PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-01-14 published
PEARSON
-In memory of Tim (January 11, 2001)
Three years have gone by
and still I wonder...
I think 'what if', 'if only'...
I believe
that the path you took
was not one you chose,
but one that was chosen for you.
This does not seem fair, or just or right,
but it is not my place to question.
It is my responsibility,
as your friend,
to move on,
to remember the good times,
and learn from the bad...
I miss you Tim,
in a thousand different ways...
but in my dreams I see you
and you are happy,
happy beyond my wildest dreams.
I cannot ask for more.
-Sue
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-01-14 published
PEARSON
-In memory of Tim.
We can't know
Why some things happen...
But we can know that love
And beautiful memories
Outlast the pain of grief.
And we can know
That there's a place
Inside the heart
Where love lives always...
And where nothing beautiful
Can ever be forgotten.
-Love Rick and Kathleen
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-01-14 published
PEARSON
-In memory of Tim, who passed away January 11, 2001.
If I've learned anything down through the years,
It's that nothing beautiful in this world is ever really lost.
Those we cherish will always live on in memory forever.
-Sadly missed, always loved, and never forgotten.
Annette
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-03-17 published
Harold CLARKE
In loving memory of Harold (Mick)
CLARKE of Espanola who passed away
at the Espanola General Hospital on Wednesday, March 10th, 2004 in his 84th year.
Harold was born and raised in Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island. Beloved
husband, for 57 years, of the late Patricia (née
FERGUSON)
predeceased by three days. Dear son of the late Tom and Mae (nee
PEARSON)
CLARKE.
Loving father of Haroldine (Mrs. Bill
AINSLIE) of
Espanola and Colleen
MORIN of Ottawa. Will be sadly missed by
grandchildren Paul and Kari
AINSLIE and Scott and Kevin
MORIN.
Very
dear brother of Lawrence (wife Marie) of Gore Bay and the late
Marvin, Frank, Jim and George Clarke. Harold will be remembered for
his kind and gentle spirit. He enjoyed his mill tour guide
experiences, travel and visits with Friends and relatives. Harold
was a member of the Masonic Lodge. The last couple of years have
been difficult for him but he faced everything with determination and
a joke or smile. The folks at Espanola Long Term Care, Espanola
General Hospital, Sudbury Hospitals, and Meadowbrook Village have all been extremely supportive.
A memorial service was held at the Boucier Funeral Home, Espanola for
Harold and Patricia on Saturday, March 13th with the Reverend Faye
STEVENS officiating. Interment of ashes in the Green Bay Cemetery, Manitoulin Island.
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-06-30 published
PEARSON,
Cecil
--In loving memory of a dear father, grandfather and great grandfather Cecil who passed away June 28, 1973.
"Your memory is our keepsake,
With which we'll never part,
God has you in his keeping,
We have you in our hearts."
Love, remembrance and wonderful memories. Mona and Bert and Families.
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-11-10 published
PEARSON
--In loving memory of a wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother who passed away November 9, 1977.
An inspiration to all family members.
She lived a life of integrity and honesty and really showed you the way to live and love.
Lovingly missed and never forgotten by Mona, Bert and families.
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PEARSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-11-17 published
PEARSON
--In loving memory of a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great grandmother Leona,
who passed away November 9, 1977.
An inspiration to all family members.
She lived a life of integrity and honesty and really showed you the way to live and love.
Lovingly missed and never forgotten by Mona, Bert and families.
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PEARSON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2004-03-20 published
Alexander Gardner
WATSON
'Everyone said we'd never win'
How an Royal Canadian Air Force medical officer took a sad-sack
squad of airmen and built a team that brought home Olympic hockey gold
By Tom HAWTHORN,
Special to The Globe and Mail Saturday, March 20, 2004 - Page F11
Victoria -- He was a hockey enthusiast who turned a makeshift
team into world beaters. In 1947, Sandy
WATSON was a Royal Canadian
Air Force medical officer with an amateur's passion for hockey,
but within a year he had put together a squad of airmen that
overcame great odds to win an Olympic gold medal.
Dr. WATSON's part in the story of how the Royal Canadian Air
Force triumphed at the Olympics began with the announcement that
Canadian hockey officials had decided to skip the 1948 Winter
Games. The news so upset the doctor, who died late last year
at his home in Ottawa, that he vowed to create a team from scratch.
