ERNEST o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-11-13 published
RYDALL,
Richard "
Dick"
Passed away peacefully at the Grand River Hospital, K-W Health
Centre on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at the age of 60 years. Beloved
husband of Ruth (née
JACK.)
Loving father of Angela
RYDALL, Crystal
HOGG
(David,)
Shannon
ERNEST (Michael) and Amanda
RYDALL (Scott
MacDONALD.) Cherished grandfather of Justin, Logan, Kyle, Nicholas,
Ryan, Jacob, Kaylee, and Tyler. Dear brother of John
RYDALL (Heather),
Shirl SILVERTHORN
(Frank) and Patricia
SMITH (Mervin.)
Predeceased
by his parents, Gordon and Rose
RYDALL and his sister Edith.
Dick was a member of the Durham Kinsman Club, he also served
as the past president of the Durham Huskey Senior A Hockey and
enjoyed playing slow pitch baseball. He was a volunteer canvasser
for the Canadian Cancer Society. The service to celebrate Dick's
life will be held at the Community of Christ Church (414 Fisher
Hallman Dr., Kitchener) on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 2 p.m.
Cremation has taken place and his ashes will be interred with
his parents in the Edge Hill cemetery. As expressions of sympathy,
donations may be made to the Grand River Hospital, Palliative
Care Unit or the Canadian Cancer Society. Cards may be obtained
from the Henry Walser Funeral Home, Kitchener (519-749-8467).
Visit www.henrywalser.com for Dick's memorial.
E... Names ER... Names ERN... Names Welcome Home
ERNEST o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-18 published
Nature-loving steel worker inspired the creation of Ontario's
Bruce Trail
Self-taught naturalist who grew up on the Saskatchewan Prairie
moved to Hamilton and fell in love with the Niagara Escarpment.
'Without him, it would not have started.'
By Allison
LAWLOR,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S10
For a man with an insatiable curiosity about the natural world,
the thought of losing the rugged beauty of Ontario's Niagara
Escarpment to development was unthinkable. "Not all of us can
study ecology, but we should all have the opportunity to walk
under ancient trees on a forest floor that is rich with the things
that sustain life," said Ray
LOWES, who is credited for inspiring
the creation of the Bruce Trail.
In 1968, the self-taught naturalist appealed to the Niagara Escarpment
Conference to consider preserving the route, a marked hiking
trail on a rocky ridge that stretches more than 800 kilometres
across Ontario, for posterity. "It is this right of access to
places of natural beauty that I plead for," he said in a speech.
"The simplicity of our request is astounding."
The trail had opened the year before as part of Canada's centennial
celebrations, but nothing had ever been said of its future. For
his part, he knew exactly what was required: "We just want a
strip of land that will be left alone - not manicured, not landscaped,
not serviced by multilane highways or 'parkways' - and not through
new subdivisions. It's not much to ask. A later generation will
demand it."
It all started after Mr. Lowe hiked portions of the 3,501-kilometre
Appalachian Trail, a route from Maine to Georgia that is maintained
by a loose association of about 30 U.S. hiking clubs. "If they
could do it," he asked himself, "why couldn't we?"
At a meeting of the Hamilton Naturalists' Club in 1959, he turned
to wildlife artist Robert Bateman, who was also a member of the
club, and wondered aloud, "What would you think of a hiking trail
winding up the Niagara Escarpment from one end to the other?"
Mr. Bateman liked the idea and, with the support of the Hamilton
Naturalists'
Club,
Mr.
LOWES approached the Federation of Ontario
Naturalists. Before long, a four-man committee was struck, with
Mr. LOWES as secretary along with nature lovers Philip
GOSLING,
Robert MacLAREN and Norman
PEARSON.
For the next two years, they
pored over maps and plotted a route from Queenston, near Niagara
Falls, to Tobermory, on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.
"He had the dream and he got it going," said Mr.
GOSLING, a Guelph,
Ontario, businessman. "Without him, it would not have started."
They started knocking on doors in towns and villages along the
escarpment to negotiate access, and soon established trail organizations
in several communities. The also reached access agreements with
landowners on the planned route. The Bruce Trail Association
was formed, and by 1967, the trail was open. The association
slowly grew in size; by the late 1970s, it was able to start
purchasing land to build a permanent, protected route.
While Mr. LOWES spent time getting his hands dirty building sections
of the trail, his main role was that of promoter and office co-ordinator.
An impassioned speaker, he gave speeches to raise support and
awareness, and used his gift for promotion to attract volunteers
and media attention. In the early 1960s, The Toronto Telegram
was reporting on hikes held along the trail.
For 20 years, Mr.
LOWES served as a director and secretary of
the Bruce Trail Association. In 1983, he was made the association's
honorary president, which today has the support of more than
8,000 members and 1,000 volunteers. "He was really like a father
figure to the whole thing," said Bill
CANNON, president of the
Bruce Trail Association in the late 1960s.
Mr. LOWES was a child of nature. Raised in rural south-central
Saskatchewan, his love of the outdoors developed during the countless
hours he spent as a child exploring the countryside near his
home. His family ran a general store in the community of Willows,
not far from the town of Assiniboia, and he was outside observing
birdlife, catching gophers and adopting coyotes at every opportunity.
"He always had that spirit of getting out in nature," said his
long-time friend Alan
ERNEST, the land trust co-ordinator at
the Hamilton Naturalists' Club.
