Fourth Newsletter for NTCI Class of 1968 Anniversary Reunion Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th, 2018
As I have not heard from a lot of people who I have emailed I am not sure classmates who have not replied are getting the newsletters. So before you do any further reading of this newsletter PLEASE , if you are not on this Attendance List below ( which means I have heard from you) press the reply button on your e mail and choose one of the following replies ( you can use the number to make it simple)
1. I have been receiving the newsletters, have not yet replied and am not coming to any events.
2. I have been receiving the newsletter have not yet replied because I am unsure of whether I am attending any events.
3. I will be attending the following events and/or I will be bringing a spouse/ guest.
4. Optional: I apologize profusely Laurie for taking so long to reply.
If I do not hear from you within a week you may get a late night phone call so best to email me back with your answer.
If you are on the Attendance List and I have made a mistake on it such as not including a guest or you are a “?” and have now decided please advise.
| NAME | SCHOOL | HUMBERS | WALK | MARDI’S |
| ALLEN , KARYN |
1
|
1
| ? |
1
|
| BISCOTT, LYNN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| BORN, CAROLYN |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| BROUGHTON, PETER(TEACHER) |
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| CAMPBELL, DOUG |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| CLARKE, WARNER |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| CLIFFORD, MARGARET |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| CLIFFORD, TED |
2
| ? |
0
|
0
|
| CLIFFORD , MARY |
1
| ? |
0
|
0
|
| COHEN, PAUL |
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
| CONSTAM, SIMON |
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
| COOMBS, DAVID |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| CORNISH, MARDI |
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
| DALES, ROB |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| DEWHURST, JOAN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| DRABINSKY, GARTH |
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
| EDDINGTON, BARRY |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| EVANS, FRED |
1
| ? | ? | ? |
| FRY, GEORGE |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| FOREST, ALAN |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| GAMMAGE, DOUG |
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
| GOODMAN, HARVEY |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| GOODMAN, MEL |
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
| GOWANS, SUE |
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
| GROSS, LESLEY-JO |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| GUINESS , MIKE |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| HARKNESS, BRIAN |
1
| ? | ? | ? |
| HART, MARTIN |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| HARRIS, BERNIE |
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
| HEANEY, BRIAN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| HEGGIE , ROSEMARY |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| HENESSEY, DONNA |
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
| HOLLO, MARITA |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| HUMBER, BILL |
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
| INGRAM , LIZ |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| KIRSHENBLATT, BRENDA | ? |
0
|
0
|
0
|
| KOLTUN, NADIA |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| MACNEIL, HEATHER |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| MACDONALD,JANET |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| MCFARLEN, CLAIRE |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| MCQUEEN, LAUREL |
1
|
1
| ? | ? |
| MOR, WILSON |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| MCQUILLAN, MARSHA |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| OSTRANDER , BILL |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
PASCOE, LAURIE
|
2
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
| PEIKES, STUART |
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
| PETTAI, ANU |
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
| ROSEN, RUTH |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| ROXBY, KEVIN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| SCHABAS, WILLIAM |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
| SCOTT, JOHN |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| SELLERS, ALEXANDER |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| SIEGEL, NAOMI |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| SMITH, SUSAN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| STORM, MARSHA |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| TAFT, JOHN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| TOPPIN, JANET |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| VINK, JACK |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| WALSH, LINDA |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| WARD, MARY ANNE | ? |
0
|
0
|
0
|
| WAPPEL, TOM |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| WATERS, JUDY | ? | ? |
0
|
0
|
| WITTINGHAM, MEGAN |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| WOLFRAIM, JAN |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| YOUNG, ROGER |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| ZURKOWSKY, ROZ |
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
47
|
42
|
14
|
20
|
CHANGE OF PLANS FOR SATURDAY AFTERNOON
As we are not likely to have the numbers to commit to renting the Safari Room for Saturday afternoon we have arranged an alternative event. Fortunately, Mardi Cornish Hirschberg and her husband Haim have offered their house for the Saturday afternoon get together. Volunteers have come forward to help Mardi and therefore this should be a great event to quietly keep the conversation going. Further details to follow but there will not be a cost and hopefully more people will be encouraged to drop in, even for a short while. So, if you had said you were not going to the event at the Safari Room you are entitled to change your mind now. Mardi’s home is not in the NTCI school district but is only a block away from the north west boundary line of the NTC I district. According to Google Mardi’s house at 12 Alexandria Wood is just a three-minute walk from being in the school zone.
