WAVERMAN 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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