"ASC" 2006 Obituary

ASCAH  ASCHWANDEN  ASCOTT 

ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-02-07 published
BRUNER, Llewellyn Gordon " Bud"
Of Thedford died peacefully surrounded by his family at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital after a courageous battle with cancer on Saturday, February 4, 2006 in his 81st year. Born in Kingsville in 1925, he is survived by his beloved wife Harriet (née WILSON) BRUNER. Loving father to Gary, John and Lori, Terry and Nadia BRUNER, and Holly and Rob SCOTT. Cherished grandfather of Christy, Ryan, Steven, Wayne, Ashley, Kelly, Ben, Sam, and great-grandfather to Tayah. Predeceased by parents Rosie and Glen and brother Edsel BRUNER of Kingsville. He will be sadly missed by sister Madeline and Ralph BUTLER, brothers and sisters-in-laws, many nieces, nephews, and Friends. His presence will be missed by his faithful friend Boots. Bud joined the Ontario Provincial Police in 1950 and was stationed in London, Forest, and Toronto General Headquarters. He had and exemplary career including Honorary Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governors, Honorable William Ross MacDONALD, Pauline M. McGIBBON and John B. AIRD. He retired from the Ontario Provincial Police in 1982 with the rank of Inspector. His engaging presence will be missed by those whose hearts he touched. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral service will be held at the Gilpin Funeral Chapel, Forest on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 at 1: 30 p.m. Internment at Arkona Cemetery with the Reverend Catharine ASCAH officiating. Memorial Donations to the Canadian Cancer Society or Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital Building Fund greatly acknowledged.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-04-24 published
COLMAN, Frances Pearl (née JOYES)
Peacefully with loving care at North Lambton Rest Home in Forest, Frances Pearl COLMAN (JOYES) in her 89th year went to be with God on Saturday, April 22, 2006. Waiting for her in Heaven is her beloved husband Roy COLMAN (April 12, 2005.) Loving mother of Audrey and Norm HARRIS, Greg and Joan COLMAN. Proud grandma of Jim and Brenda HARRIS, Wendy and Phil WARNER, Stacey and Chris FERGUSON, Rusty and Heather COLMAN and Marnee COLMAN and friend Mark WARNER. Loving great-grandmother of Zac, Cole and Tanner HARRIS, John and Darci WARNER, Carlie and Jesse FERGUSON, Shae, Emma and Sara COLMAN. Sister to Shirley and Jack SMITH and sister-in-law to Agnes JOYES, Joan FRASER, Hilda and Clyde WILLARD. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by her parents Ann and William JOYES, brother Len JOYES; in-laws Jack and Shirley COLMAN, Frank and Ann COLMAN, Harold and Dory COLMAN, Harry COLMAN, Gladys COLMAN and Don FRASER. Resting at the Ronn E. Dodge Funeral Home and Cremation Centre McFarlane Chapel, 9 James St. S., Forest where the funeral will be held on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 1: 00 p.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH. Visitation▼ Tuesday 11:00 a.m.-12:30. Donations to North Lambton Rest Home Auxiliary greatly appreciated. A memorial tree will be planted in memory of "Frances" by the Dodge family.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-06-19 published
RUSSELL, Darlene Ellen (née PIKE)
Peacefully at her home on Jericho Road on Saturday, June 17, 2006, Darlene Ellen (PIKE) RUSSELL in her 53rd year. Beloved wife of John Wayne and loving mother of Katherine and Martha. Predeceased by one daughter Nicole (1989). Cherished daughter of June (Riley) and Wilfred PIKE. Beloved sister of Christina and Ronald BROWNLEE, Steven and Mary PIKE, Stephanie GIBERSON- KIRBY and David KIRBY, and Brian and Lisa PIKE. Dear granddaughter of Agnes RILEY and daughter-in-law of Eleanor and Mac (1984.) Sister-in-law of Wendy and Walter JOHNSON, also survived by many nieces and nephews and great-nieces. Resting at the Gilpin Chapel, Thedford for visitation Monday 2-4 and 7-9. Funeral Service on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at Knox Presbyterian Church, Thedford at 1: 30 p.m. Rev. Catharine ASCAH officiating. Interment Pinehill Cemetery. Memorial donations to Saint Paul's Anglican Church greatly acknowledged.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-06-26 published
