McMICHAEL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-20 published
McMICHAEL,
Robert
Alliston, C.M., O.Ont., D.Litt., LL.D July
27, 1921 - November 18, 2003
Bob passed away at Headwaters Health Care Centre, Orangeville
on Tuesday, November 18, 2003, with Signe, his friend, partner
and wife of 54 years, at his side. Even in his teens while at
Humberside Collegiate, Bob was an entrepreneur, for he founded
and edited Canadian High News, which was widely read by students
in the high schools in the Toronto area. After serving in the
Royal Canadian Navy during World War 2, Bob opened a studio on
Avenue Road in Toronto, specializing in wedding photographs.
In 1949 he met and married his beloved Signe and shortly thereafter
they became interested in the work of The Group of Seven. Bob
was commuting between Toronto and New York while running a successful
business called Travelpak, but nonetheless found time together
with Signe to begin building their log home at Kleinburg which
they named Tapawingo, meaning House of Joy in the language of
the Woodland Indians. As their early interest in The Group of
Seven expanded into an increasingly sizeable collection of their
works, their home was expanded to add additional galleries and
the public was invited to share with them the treasure trove
they had created. Ultimately, they gave their home and their
collection, which by then included Canadian Indian and Inuit
art, to the people of Ontario. Bob died full of honours, shared
in part with Signe and bestowed on them in recognition of their
contribution to the cultural life of Ontario and Canada. He was
a member of the Orders of Canada and Ontario, a Fellow of the
Ontario College of Art, a Doctor of Letters of Glendon College,
York University and a Doctor of Laws of the University of Waterloo.
He now goes to join his Friends from The Group of Seven who chose
as their final resting place the grounds of Tapawingo. Bob lived
the tenets expressed in this quotation attributed to an 18th
century Quaker: ''I shall pass through this world but once. Any
good thing therefor that I can do or any kindness that I can
show to any human being let me do it now, let me not defer it
or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.'' The family
will receive Friends at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection,
Islington Avenue, Kleinburg on Saturday afternoon between 2 o'clock
and 4 o'clock and Sunday afternoon between 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock.
A service in celebration of Bob's life will be held at the gallery
on Monday morning, November 24 at 11 o'clock. Following the service,
interment will take place on the gallery grounds among his Friends
from The Group of Seven. In addition to his wife Signe, he leaves
his brother Don and his wife Sophie. In lieu of flowers, Bob
would have appreciated donations to either the Hospital for Sick
Children Foundation, 555 University Avenue, Toronto M5G 1X8 or
the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Islington Avenue, Kleinburg
L0J 1C0. Arrangements by Egan Funeral Home, Bolton (905-857-2213).
Condolences for the family may be offered at www.eganfuneralhome.com
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McMICHAEL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-20 published
A cherished gift despite the follies
By John Bentley
MAYS,
Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday,
November 20, 2003 - Page R1
Robert McMICHAEL's reputation was never better than it was when
I first met him, around 1980. In the eyes of many people, especially
outside the official art world, he was the little guy from Toronto
who made good and got rich and did something good with his money,
by creating the McMichael Canadian Collection of Art, in Kleinburg,
Ontario
He had amassed this important collection of much-loved Canadian
art and had selflessly given it to the people. If this kindly
gentleman wanted to play lord of the manor in the great log cabin
in Kleinburg, who could possibly object?
McMICHAEL was firmly
planted in popular imagination as a visionary, which he certainly
was not, and a down-home Canadian original, which, in his fashion,
he surely was.
Robert McMICHAEL, who died on Tuesday at age 82, came of age
in Toronto in the Depression, then graduated from high school
just in time for the Second World War. Stationed in Newfoundland,
he worked as a war photographer. "People have the idea that we
waited for the shells to fly," he told me in 1981. "I photographed
things like caskets and radar." After being mustered out in 1946,
McMICHAEL decided on a career in custom photography and opened
a shop in Toronto's Yorkville district.