"When I read the headline saying we -- this great hockey nation
would not be sending a team, I was offended," he said. "And
I thought maybe I could do something about it."
The International Olympic Committee had adopted tough new rules
defining an amateur athlete. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
felt the new standard eliminated most senior players from the competition.
With the entry deadline just 48 hours away, Dr.
WATSON decided
on what he would later describe as a whim to build a team from
among fellow Royal Canadian Air Force members. The squadron leader
won approval from hockey officials and superior officers in two
frantic days of lobbying. Canada would take part in the Olympic
tournament after all. Now all he needed were some players.
The Royal Canadian Air Force's postwar enrolment of 16,000 promised
a wealth of hidden hockey talent. Dr.
WATSON had managed a series
of exhibition hockey games in England in the months following
the defeat of Germany, pitting the air force against the army.
The games featured such National Hockey League players as left-winger
Roy CONACHER, a sniper for Royal Canadian Air Force teams during
the war. Such professionals were ineligible for the Olympic team,
of course, so Dr.
WATSON knew the calibre of players would not be very high.
About 200 airmen were dispatched to Ottawa for a training camp
in October, 1947. The volunteers were mostly a sad-sack lot,
a shock for Dr.
WATSON and coach Frank
BOUCHER, an Royal Canadian
Air Force sergeant. Some could barely skate.
The team made its public debut in an exhibition game played at
the Auditorium in Ottawa on December 14, 1947. The opponents
were McGill University's varsity team, deliberately chosen to
offer minimal resistance. The air-force brass was in attendance,
as were senior hockey officials and the governor-general, Earl
Alexander of Tunis. To Dr.
WATSON's horror, the McGill Redmen
scored an easy 7-0 victory.
The newspapers were highly critical of the Olympic team. An all-Royal
Canadian Air Force team seemed a folly. Senior officers in the
air force could not have been happy about such a poor squad wearing
the Royal Canadian Air Force roundel on their sweaters. They
were likely to be embarrassed on the world stage.
Reinforcements were needed, so Dr.
WATSON went hunting.
"We just put the thing together overnight, almost," he told the
Medical Post in 1988. "Our guys had played together as a team
for something less than three weeks before we left. The goaltender
I never even met until we reached Europe."
Dr. WATSON's first move was to scout an Ottawa Senior League
game. The New Edinburgh Burghs beat the Hull Volants 6-2, with
five goals produced by a forward line of Reg
SCHROETER, Ab
RENAUD
and Ted HIBBERD.
Dr.
WATSON invited the trio to join his squad,
also taking former flying officer Frank
DUNSTER and Pete
LEICHNITZ.
Other players parachuted onto the team were defenceman Andre
LAPPERIERE, a student at the University of Montreal; forwards
George MARA and Wally
HALDER from Toronto; and, goaltender Dick
BALL, also from Toronto.
The recruits joined Louis
LECOMPTE, Pat
GUZZO, Irving
TAILOR/TAYLOR,
Andy GILPIN, Roy
FORBES, Ross
KING, Orval (Red)
GRAVELLE and
Hubert BROOKS on a team called the Royal Canadian Air Force Flyers,
but whose military experience varied. While
HIBBERD and
LEICHNITZ
were civilians sworn into the Royal Canadian Air Force with the
rank of aircraftsman 1, Mr.
BROOKS, a flying officer, had been
a prisoner of war who escaped three times before joining Polish
partisans. He was awarded the Military Cross.
With the team preparing to embark for Europe, Dr.
WATSON faced
another crisis. Mr.
BALL, slated to be the starting goalie, failed
his physical with a lung infection. Facing another 48-hour deadline,
Dr. WATSON awoke Toronto bus driver Murray
DOWEY with a telephone
call at his home at 1 a.m. The practice goalie for the Toronto
Maple Leafs was willing to play, but would need a leave of absence
from his job. Dr.
WATSON convinced his boss, Allan
LAMPORT, a
future mayor of Toronto, in a phone call at 1: 30 a.m.
Mr. DOWEY was called back at 2 a.m. and told to report at Downsview
airport at 6 a.m. to catch an Royal Canadian Air Force plane
to Ottawa. The airport was fogged in that morning, so a sleepy
Mr. DOWEY caught a train to the capital.
His appearance did not immediately impress the team manager.
"Around noon a skinny, bedraggled kid, looking like something
dragged through a knot hole, arrived at my office," Dr.