GILPIN, Irene▼ Winnifred (RICHARDSON)
Peacefully at the North Lambton Rest Home, Forest on Friday, June 23, 2006, Irene Winnifred (RICHARDSON,) formerly of Thedford and Port Franks. Beloved wife of the late Douglas GILPIN (2000) and loving mother of Ron of Grand Bend and the late Dianne (2003), Mac and Debbie of Forest, and Ken and Heather of Lenexa, Kansas. Cherished grandmother of Lisa (Rob), Robbie (Jen), Jamie, Michael, Paul, Mark, Laura, Warren (Laura), Jeff (Kylie) and Gregory (Renee), also seven great-grandchildren. Dear sister of Dorothy ALLEN of Burlington and sister-in-law of Marjolaine RICHARDSON of Mt. Hope. Predeceased by brothers Bruce and Frank RICHARDSON. Irene is resting at her former residence, Gilpin Chapel, 97 Victoria Street, Thedford, for visitation on Friday from 5-8 p.m. Funeral Service on Saturday, July 1 at 3: 30 p.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH officiating. Irene was a 60 year active member of Saint Paul's Anglican Church, Thedford. Interment, Pinehill Cemetery. As an expression of sympathy, donations may be made to the charity of choice. A tree will be planted in memory of Irene at the Rock Glen Conservation, Arkona Commemorative Woods by the Gilpin Family.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-07-08 published
GILPIN, Irene▲
The family of the late Irene GILPIN would like to formally extend our sincere appreciation for all the acts of kindness shown to us during the recent passing of our mother. Words are inadequate to express the comfort and strength that we have received from our dear Friends and neighbours. We thank those who have so freely given of your time, for your kind and caring words, visits, cards, delicious food, donations, flowers and plants. Warmest thanks to those at the Country Manor and North Lambton Rest Home who showed patience and compassion to our mother. Sincere thanks to Rev. Catherine ASCAH for her sympathetic service, to Betty for playing the organ and to Charles BOX and Bill HASKETT for the professional services rendered. To mother's dear Friends who visited her, you have eased her journey and made a difference. We will cherish our memories. Sincerely, The GILPIN Family

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-11-15 published
FOSTER, Mary Ella (née HAW)
Peacefully at North Lambton Rest Home, Forest, Mary Ella (HAW) FOSTER in her 94th year on November 14, 2006. Formerly of Errol and Aberarder. Beloved wife of the late Clayton FOSTER (1997) Ella was born August 19, 1913 in Hopeville, Ontario the 2nd of 11 children to the late Charles and Margaret HAW. Dear mother of John FOSTER of Errol R.R.#2 Camlachie and Joan (Bill) SHAY/SHEA of Forest. Predeceased by brothers Ken, Milford, Delbert, Arnold and Orland. She is survived by a brother Howard of Scarborough and sisters Evelyn ADLUM and Verna HAW of Mount Forest, LaVada REID of Ingersoll, and Mrs. Alice (John) STEWARD/STEWART/STUART of Toronto. Dearly loved grandmother of Stephen (Brianne) SHAY/SHEA of Forest, Kelly (Sean) HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON of Grass Lake, Michigan and Kimberly SHAY/SHEA of Grand Rapids Michigan, and very special Great-Grandmother of Dylan HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON. She will also be missed by several nieces and nephews. Resting at the Ronn E. Dodge Funeral Home McFarlane Chapel, 9 James St. S., Forest. Funeral Service Friday November 17, 2006 at 1: 00 p.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH. Visitation▲▼ Thursday evening 7-9 and 1 hour prior to service. Interment Beechwood Cemetery. Donations appreciated to Canadian Lung Association or Kidney Foundation or Charity of Choice. A memorial tree will be planted in memory of Mrs. FOSTER by The Dodge Family.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-11-16 published