McMICHAEL had his million-dollar idea when thinking up ways to
promote wedding photographs. Why not get manufacturers to donate
advertising samples, then hand out boxes full of these goodies
to brides-to-be as a promotional gimmick? This simple notion
produced Bridal Shower, the forerunner of New Mother Packs and
Travel Packs (something for employers to give to employees bound
for vacation as a way to say "take care of yourself, we want
you back").
By 1964, McMICHAEL was living in New York and marketing a million
packs a year and 20 million samples in all 50 states. He was
also getting weary of the twice-weekly commute between New York
and his homestead north of Toronto, just outside Kleinburg, which
he and wife Signe had established in the fifties, just after
they were married.
And there was the baby to think about. The McMichaels' "baby"
the word he used to describe it -- was, of course, their burgeoning
collection of Canadian art. There was never any question that
it was going to be a Canadian collection. "Inherently, we have
a pride in the nation. That sounds corny, but that's how we felt.
Between a Renoir and a Thomson, we'd take the Thomson."
The collection had been born in 1955, when the
McMICHAELs bought
a Lawren Harris oil landscape for $250. Soon thereafter, Robert
McMICHAEL was doing a drawing class at New York's Art Students
League, devouring what books on Canadian art were around in those
days, and buying art, often on the instalment plan, and almost
invariably of the woods-and-water Group of Seven kind.
But for the
McMICHAELs, the collection was a baby in a deeper
and sadder sense. A year after they were married, the couple
found that they would never be able to have children. But there
were these artworks for them to nurture and protect. "We thought
of each new acquisition as a child, especially the early ones,"
McMICHAEL once told me.
The collection did not grow all by itself, however. Friends told
marvellous stories -- all flatly denied by the principal figure
about Robert
McMICHAEL visiting the deathbeds of Group of
Seven collectors and quietly, persistently, convincing them to
make their last earthly act a tax-deductible bequest.
If such stories were not true, given the man's accomplishment,
they were certainly believable. Assembled by whatever combination
of cajoling and purchasing, the McMichael Canadian Collection
is today, after the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery
of Ontario, our most impressive gathering of 20th-century Canadian
painting.
That said, it is far from the best. Anyone familiar with the
Canadian displays in the country's great museums will notice
at once the McMichael's scantiness of large paintings by well-known
artists. One sees much work, but not very much that is extraordinary,
or illustrative of long passages in a given artist's development.
But it's a massive, unique, unrepeatable, irreplaceable conglomeration
of popular Group of Seven artworks. The art is housed in a crazy-quilt
building that people cherish.
This affection for the McMichael Canadian Collection, I suspect,
will survive long after the founder's follies have been forgotten.
The latter were, unfortunately, many and famous. For much of
the last 25 years of his life, you could never be quite sure
what he would do next.
The first surprise came after
McMICHAEL gave his 3,500-square-foot
log house in Kleinburg, along with 235 Canadian artworks -- the
home and core collection of the McMichael Canadian Collection
to the people of Ontario in 1965. In return, Queen's Park
gave him a generous tax write-off and permission to go on living
in his log cabin. He somehow got it into his head the free ride
on the public tab was forever. Instead of graciously moving on
after a decent interval, he and his wife Signe stayed on in the
house, entertaining Friends among the public's paintings and
aboriginal artworks as though he still owned everything.
For more than a decade, nobody raised an objection. Then
McMICHAEL's
Conservative Party cronies in the Ontario government threw a
lavish farewell dinner, with tributes and gratitude galore. Instead
of taking the hint, loosening his grip on the gallery and surrendering
control to museum professionals -- which was clearly and wisely
wanted by the cultural bureaucrats at Queen's Park --
McMICHAEL
still didn't budge an inch. Even after the dangerous, dilapidated
physical condition of the building became public knowledge in
the early 1980s,
McMICHAEL continued to dismiss the fire experts
and art conservationists as pointy-headed meddlers. He was finally
ousted from the building in 1982, when the urgent $10.4-million
overhaul of the gallery was commenced. (The pain of transition
was eased by gifts of $400,000 cash and a $300,000 house from
Queen's Park.)
