
1975, in Toronto. Died July 13 as a result of a boating accident,
aged 27.
By Josh DOLAN, Bryce
GIBSON, Blake
HUTCHESON, Adam
LAZIER, Rob
MAGWOOD,
Ian
SULLIVAN
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - Page A24
In the words of Pete's father Ken, "Pete did not live only 27
years. He lived 9,946 days and every one to the fullest!" Somehow
this number is both more palatable and more appropriate when
speaking of Pete's life.
Pete was born at Toronto General Hospital, weighing in at a larger-than-life
11 pounds, 10 ounces. From that day forward, "larger-than-life"
was an apt description -- physically and otherwise. Pete grew
up, along with brother Jeff, in a household that loved competition,
outdoor activity, a good challenge, the odd healthy debate and,
most of all, each other. The family went back and forth from
Toronto to Collingwood, Ontario, to enjoy the best of both areas,
depending on the season and the opportunity. His parents, Ken
and Judy, loved watching their sons excel and gave them every
opportunity to do so.
Pete was on skis at the age of 3 at Osler Bluff Ski Club, had
a golf club in his hand by 5, and was windsurfing by 6. He took
all three sports to incredible heights. He enjoyed and excelled
at so much in life, yet did not seem to need or seek recognition.
His low-key manner and his quiet confidence kept everyone at
ease and drew people to him.
In skiing, Pete was a member of the Ontario Ski Team, competing
nationally and internationally in the NorAm Race Series, the
U.S.A. Junior Championships and the World University Games. He
won several championships and had a natural gift on snow. He
also became a scratch golfer and loved to take on Friends and
family.
Perhaps his greatest passion, however, was windsurfing. He found
every excuse he could to hit the surf on Georgian Bay, but his
sense of adventure took him to beaches all over the world, including
the southwest coast of Australia, Maui, the Colombian River Gorge
in Oregon and Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. In the words of
one of his lifelong Friends, "Pete loved life and life loved
him right back!"
Pete was a generous, loyal and reliable friend who developed
strong and lasting relationships at every phase of life: his
youthful years of sports, competition and family; his fun and
challenges at the National Ski Academy; his university years
at Laurentian University and the University of Guelph (B.A. in
Economics); his career launch at Nesbitt Burns; and his last
several years at C.B. Richard Ellis where he was in commercial
real-estate investment sales. At every turn he met with success
with his long graceful stride and disarming smile.
It was going to be fun just to sit back and watch him perform
in the decades ahead.
Looking through the family photo albums Pete had a mischievous
smile and a sense of adventure in every picture. In virtually
every snapshot either something spectacular had just happened,
or it was about to happen. He was always surrounded by Friends
and family as his easygoing style and sense of fun were infectious.
His determination to improve and grow were never overt but always
present. The results speak for themselves. As one good friend
suggested: "Men wanted to be like Pete. Women wanted to be with
him." More than 1,500 people attended his funeral.
Pete was quite simply a great human being who would have continued
to win in his unpretentious manner and contribute on a kind-spirited
and decent level to any situation. We are among his many Friends
who have been brought together because of this fine person and
who have had the good fortune of sharing a small piece of Pete's
life -- all 9,946 days of it.
Josh, Bryce, Blake, Adam, Rob and Ian are Friends of Pete's.
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