WILSON, James▼ " Jim▼" Beatty▼
At Strathroy General Hospital on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, James▼ (Jim▼) Beatty▼ WILSON of R.R.#2, Thedford, Ontario., in his 88th year. Beloved husband of Wilhelmine (née SERCOMBE.) Father▼ of Robert (Dianne), Allan (Fran) and daughter-in-law Cathy. His son Larry predeceased 1995. Grandfather of Tracy (Rob), Tim (Kristyn), Christopher, Katie, Scott (Jessie) and Jeffrey. Great-grandchildren, Owen, Hayden and Lauryn. Predeceased by parents Reuben and Victoria (née GILL,) his brothers Carl, Lloyd, Ford, Ray and Albert (infant,) his sisters Evelyn (Mrs. Hubert AUGUSTINE) and Laura (infant.) Jim was a proud veteran of World War 2 serving with the Elgin Regiment in Europe, theatre of war. He was a 60 year member of Arkona Masonic Lodge #307, a 50 year Past Master and Past Grand Steward of Sarnia District and a life member of Minnewawa Chapter #78 Ram. He was a member of St. Stephen's Anglican Chapel, Arkona and a member of the Forest Legion. Jim was born on January 18, 1919, the youngest child of Reuben and Victoria. He was raised on their farm and continued to live there until 3 days prior to his dealth. He loved to farm until Alzheimer's robbed him of his ability to cope. Resting at Ronn E. Dodge Funeral Home, McFarlane Chapel, 9 James St. S. at Watt, Forest. Visitation Thursday evening 7-9 p.m. Friday 2: 30-4:30 and 7-9 p.m. A Masonic Lodge Service Thursday evening at 7 p.m. followed by a Legion walk through at 7: 15 p.m. Funeral Service on Saturday St. Stephen's Anglican Chapel, Arkona for a private family service at 11 a.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH. Interment Arkona Cemetery. Donations appreciated to Victorian Order of Nurses and Strathroy Middlesex Hospital. A memorial tree will be planted in memory of Jim by the Dodge family.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-11-17 published
WILSON, James▲ " Jim▲" Beatty▲
At Strathroy General Hospital on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, James▲ (Jim▲) Beatty▲ WILSON of R.R.#2, Thedford, Ontario., in his 88th year. Beloved husband of Wilhelmine (née SERCOMBE.) Father▲ of Robert (Dianne), Allan (Fran) and daughter-in-law Cathy. His son Larry predeceased 1995. Grandfather of Tracy (Rob), Tim (Kristyn), Christopher, Katie, Scott (Jessie) and Jeffrey. Great-grandchildren, Owen, Hayden and Lauryn. Predeceased by parents Reuben and Victoria (née GILL,) his brothers Carl, Lloyd, Ford, Ray and Albert (infant,) his sisters Evelyn (Mrs. Hubert AUGUSTINE) and Laura (infant.) Jim was a proud veteran of World War 2 serving with the Elgin Regiment in Europe, theatre of war. He was a 60 year member of Arkona Masonic Lodge #307, a 50 year Past Master and Past Grand Steward of Sarnia District and a life member of Minnewawa Chapter #78 Ram. He was a member of St. Stephen's Anglican Chapel, Arkona and a member of the Forest Legion. Jim was born on January 18, 1919, the youngest child of Reuben and Victoria. He was raised on their farm and continued to live there until 3 days prior to his dealth. He loved to farm until Alzheimer's robbed him of his ability to cope. Resting at Ronn E. Dodge Funeral Home, McFarlane Chapel, 9 James St. S. at Watt, Forest. Visitation Thursday evening 7-9 p.m. Friday 2: 30-4:30 and 7-9 p.m. A Masonic Lodge Service Friday evening at 7 p.m. Legion walk through Thursday at 7: 15 p.m. Funeral Service on Saturday St. Stephen's Anglican Chapel, Arkona for a private family service at 11 a.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH. Interment Arkona Cemetery. Donations appreciated to Victorian Order of Nurses and Strathroy Middlesex Hospital. A memorial tree will be planted in memory of Jim by the Dodge family.