But being off the premises only seemed to whet
McMICHAEL's taste
for power. Over the next two decades, he continued to plot and
agitate for a comeback to personal control of the collection
he had given away. He was especially vociferous about the historical
scope of the central group of artworks, which curators wanted
to broaden to include contemporary painting, prints and sculpture.
Art-gathering had never been strictly confined to the Group of
Seven, even during the heyday of
McMICHAEL's control. But now
the founder decided it was high time to get back to a fiction
called "the original vision," and abandon the collecting of contemporary
art altogether.
Few believed it would happen. But in 2000 -- to the astonishment
of nobody who had watched
McMICHAEL operating over the years
he got his wish. The provincial Tories under Mike
HARRIS slammed
through a law that swept professional staff to the sidelines
of crucial gallery decision-making, and gave Robert
McMICHAEL
a permanent say in deciding gallery policy.
The next year, he announced his intention to rid the collection
of some 2,000 contemporary artworks he did not like. "or use
them as opposed to... simply being wasted, sitting in storage
year after year, decade after decade," he told a reporter. "I
don't think there's anything demeaning about that at all. They
belong in a certain type of atmosphere which is not the atmosphere
that exists in Kleinburg."
With McMICHAEL's death, the chance that the gallery will be stripped
of its contemporary works is much diminished. The McMichael Canadian
Collection will likely remain what it has long been, despite
its founder's misunderstandings and misgivings: both a shrine
to the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, and a testament
to the ongoing commitment of Canadian artists to portraying the
Canadian land -- a commitment that, despite many changes in style,
medium and strategy, remains strong in the present day.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-08-13 published
Howard Reginald
McCORRISTON
Died peacefully at Grand River Hospital, Kitchener-Waterloo Health
Centre on Monday, August 4, 2003 at the age of 77 years.
Beloved husband of 51 years to Lenna (née
LEWIS.)
Loving father of
Terry and Marg of Kitchener, Ross and Cheryl of Saint Agatha, Mark and
Willi of Kindersley, Sask., and Brian and Sue of Oak Ridges, ON.
Grandpa will be missed by his 12 grandchildren, Jason and Rachel,
Colin, Blair, Adam, Matthew, Ashley, Holly, Lorah, Kaitlinn, Melissa,
and Brittany. He will be remembered by his brothers and sisters, Roy
of South Porcupine, ON., Harvey of Saskatoon, Sask., Ann and Charles
HANCOCK of Humboldt, Sask., and Jim and Gretta of Saskatoon, Sask.
Brother-in-law Viola
McCORRISTON of Tisdale, Sask., and Dianne
McCORRISTON of Kitchener. Missed by Lenna's family, Ilene
McMILLAN,
Marvin and Nancy
LEWIS, Eldon and Mona
LEWIS, June
LEWIS, Liz
LEWIS,
and Carl and Lorene
LEWIS.
Predeceased by his parents, Reginald
(1932) and
Mildred (1998)
McCORRISTON, his brothers, John and Dave,
and brothers-in-law to Earl
LEWIS Jr., Harold
McMILLAN, Jim
LEWIS,
and Rene LEWIS. Survived by his aunts, Hazel and Irma and Uncle Dave
and many nieces and nephews.
The McCORRISTON family will receive Friends at the United Missionary
Church, Spring Bay, on Saturday, August 23, 2003 for Howards'
memorial from 1-3pm. The Funeral Services were held in Kitchener on
August 8, 2003. Visit www.obit411.com/1066 for Howards' memorial.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-10-08 published
Glenna Viola
LAROCQUE
In loving memory of Glenna Viola
LAROCQUE, who passed away peacefully at
St. Joseph's Health Centre, Sudbury on Friday, October 3, 2003 in her 80th year.
Predeceased by husband Graydon
WRIGHT (1969) and Gabriel
LAROCQUE (1991.)
Loved by children Dawn and Garry
KERR of Manitowaning, Jacqueline and
Arnold MacMILLAN of Val Caron, Patricia and Leon
SAINT_MARSEILLE of
Blezard Valley, Perry
WRIGHT of London, Leon and Sylvie
WRIGHT of Val
Caron and John
WRIGHT of London. Predeceased by daughter Vanessa
GAYLE.