Historical Note of Interest and Contest
That North West Boundary point is a one minute walk from where I grew up on Hillhurst Blvd. Attendees will therefore appreciate it why it took me 30 !?@* minutes to walk from my house to school every day. My house was actually closer by about 5 minutes to Lawrence Park C.I. and even closer than Lawrence Park was Forest Hill C.I. ( my back yard fence was the boundary between the city of Toronto and Forest Hill) . If I lived a block and a half north I would have been in the Lawrence Park zone as the boundary line ran down the middle of Courtleigh Boulevard. If I lived eight houses to the west I would’ve been in North York and gone to Bathurst Heights C.I, (which would have been a 5 minute longer walk than NTCI). Surprisingly I could not find historical high school zone maps on the Internet to prove at one time my house was in the Lawrence Park zone . I believe the boundaries changed about five years before I went to high school as some neighbours older than me went to Lawrence Park . The present boundaries are the same as our day with the exception of now allowing Briar Hill , Hillhurst and Courtleigh residents the option to choose whether to go to North Toronto or Lawrence Park. See http://www.tdsb.on.ca/Find-your/School/By-Map/focusOnSchool/5540 for the map of the NTCI school boundary.
For some reason this interesting discussion of where my house was and the high school boundaries was of absolutely no interest to my wife but I’m sure it is to you the loyal readers of this newsletter and especially to all those who lived on Briar Hill , Hillhurst and Courtleigh .
Would you believe there were seven people in our graduating class that lived on Hillhurst Blvd. The person who names all seven people first wins a prize. Contest closes midnight of May 2nd.
Talking about spouses, it seems some spouses who attended our last reunion are surprisingly not returning to this year’s reunion. Evidently, they wrongly believe they are only martially obligated to attend only “one” spouse’s reunion in their cohabitation.
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY CLASSMATES
Move over David Coombs we have some more authors in the class. But before mentioning them I would remind people that David’s novel can be purchased on line at http://www.lulu.com/ca/en/shop/david-coombs/the-beckoning-land/paperback/product-22195518.html . No I do not get 10% but expect a warm reception when in my retirement I visit David in nearby Barry’s Bay.
Mathematics teacher Mr. Peter Broughton (he taught me Grade 11 math and Grade 13 Math B) who attended our last reunion and will be coming again this year recently had a book published by the University of Toronto Press. It is a biography of world-renowned Canadian astronomer, J.S. Plaskett. See https://utorontopress.com/ca/northern-star-1.
I bought his book and found out he has a minor planet named after him. With all due respect I find this even bigger than an Order of Canada appointment but probably a notch lower than a nobel prize. Information about “Peterbroughton” can be found at https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=16217 . Mr. Broughton was is also a prolific writer and a past President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada .
I would also point out the major accomplishment of Tom Wappel of our class who was a member of parliament and a Liberal party leadership candidate.
Bill Humber has been a very prolific writer not just about baseball but about his town of Bowmanville and African Canadian athletes. Check out some of his books on Indigo and Chapters. Also check out this article about him submitted to me by George Fry who still refuses to write a bio, attend the reunion or send one of his many brothers or sisters in his place .
Bill Humber a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer
Humber is the first academic researcher to be inducted
Seneca’s reigning baseball expert will soon join the likes of Roy Halladay, Joe Carter and Carlos Delgado as a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer.
William “Bill” Humber, Director of Eco-Seneca Initiatives, is widely known as Canada’s premier baseball historian. He’s the first academic researcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will take place on June 16 in St. Marys, Ont., where Bill will share the stage with 2018 inductees Pedro Martinez, the Montreal Expos’ only Cy Young Award winner, and Lloyd Moseby, the first Toronto Blue Jays outfielder to win a Silver Slugger Award.