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ASCAH o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-12-16 published
BELL, John Garfield
At his residence Petrolia Line (formerly of London), John Garfield, age 66 years. Father of Kim and Mike, Tanya BELL and Scott and Melinda BELL, all of London. Brother of Janet (Ernest Jr.) BUTT and Ruth (Larry) BUTT, all of Forest. Also surviving are 2 grandchildren. Predeceased by his parents Ray BELL and the late Vila McADAM. Resting at the Ronn E. Dodge Funeral Home McFarlane Chapel, 9 James St. S. at Watt, Forest. Funeral service Monday, December 18 at 2 p.m. with Rev. Catherine ASCAH. Visitation▲ Monday, December 18 commencing 1 hour prior to service. Interment Beechwood Cemetery. Donations to charity of choice would be appreciated. A tree will be planted in memory of John by the Dodge family.

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ASCHWANDEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-09-14 published
Love triangle suspected in double-slaying, suicide
Police theorize Swiss man may have found his girlfriend with German
By Timothy APPLEBY with reports from Omar EL AKKAD and Naomi BUCK, Page A13
Three European tourists found stabbed to death early Monday at an expensive downtown Toronto hotel were slain in a double murder-suicide, police confirmed yesterday, and likely perished in a deadly love triangle.
Killed were Swiss nationals Nadja WYRSCH, 24, and Andre ASCHWANDEN, 35, along with German-born Thomas KAUFMANN, 35, who also lived in Switzerland.
Police believe Mr. ASCHWANDEN killed Ms. WYRSCH, his girlfriend, and Mr. KAUFMANN and then turned his knife on himself.
Ms. WYRSCH was a biologist specializing in cytology, the study of cells, while Mr. ASCHWANDEN is believed to have been a salesman for a fuel-injection company. Both were residents of Lucerne, in central Switzerland, where German is the predominant language.
Ms. WYRSCH would have turned 25 yesterday.
Their friend, Mr. KAUFMANN, lived near Bern, the Swiss capital, where he worked at the University of Bern's veterinary clinic.
Together, the three flew to Toronto from Zurich on Sunday afternoon and were part of a tour group of about 24 people -- mostly Germans but also including some Swiss and French -- that was to tour Canada for three weeks, visiting several large cities.
Ms. WYRSCH and Mr. ASCHWANDEN knew Mr. KAUFMANN, police believe, which would explain why they agreed to share a room on the 19th floor of the Delta Chelsea on downtown Gerrard Street, Canada's largest hotel.
"We believe they all knew each other reasonably well," said Detective Dan NIELSEN of the Toronto homicide squad.
As well, each of them appeared to have a hearing disability.
"The information we have is that at least two of them were hearing impaired, and possibly all three," Det. NIELSEN said. "We're trying to verify that."
Ms. WYRSCH, who was on the board of LKH Switzerland, an association for the deaf, was killed by stab wounds to the chest and a slash to the neck, inflicted by a multibladed, Swiss army-type knife that was found in the blood-soaked hotel room.
The same weapon was used to kill Mr. KAUFMANN and Mr. ASCHWANDEN, both of whom died from stab wounds to the chest.
With no signs of forced entry to the room and no evidence of robbery, the working theory of investigators is that the violence stemmed from anger or jealousy.
Police believe Mr. ASCHWANDEN may have unexpectedly discovered his girlfriend and Mr. KAUFMANN in the room together and that he flew into a murderous rage.
Other guests on the 19th floor reported hearing loud arguing and the sound of running.
A hotel security guard making his rounds shortly before 4: 30 a.m. discovered Mr. KAUFMANN on the floor of the corridor near one of the elevators, reportedly clad only in a pair of boxer shorts, after apparently fleeing the murder scene. He was taken to nearby Saint Michael's Hospital, where he died shortly afterward.
A trail of blood led down the hallway to room 1908, where Ms. WYRSCH's body was found on the floor. That of Mr. ASCHWANDEN was lying on one of the beds. Police described the scene as horrific.
No other suspects are being sought and Det. NIELSEN said he expects the investigation to wrap up soon.
"We're still processing the [crime] scene and a few more witnesses, but we're getting pretty close."
The three visitors were on a tour organized through the company Jonview Canada, owned and operated by Transat A.T. Inc. of Montreal.
The double murder pushed Toronto's homicide total so far this year to 46.
A Swiss relative of Ms. WYRSCH, a farmer who said he had known her since childhood and described her as "a good person," said she knew several members of the tour group.
"She worked hard, she deserved the holiday. She didn't go on holiday often…. It was a normal group tour."