Mr. LOWES left home as a teenager and set out across the country
to find work. To eke out a living, he sold everything from brushes
and men's wear to advertising space in a Catholic publication.
Along the way, he met Jane
CHAMBERLAIN; the two married in 1933.
Three years later, they moved to Hamilton.
The LOWES home, which was within walking distance of the Bruce
Trail, soon became a playground and nature classroom for neighbourhood
children. They joined Mr.
LOWES for Sunday hikes, which usually
ended with ice cream cones.
Although Mr.
LOWES had none of his own, "he loved getting children,
in particular, interested in nature," Mr.
ERNEST said.
In 1938, Mr.
LOWES joined Stelco, the steel manufacturer. He
stayed for the next 38 years, eventually becoming chief open-hearth
metallurgist.
Away from the foundry, he loved to walk the gentle valleys and
rocky cliffs of the Bruce Trail and would average about 20 kilometres
a week along its length. One of his favourite pastimes was to
take a morning in Niagara's Short Hills area, followed by a slice
of pie at his favourite restaurant.
"He was a delightful person to go on a walk with," Mr.
CANNON
said. "He was full of stories about the natural world."
Mr. LOWES never attended university, but was intensely curious
about nature and taught himself all he could about birds, insects
and plants. When something caught his interest, he sought to
know everything he could about it, Mr.
ERNEST said. About 12 years
ago, he visited a friend in Arkansas and, while there, toured
a plant that processed black walnuts. He was hooked. After learning
all he could about the nuts, he returned to Ontario, contacted
the local nut-growers association and proceeded to plant thousands
of black walnuts. To his delight, they bore fruit.
Believing that we are all interrelated in the cycle of nature,
Mr. LOWES was passionate about protecting the Niagara Escarpment
from development. Through his work on the Bruce Trail, he helped
spur the Ontario government to establish the Niagara Escarpment
Commission in 1973. Mr.
LOWES was appointed a founding member
of the commission, which was formed to regulate development on
the escarpment. After serving for about a decade, he resigned
in 1984, saying he felt the body was more concerned with local
political interests than conservation.
"I'm kind of sorry to be off the commission," he told The Globe
and Mail at the time. "But I think it was the only protest I
could make. Maybe now they'll pull up their socks and fly right."
Despite the designation of the Niagara Escarpment as a World
Biosphere Reserve in 1990, just under half of the Bruce Trail
and its 300 kilometres of associated side trails are currently
on protected land. The remaining 53 per cent is on private land,
although the Bruce Trail Association continues to buy up parcels
each year. Last year, more than $1.3-million was spent securing
land on the escarpment; the association now manages 2,178 hectares
of land. To buy the remaining trail, the association estimates
it needs more than $60-million.
After retiring from Stelco in the early 1970s, Mr.
LOWES travelled
to more than 40 countries and continued to spend as much time
as he could hiking and exploring. Seeing himself as a rugged
individualist, he was proud of his physical stamina, Mr.
CANNON
said. He remembers the delight Mr.
LOWES took when one May they
swam together in Georgian Bay while ice floes floated nearby.
Just this summer, he talked to a friend about mathematical patterns
found in the natural world. "That brain of his was always working,"
Mr. ERNEST said.
Although he took to calling himself a "curmudgeon" late in life
and "didn't suffer fools lightly," Mr.
LOWES received honorary
degrees from Brock and McMaster universities for his work on
the Bruce Trail. In 2005, The Bruce Trail Association created
the Ray Lowes Side Trail in Hamilton in his honour.
Until he turned 90, the year he broke his hip, he had walked
five kilometres of the Bruce Trail three or four times a week.
Ray LOWES was born in Saskatchewan on March 23, 1911. He died
August 29, 2007, at Saint Peter's Residence at Chedoke in Hamilton
after briefly slipping into a coma. He was 96. He was predeceased
by his wife Jane, who died in 1986, and by his brothers Warren
and Gerald.
E... Names ER... Names ERN... Names Welcome Home
ERNEST - All Categories in OGSPI
ERNEWEIN o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-12-18 published
CONDY,
Wayne
Of Hanover, passed away at Hanover and District Hospital surrounded
by his loving wife and daughter on Saturday, December 15, 2007.
He was 67. Survived by his loving wife
Carol (née
MONK)
CONDY,
cherished daughter Gail (Glen)
BUMSTEAD and the apple of grandpa's
eye Meggy all of Hanover, daughter Shelley
RAMAGE of Keswick,
grandchildren Cassandra, Logan and Jillian. Also survived by
brother Gary
McCURDY of Alberta and mother-in-law Marina
ZETTLER
of Hanover. Very sadly missed by his family of fur faces. Predeceased
by his brother Bradley
CONDY, sisters Sharon
ERNEWEIN and Nora
GROSS and father-in-law Elmer
MONK.
Visitation at Mighton Funeral
Home, Hanover on Tuesday 7-9 p.m. A Memorial Mass will be held
on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 10: 30 a.m., at Holy Family
Church, Hanover. Memorial donations to the Ontario Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or Hanover Hospital Foundation
would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy. Further information
and register book available at www.mightonfuneralhome.ca
E... Names ER... Names ERN... Names Welcome Home
ERNEWEIN - All Categories in OGSPI