Bill Humber has been teaching Baseball Spring Training at Seneca since 1979.
“I’m just thrilled,” Bill says. “I mean, to be beside Pedro Martinez and Lloyd Moseby - wow.”
As a child growing up in Toronto’s Yonge and Eglinton neighbourhood, Bill got into baseball when he was around seven years old. He collected baseball cards. He subscribed to Sports Illustrated in 1961—he still does. Today, he’s a Toronto FC season-ticket holder who wears a Blue Jays watch.
Bill’s first baseball hero was Rocky Nelson of a minor league baseball club called the Toronto Maple Leafs that played in the old Maple Leaf Stadium at the foot of Bathurst Street.
“It’s now apartment buildings, but back in the day, that’s where my dad took me and my brother to see ball games,” Bill recalls.
In 1979, a couple of years after Bill started working at Seneca, he created a course called Baseball Spring Training. The course, which continues to this day, offers fans opportunities to discuss the upcoming season in a classroom setting and learn about baseball history, minor league reports and maybe even have a visit from the Jays.
For example, Paul Beeston, former president of the Jays and Hall of Fame inductee in 2002, is scheduled to visit Bill’s class this weekend.
As an environmental educator and historian, Bill says research and writing are second nature to him. As a result of his lifelong interest in Canadian baseball, he published his first book, Cheering for the Home Team, in 1983.
He has since written 11 more books, including Let’s Play Ball: Inside the Perfect Game (1989), The Baseball Book and Trophy (1993) and Diamonds of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada (1995).
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I owe a lot to Seneca,” Bill says. “I’ve taught the Baseball Spring Training class for 40 years. Where else can you do that?”
While he has passed the baton to a new teacher this winter, Bill still shows up to his class every week. If anything, he prefers to think of himself as a professor emeritus of baseball.
"If there's such a thing,” he says.
REMINDER : BEST WESTERN HOTEL SPECIAL RATE
Again we were able to obtain an agreement with the Best Western Roehampton Hotel and Suites 808 Mount Pleasant Road. They are holding 10 rooms at a special rate of $159 a night for us for the nights of the 4th and the 5th of May so out of towners should act now. Call 416 487-5101
March 11, 2018.
REQUEST FOR FINDING PEOPLE
This could not be a reunion newsletter without asking again for help again in finding lost classmates . Please see all previous newsletters where I have begged for people to help me find people as well as database on our blog http://ntci68.blogspot.ca/?zx=bbbb5ceb75851e64 in the lower right hand column. Download the database. There are tabs at the bottom with the separate databases including a section naming classmates we have not found and what I have done to look for them as well. In my last newsletter I wrote about how to look for people.
I have given up asking for updates to bios or new bios but would like help finding people.
BIOS AND UPDATES
ROB DALES
I too, set out to travel the world - ran out of money in Paris, and ended up living there for several years teaching English. After that I ran a carpentry and renovation business for 8 years in Toronto, part of that time with my brother [and finished my university degree].Then, the twist of fate.I was quoting on a new showroom for an import/wholesale business…ended up working for that company, running it, and eventually buying it.
So I got to travel the world after all!
I have been travelling to Asia for 25 years now….
I married Patricia [NTCI 1965], we have three sons [twins!].
Never a dull moment!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Rob’s bio was written and delivered before the last reunion but only made the web site and was not in a newsletter so it is being republished with a minor update. A number of us voted Rob to be the classmate who most resembled what he looked like in high school. I asked Rob the secret of his success of such a youthfull appearance to which his profound simple answer was “red wine”.
STUART PEIKES
Updated February 27, 2018
After the five years at NTCI, I moved on to University of Toronto, University College, for undergraduate studies. The initial focus was in Commerce and Finance and then after 1st year this changed to a lighter path through Sociology to allow time for more card playing and partying. The usual undergraduate distractions were there and were embraced.
Many of my friends were writing their LSAT in 3rd year which prompted me to join them although I had every intention of completing my honours programme at the time. When a surprisingly high score came in, law school applications followed and off to Europe I went that April for a four-month trip leaving my mother with instructions to pay the requested deposit for any law school which would have me. Windsor was the first to commit so my deposit was sent in and I eventually intercepted a letter at one of my stops on the road to advise me that I would be starting classes at Windsor less than a week after my return.