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ASCHWANDEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-09-14 published
Tourist deaths a double murder-suicide
Woman, friend stabbed by boyfriend, who then took own life: Autopsies
'It is my opinion they were all stabbed in the room and the one man fled'
By Tracy HUFFMAN, Crime▼ Reporter▼ with files from John DUNCANSON
Nadja WYRSCH had planned to celebrate her 25th birthday in Canada, travelling from Toronto to the West Coast with her boyfriend and a male friend.
But within hours of arriving Sunday on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland, WYRSCH was bleeding to death on the floor of her downtown hotel room with stab wounds to her chest and neck.
Down the hall on the 19th floor of the Delta Chelsea Hotel, her friend, Thomas KAUFMANN, 35, had collapsed outside the elevator, also suffering stab wounds to the chest.
And not far from WYRSCH was her boyfriend, 35-year-old Andre ASCHWANDEN, on the bed with self-inflicted stab wounds to the chest.
After autopsies, WYRSCH and KAUFMANN's deaths were declared homicides and ASCHWANDEN's death a suicide.
A hotel security worker found KAUFMANN, a mechanical engineer, at about 4: 30 a.m. Monday. The walls and carpet of the hallway were soaked with blood -- a trail leading to Room 1908, where police discovered the other two bodies.
"It is my opinion they were all stabbed in the room and the one man fled. We are still continuing with the crime scene," said Det. Sgt. Steve RYAN, the lead homicide investigator on the case. "We want to be sure there's no other weapon in the room."
Investigators are not looking for suspects. Police believe a knife found in the hotel room was used in all three slayings.
A police source said the murder weapon was a Swiss Army multi-tool with a 13-cm blade.
"This is a true tragedy. It is a bizarre case," RYAN said, adding that without an eyewitness, he had relied on several experts and language interpreters to draw conclusions about what happened.
RYAN said he now knows that WYRSCH and KAUFMANN knew each other and had some kind of a relationship. The officer said he is expecting to get more information about their relationship.
The evidence suggests the slayings were related to a love triangle.
WYRSCH and ASCHWANDEN had booked the three-week cross-Canada adventure with Jonview Canada, a tour company. At about $6,500 per person, the couple planned to take in such sites as Niagara Falls and the Rockies.
KAUFMANN -- who carried a German passport but lived near Bern, Switzerland -- was on the same flight from Zurich. He shared a room with the couple that first night and had planned to join the tour group.
All three had hearing impairments but none was deaf or used sign language.
In her native Switzerland, WYRSCH worked in a cytology lab, specializing in the study of cancer cells, and was on the executive committee of LKH Switzerland, which provides support to people with hearing impairments.
Little is known about WYRSCH's boyfriend, who, like her, lived near Lucerne; the couple did not live together.

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ASCHWANDEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-09-15 published
Tourist's father also committed suicide
Man killed 2 people, himself in hotel
Police say he was enraged about affair
By Tracy HUFFMAN, Crime▲ Reporter▲
The father of a Swiss resident who killed his girlfriend and a male friend before taking his own life in a downtown Toronto hotel this week also died of an apparent suicide.
A reporter with Radio 24 in Switzerland said he spoke with the man's neighbour last night, and the neighbour said the father died a few months ago.
Andre ASCHWANDEN, 35, came to Canada Sunday night with his girlfriend, Nadja WYRSCH, and Thomas KAUFMANN to travel across the country on a three-week vacation.
But according to police sources, ASCHWANDEN learned of an affair between his 24-year-old girlfriend and KAUFMANN, 35, and went into a rage.
KAUFMANN, a mechanical engineer, was stabbed in Room 1908 at the Delta Chelsea on Gerrard St. W., then stumbled down the hall, bleeding and bumping into the walls before collapsing outside the elevator.
WYRSCH, a scientist who studied diseases in cells, was found dead with stab wounds to her neck and chest on the floor inside the room that the trio was sharing. Her boyfriend died of self-inflicted stab wounds to the chest.
Police have seized the murder weapon, a Swiss Army multi-tool with a 13-centimetre blade.
According to his boss of 10 years, ASCHWANDEN was a "peace-loving" man.