Special grandmother of Shari (Ray)
LEVESQUE, Kelli
(Alton)
HOBBS, Corrine (Claude)
PELLATT, Allan (Holly)
MacMILLAN, Catharine
(Jeff) GIFFEN, Gregory (Nicole)
MacMILLAN, Steven (Janice)
SAINT_MARSEILLE,
Dean (Nicole)
SAINT_MARSEILLE,
Jodi
WRIGHT, Kristy
WRIGHT,
Andy WRIGHT, Jennifer
WRIGHT, Jason
WRIGHT, David
WRIGHT and Cyllna
WRIGHT.
Great grandmother of Jessica, Danielle, Nicholas, Allanah,
Brytne, Kristofer, Tyler, Sarah, Bradley, Vanessa, Colin, Mackenzie, Kendra, Kyle and Sally.
Remembered by brother Alvie (Ruth)
ELLIOT/ELLIOTT of Sisson Ridge, NB.
Memorial Service at 3: 00 pm Friday, October 10, 2003 at Knox United
Church,
Manitowaning.
Darlene
HARDY officiating. Burial of ashes in
Hilly Grove Cemetery. Island Funeral Home.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-29 published
MacRAE,
John
Ross
Died peacefully on April 26, 2003 at North York General Hospital
after a brief illness. He was 84. Ross was born in Winnipeg in
1918, and later moved to Regina when his father, D.B.
MacRAE,
became editor of the Regina Leader-Post. Ross was a musical prodigy,
learning the violin, trumpet and piano, and even during the Depression
as a teenager he earned money as a classical violin performer
and with a swing band he started. He worked as an announcer at
CKCK radio in Regina, then briefly in radio after moving to Toronto
before getting a job at the Cockfield-Brown advertising agency,
where he remained until his retirement in 1978. At Cockfield,
Ross was one of the pioneers in television advertising, and with
old friend Brian
HAWKINS, created the Expo 67 commercials that
became television works of art. When he retired he was a vice-president
and in charge of the agency's outstanding radio and television
unit. But active life didn't end then. For many years Ross played
violin with the semi-professional North York Symphony Orchestra,
and later with the East York Symphony (now part of Orchestra
Toronto), and with a string quartet. He was also an ardent golfer
right to the end of his life, and rarely missed the annual Maxville
Highland Games in Glengarry County, where his family's ancestors
first settled in Canada in the early 1800s. Above all, Ross had
a love of life and a sense of humour backed by an apparently
endless fund of stories that endeared him to everyone he met.
He will be greatly missed by his sons, Paul and Scott (Denise),
their mother Phyllis, daughter-in-law Sherry
BRYDSON, and grandchildren
David, Kevin, Sean, Gaye, Duncan, Cameron and Holly; by nephew
Bruce MacDOUGALL
(Lucy
WAVERMAN) and their children, Alexander,
Emma, Katie and Robyn; by the family of Ross's sister Isobel
LEES who, with sisters Margaret and Betty, predeceased him; by
the family of Eunice
McGILLIS,
Ross's second wife, who predeceased
him; by his good friend Mary
MacMILLAN and her family; and by
Ross's many Friends, former co-workers, and fellow golfers and
musicians. The family has only thanks and praise for the work
of the doctors, nurses and staff at North York General Hospital,
who cared for Ross during and after his abdominal surgery. A
memorial will be held in Toronto on Saturday, May 24, at 5 p.m.
at The Elmwood Terrace Room, fourth floor, 18 Elm Street. In
lieu of flowers, please send donations to Orchestra Toronto and/or
the North York General Hospital.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-17 published
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART,
Gerald▼
A.▼
Died peacefully of complications related to cancer on Thursday,
May 15, 2003 at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay, Ontario at
age 70. Husband and best friend of Nelia
MacMILLAN.
son of the
late Mabel
PEACHMAN and Horace
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART.
Brother▼ of Bernice
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART.
Father▼ of Christopher, Lisa
VEHRS and her husband Jason. Brother-in-law
of Kerr MacMILLAN, the late Jim
MacMILLAN and Joan
MacMILLAN.
