CIP o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-15 published
Howard HOAG
By Steven DENURE, Julia
WOODS, Michael
HOMER, Marty
SILVERSTONE
Friday, August 15, 2003 - Page A28
Friend, husband, father, rugby player. Born September 17, 1952,
in Ottawa. Died June 15, in Toronto, of cancer, aged 50.
Friends experienced a quintessential Howard
HOAG moment a few
years ago on the dock at a friend's cottage at a remote spot
in Georgian Bay. They had an old recurve bow and a quiver full
of new arrows, and were taking turns shooting at -- and missing
a floating target anchored far out in the bay. As was his
lifelong habit, Howard arrived much later than anticipated. He
stepped out of the boat with a nautical flourish, and, after
being roundly berated for being late and bringing what looked
to be only six (warm) beer, he picked up the bow and tested its
pull. Then he turned and fired an arrow and hit the previously
unthreatened target the first time, with a satisfying thunk,
like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. In the moment
of stunned silence that followed, he gave a withering Hoagian
look. "That's how it's done," he said, and picked up his six-pack
and his knapsack, which turned out to be full of wine, and headed
up the hill, leaving the merry band on the dock properly put
in its place.
His Friends spent so much time waiting for him that they dubbed
it "Howard time." The wait was always worth it. At every party
there was "before Howie" and "after Howie." With his arrival,
the conversation always sparkled a little more, the wine tasted
better, the room seemed to grow bigger -- plus there was his
unique ability to infuriate and/or entertain everybody in the
room.
Howard grew up in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, the youngest of four
children born to a production manager at the mighty
CIP paper
mill. As a child he was a Boy Scout, soloist in the church choir
and an avid canoeist. He would later tell stories about paddling
around the islands in the St. Lawrence River and watching the
foam from the mill make the paddles disappear.
His voice eventually changed and, when he got to Montreal's McGill
University, so did the songs. Howard studied environmental biology,
but his true passion was the game of rugby. In recent years,
Howard was best known as the heart and soul of the Toronto Scottish
Rugby Club, as well as a key organizer of its annual Robbie Burns
night. In Montreal, however, he's a legend: it was his monumental
gaffe (he loudly lambasted a group of football coaches while
the men in question sat in the next room listening to every word)
that led to the creation of the Howie Hoag Award. Since its inception
in 1971, "the Hoag" has been given out weekly during the MacDonald
College football season to the player who performs the most remarkable
misdeed of the week.
We are comforted to know that the last several years of Howard's
too-short life were the absolute best. At 48, the classic lad
and confirmed bachelor met the love of his life, the incomparable
Louise RICH, and her daughter, Odette
HUTCHINGS.
This perfect
trio -- whose adopted nickname was H.R.H. -- did not have anything
like the number of years they deserved together, but what they
did have was packed with enough love and laughter to fill many
longer lifetimes.
Tragically, last Christmas Eve, Howard, who'd battled cancer
as a child, learned that the radiation treatment that had saved
his life 42 years earlier had probably led to the growth of an
inoperable tumour in one of his bile ducts. In early June, Howard
was given only a few days to live, but survived long enough to
marry Louise and spend another week with his family and the Friends
he loved. He also lived long enough to die on the day and at
the hour of what used to be his absolutely favourite kind of
night: just after midnight on a midsummer's eve with a full moon,
which Howard used to say was "God's flashlight."
Steve,
Julia,
Mike and Marty are Friends of Howard
HOAG.
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