ASCHWANDEN worked as a carpenter in Schattdorf, Switzerland, for Bissig, a kitchen and bath company, the Swiss media reported.
"This is unbelievable," his boss, Stefan Bissig, told Radio 24 in Zurich. "He was a good worker."
A hotel security worker found KAUFMANN bleeding to death outside the elevator at about 4: 30 a.m., just hours after the threesome had arrived from Zurich. WYRSCH and ASCHWANDEN had booked the trip through a tour company and KAUFMANN had planned to join in the adventure.
All three lived in Switzerland; the extent of their relationship with one another is not known.
Although Toronto police continue to examine forensic evidence in the case, Det. Sgt. Steve RYAN of the homicide squad said he is not looking for any suspects.

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ASCOTT o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-03-18 published
Tom HODGSON, Artist And Athlete: (1924-2006)
The last surviving member of the Painters Eleven group that introduced abstract art to Toronto was an anti-academic who favoured spontaneity over skill. He was also a champion canoeist
By John CHAPUT, Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S9
Tom HODGSON grew up on Toronto's Centre Island near Hanlon's Point, a locale named after the legendary 19th-century rower Ned HANLON, but chose canoeing as his water sport. That proved wise as he became a Canadian Olympian on the water and even symbolic in his lifelong occupation as an artist. Whereas a rower gazes back on the water he has spanned, the paddler always looks ahead.
Technically a master of representational fundamentals, Mr. HODGSON enjoyed a long career in advertising, could paint striking realistic portraits, and picked up extra money doing courtroom sketches. His quest as an artist, however, was to find new means to express creativity, even if it meant suppressing skill and rebelling against an establishment he regarded as stifling.
"He thought the most creative people were the young who weren't influenced by anything," says daughter Lise SNAJDR. "My father was a skilled draftsman, but, in a way, he was against skill because it was all stuff you picked up from life experience. He was left-handed, but he went through a period of drawing only with his right hand in an attempt not to be too skillful. As it turned out, he developed an ambidexterity that proved to be another skill.
"His painting was spontaneous -- everything he did was -- but he wanted it to look that way. He could be free and liberal with paint, and put his feelings into a work."
Described by some as "anti-intellectual," Mr. HODGSON was, in fact, a deep thinker who would be better described as anti-academic. "He had his own ideas," says artist Gary MILLER of Peterborough, Ontario "He had great admiration for Willem de Kooning, but he didn't want to just cater to someone's opinion. He was stubborn and, because he was anti-academic, there was a movement to squelch Tom."
In his book Creativity Is Change, Mr. HODGSON declared skill to be "in some ways the antithesis of creativity, a sort of disrespect for man's time, and certainly for his individualism&hellip
"Creativity is curiosity, concern, trial and error, invention, not knowing, discovery. Skill is knowing how to do something…. The essence of creativity is uniqueness."
Mr. HODGSON was sometimes dismissed as a "jock painter" because many couldn't see athleticism and aesthetics harmonized in one personality. He won more than a dozen national titles at the juvenile and junior levels, and then nine more as an adult. In 1952, he took eighth place at the 1952 Helsinki Games in the 1,000-metre tandem with Art Johnson. At the Melbourne Games in 1956, he placed ninth in the 10,000-metre tandem with Bill Stevenson.
Standing just under six feet tall and weighing about 140 pounds, Mr. HODGSON was a whirlwind in the studio, his frenetic energy bustling as if his body was struggling to keep up with his train of thought. Although articulate, he could lapse into a stutter that affected his speech in childhood but was brought under control through therapy he took early in his professional life.
Mr. HODGSON's first serious painting was done from 1943 to 1945 while he was training as a pilot and gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Second World War ended and he was discharged before he could be assigned to combat, but he made numerous renderings of military life and later donated them to the War Art Museum. He first achieved artistic prominence a decade later as one of the Painters Eleven, the association of Toronto avant-garde painters who challenged artistic conservatism and gave the city its first healthy dose of abstract modernism. With Jack BUSH, Oscar CAHEN, Hortense GORDON, Alexandra LUKE, Jock MacDONALD, Ray MEAD, Kazuo NAKAMURA, William RONALD, Harold TOWN and Walter YARWOOD, they broadened the scope of Canadian art through mutual support and group exhibitions from their 1953 formation through their gradual fragmentation and dissolution from 1956 to 1960. Their affiliation was more professional than theoretical; they used disparate approaches and had no aesthetic commonalities.