The ensuing scramble was successful with finding a roommate, a place to live, and the energy to dive into intense studies and above all to think objectively. The transition was demanding but rewarding. After an interesting first year in Windsor, I transferred to Osgoode Hall at York University for 2nd year law school and graduated from there in 1974.
The usual articles in Toronto followed with the Bar Admission course the year after and I was called to the Bar in 1976. My first venture into the practice of law was an associate with an existing two person firm. Much to my surprise, and that of my graduating classmates, the telephone did not ring as often as we expected and life as a young lawyer was challenging. Bills were paid by doubling as a process server on evenings and weekends for a year until the practice began to grow. The first house purchase came in 1978 along with a part ownership in a farm and there was no looking back.
The practice continued to grow and life was good but everything changed when Linda and I were married in 1984. The rocket ship to the moon was launched. Three kids soon followed along with eight house changes as our need for space changed and market conditions went up and down. Most house trades resulted in bigger and better and we finally settled into our current house in 2015 on Chicora Avenue in the Annex. We really never left the North Toronto neighbourhood during all of these trades. Our friends would write our contact information in their day timers in pencil and were very surprised when the moving eventually stopped.
Life with our kids was the usual busy with a three year stint for me as President of the Forest Hill Hockey Association and many years as a coach at Forest Hill arena for house league and rep hockey for both of my sons and at Leaside arena for girls’ hockey for my daughter.
I say now that I did four smart things in my life – marrying the love of my life, Linda, and having 3 wonderful children. Linda and I just celebrated our 34th anniversary with a 3+ week trip to India. Our oldest son, JB, is one of my partners in my firm and is in his 6th year of law practice. (Check out our YouTube video at peikeslawyers.com.) Our middle son, Tyler, is a 4th year resident in genetics in Winnipeg and our daughter, Marly, graduated from U of T Law School and is completing her articles this Spring and will be called to the Bar in June. JB is married to a lawyer and has two sons, Cory (4) and Jesse (2), with a third child on the way. Tyler is married to a pediatrician and has two children, Rory (4) and Addie (1). Marly is still single but has a significant other.
I have retired from competitive ice hockey and baseball but I continue to enjoy biking and hiking with our family.
Looking forward to the NTCI Class of 1968 Reunion this May to catch up and to share more stories.
LAURIE PASCOE
Since the reunion in 2014 I have been lucky to now be the grandfather of the world’s cutest granddaughter Eden Kate Pascoe born in June 2015 to go along with the world cutest grandson Jake Lewis Pascoe who will be 6 in March ( born with red hair on St. Patrick’s day) . The grandchildren ( and their parents) still live nearby and we see them often and have many sleep overs . My son Byron is an entertainment lawyer in Ottawa. No, he is not working with me, he would not even take a family law course at law school. My son Noah who sang your old favourites at Bill Humber’s party at the last reunion ( and will be back again) has gone back to university to get a B’Ed specializing in teaching the arts in elementary schools. He and his partner Sarah who has taught overseas for 10 years are off to Korea when he graduates this summer for teaching jobs at an I.B. school. He writes and performs his own songs. He can be found on Youtube if you search his name and at www.pascoe.bandcamp.com where he has two digital albums. Now that he will be getting a job I can take off my e mail footer “Buy Noah’s CD so he does not move back home “.
I, like many of us, have had various minor health issues but none that keep me off work other than to spend time visiting doctors. I feel healthy , still play golf regularly and have taken up Yoga ( easy stretching type) . My short term memory is not what it was but still have a good memory for the past.
I thought I would be like my father who was a full time dentist until he was almost 80 years old but I realize my mind will not make it past 70 so have a set retirement date of April 30th 2019.. It will take me that long time to fulfill all the Law Society rules to close down my practice. I still enjoy working but I have reduced my work load and I’ll be ready to retire when the time comes next year. My financial advisor says we can afford to retire without eating dog or cat food for suppers but I think I should have a spoonful of both everyday now just to get use to them just in case.