WATSON
once told the Ottawa Citizen. "We swore him in the Royal Canadian
Air Force, got him kitted up with a uniform and he looked even worse."
The Canadians were given poor reviews by the European press.
A tie and a one-goal victory over lightly regarded English teams
did not auger well for the Flyers.
The round-robin Olympic tournament was held in an outdoor rink
at St. Moritz, Switzerland. In the opening game, Sweden scored
against Mr.
DOWEY after just two minutes and 35 seconds of play.
But the Canadian goalie would be the team's star and a crowd
favourite with his innovative use of a catching glove. Canada
beat Sweden 3-1, before rolling over Britain (3-0), Poland (15-0),
Italy (21-1) and the United States (12-3).
A scoreless tie with Czechoslovakia was followed by a 12-0 drubbing
of Austria. The gold-medal game was played against the Swiss
hosts on February 8. Dodging snowballs thrown by local partisans,
the Flyers won 3-0 to claim an unlikely gold medal and a place
in Olympic lore. Canada finished with seven wins and one tie.
Mr. DOWEY allowed just five goals in eight games for a miserly 0.62 average.
Two days later, Mr.
BROOKS married his Danish sweetheart, Birthe
GRONTVED, in a ceremony at a small church in St. Moritz. Barbara
Ann SCOTT, the Canadian figure skater who also became an Olympic
champion at those same Games, was the maid of honour and Dr.
WATSON was best man.
The Flyers barnstormed Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Sweden,
England and Scotland while overseas. They completed the European
tour, including the Olympic matches, with a record of 31 wins, five losses, six ties.
"Nothing in my life gave me the same thrill (as) organizing that
trip and then actually winning it," Dr.
WATSON said.
While something told him that Canada had a chance, few at home
believed it when the team set out.
"Everyone said we'd never win," he told the Medical Post. The
headline in the Ottawa Citizen the day they left summed up the
opinion of the sporting press: "The Flyers, like the Arabs, are
folding their tents and silently stealing away."
Alexander Gardner
WATSON was born on March 28, 1918, at Cellardyke,
a fishing village on the north shore of Scotland's Firth of Forth.
As captain of a minesweeper, his father had trawled for mines
during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Long months spent fishing
the dangerous waters of the North Sea seemed unsuitable for the
father of a young family, so the
WATSONs moved to the Ontario
fishing village of Port Dover on Lake Erie when Sandy was a toddler.
A brilliant student, he spent a year studying at Queen's University
in Kingston, Ontario, before completing a medical degree at the
University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He won a scholarship to
Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor of surgery. He later studied
at Harvard and Columbia Universities in the United States.
An Royal Canadian Air Force wing commander during the war, Dr.
WATSON became in peacetime one of Canada's eminent ophthalmologists.
In 1967, he helped found the Sally Letson Foundation for post-graduate
training. He served as the foundation's executive director for 25 years.
He was chairman of the department at the University of Ottawa
medical school from 1968 to 1985. Dr.
WATSON was the driving
force behind the university's Eye Institute, which opened in 1992.
He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1988.
Among his patients were a Parliamentary Guide's worth of notables,
from governor-general Jeanne
SAUVÉ to New Democratic Party leader
T.C. (Tommy)
DOUGLAS/DOUGLASS. He treated prime ministers John
DIEFENBAKER,
Lester PEARSON, Pierre
TRUDEAU, Joe
CLARK and Brian
MULRONEY.
Dr. WATSON also became the eye specialist for the Montreal Canadiens,
a legacy of his desperate plea for assistance while putting together
the Royal Canadian Air Force team. The Canadiens contributed,
while Conn
SMYTHE of the Toronto Maple Leafs refused. (Major
SMYTHE was army, of course.) One young prospect examined by Dr.
WATSON was a gangly, teenaged goaltender who needed contact lenses.
Dr. WATSON reported the goalie's vision was good, and Ken
DRYDEN
would lead the Canadiens to six Stanley Cups.
Dr. WATSON, who retired in 1997, died at home in Ottawa of prostate
cancer on December 28. He leaves his wife, Patricia, sons John
and Alexander, and five grandchildren. He also leaves a sister,
Faye McVEAN. He was predeceased by a sister and a brother, who
drowned as a teenager.
His death came just 17 days after that of Mr.
BOUCHER, the coach,
who also died in Ottawa. They are survived by eight of 17 players.
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