Works of the Painters Eleven grew in demand and value in the '60s, but just a little too late for Mr. HODGSON to take full advantage of it. Short of materials at the time, he painted over some of the canvasses that could have brought in good money. Bad luck also struck in 1993 when a fire at his cottage destroyed many of the works he had stored there.
As a senior instructor at the Ontario College of Art, he was in the forefront of outrage at the upheaval of the school brought about by the policies of new president Roy ASCOTT in 1971-72. As a tenured professor, Mr. HODGSON was able to keep his job while many of his colleagues were fired, only to quit himself within a few months. Ironically, he was one of only two people on staff who had opposed the institution of tenure at the Ontario College of Art in the 1960s.
"Tom believed in the process of creativity as one of constant change and in the freedom of artists," says Mr. MILLER, then a student at the Ontario College of Art. " ASCOTT and later Royden RABINOVITCH were from the New York school, very radical and modern, and they were telling students their work was garbage. So Tom broke away, formed the Z School, and took half the student body with him."
As protests go, it was symbolically powerful and a practical failure.
"The Z School lasted about six months," recalls Don MORRISON, an artist and illustrator who was Mr. HODGSON's long-time friend and business partner. "You can't very well have a school without a structure or bureaucracy."
Mr. MORRISON and Mr. HODGSON shared studio space, first on Church Street across from St. James Cathedral, then in a warehouse on the corner of Dufferin and Bloor. Those were also venues for Drawing Night in Canada figure classes held every Thursday. The classes were conducted as the antithesis of the typically sombre gathering of sketchers and painters around a nude model.
"Usually at classes like that, it's like listening for a pin to drop," Mr. MORRISON says. Drawing Night in Canada was different. "These were noisy, vocal, 10 to 18 artists talking and joking. Anyone could grab a cold beer for 50 cents. The model would talk back and tell stories, too."
Inevitably, Mr. MORRISON wearied of the back-lane access to the warehouse and told his partner he'd prefer a storefront studio.
"A storefront?" Mr. HODGSON retorted. "I need a storefront like I need a hole in the head." In a matter of weeks, they had two storefront studios, one of them facing the historically infamous but architecturally engaging Mental Health Centre at 999 Queen Street West.
"Tom was impulsive, just like his painting. He would do exactly what he wanted," Mr. MORRISON says. "He built a swimming pool in the backyard of every house he owned. He would attempt to do almost anything. One day, he had a plumber come to his home on MacPherson Avenue because of a leak and the plumber said a lot of digging was necessary to get at the incoming line in front of the house. When he told Tom what it would cost, Tom said: 'I'll tell you what, I'll dig it myself.' After he had dug this enormous hole, I told Tom: 'Well, it may have been a lot of work to dig, but it'll be easy to fill in.' 'I don't want to fill it in,' he told me. 'I'm going to build a ramp so I can drive my bike right under the front porch and into the basement.' He had three motorcycles -- a BMW, a Husqvarna, and a Can-Am. So he built the ramp.
"It didn't occur to me that if he took the ramp to come in the basement, he'd use it to get out, too. I was renting on the second floor, and the first time he revved up one his bikes -- VRRRROOOOM! I jumped right out of bed."
Mr. HODGSON's energetic and impulsive nature, bohemian cultural surroundings and enjoyment of good times were an ideal formula for trouble in a man ripe for midlife crisis. He had a number of lovers and ended his first marriage to Wilma HODGSON before settling into a peaceful lifestyle with his second wife, Catherine GOOD. They moved to Peterborough in 1990. A few years later, he began to display the first signs of Alzheimer's. He was the last surviving member of the Painters Eleven.
Thomas Sherlock HODGSON was born on June 5, 1924, in Toronto. He died on February 27, 2006, near Peterborough, Ontario, of Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by his sons Mark, Rand and Timothy, daughters Lise Snajdr and Kara Warburton, and sister Jane HODGSON. He was predeceased by his wife, Catherine.

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