Uncle▼ of Ann
MacMILLAN and Tyler
MacMILLAN, his wife
Jill▼ and
great-uncle of Lindsay. He was a longtime member of the MG Car
Club of Canada throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, a dedicated parent
and coach at Leaside Girls' Hockey in the 80s and 90s, and for
years an enthusiastic member of the executive committee at the
Sturgeon Point Golf Club. A memorial service will be held in
the chapel of the Morley Bedford Funeral Home, 159 Eglinton Avenue
West, Toronto (2 stop lights west of Yonge Street), Wednesday,
May 21, 2003, 4 p.m. If desired, please make a donation to a
favourite charity.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-20 published
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART,
Gerald▲
A.▲
Died peacefully of complications related to cancer on Thursday,
May 15, 2003 at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay, Ontario at
age 70. Husband and best friend of Nelia
MacMILLAN.
son of the
late Mabel
PEACHMAN and Horace
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART.
Brother▲ of Bernice
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART.
Father▲ of Christopher, Lisa
VEHRS and her husband Jason. Brother-in-law
of Kerr MacMILLAN, the late Jim
MacMILLAN and Joan
MacMILLAN.
Uncle▲ of Ann
MacMILLAN and Tyler
MacMILLAN, his wife
Jill▲ and
great-uncle of Lindsay. He was a longtime member of the MG Car
Club of Canada throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, a dedicated parent
and coach at Leaside Girls' Hockey in the 80s and 90s, and for
years an enthusiastic member of the executive committee at the
Sturgeon Point Golf Club. A memorial service will be held in
the chapel of the Morley Bedford Funeral Home, 159 Eglinton Avenue
West, Toronto (2 stop lights west of Yonge Street), Wednesday,
May 21, 2003, 4 p.m. If desired, please make a donation to a
favourite charity.
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McMILLAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-13 published
FLANAGAN,
Gerald
Joseph
Born March 15, 1925 in Montreal. Died November 11, 2003. Graduated
Loyola High School, Loyola College B.Sc., McGill University Civil
Engineering, Member of Professional Engineers Society. Beloved
son of James B.
FLANAGAN and Rachel
FLANAGAN (née
McMILLAN.)
Brother of Bernard and Catherine all deceased. A fine man with
a generous heart. A great dad and attentive grandfather who will
be sadly missed by the little ones. Well regarded in his professional
career in construction and engineering, working for Johns Manville,
St. Lawrence Systems and C.A.A. In his later years he devoted
his time and energy to his parish and many worthy causes including
Foster Parents Plan, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the
Weston Food Bank. He is survived by his children Jim, Margot,
Kevin and Bruce and his many grandchildren Michael, Marie-Claire,
Matthew, Malcolm, Maeve, Duncan, Isabel, Jacqueline, Madeleine,
Kate, James and Joseph. Peace be with you Dad. Family and Friends
will be received at the Ward Funeral Home, 2035 Weston Road,
416-241-4618 (north of Lawrence Ave.) Weston on Thursday, November
13 from 7-9 p.m. and
on Friday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral
Mass on Saturday, November 15, 2003 at 11: 30 a.m. at Saint John
the Evangelist Church, 49 George Street in Weston (416-241-0133).
Cremation to follow. In lieu of flowers please feel free to donate
to the above mentioned charitable organizations.
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McMINN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-11 published
COLLINS,
Betty (née Margaret Elizabeth
MacMINN)
Born in Truro, Nova Scotia on 26 November 1923, died at home
in Victoria on 7 March, 2003 after bravely fighting two strokes.
Beloved of husband Alan, son David (Jacquie), grand_son Nicholas,
brother George
MacMINN
(Louise,) sister Gene
McMORRIS (George,)
and predeceased by her grand_son, Alan. Betty will be greatly
missed by all who knew and loved her. The family would like to
thank Hospice P.R.T., her caregivers and the Home Care Service
of the Vancouver Island Health Authority for their professional
and abundant care. The funeral service will be held at St. Mathias
Church, corner of Richardson and Richmond, in Victoria, on Thursday,
13 March at 2 p.m.
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