THE HARBORDITE

Harbord Club Newsletter

Inside this issue:

Editorial 2

Museum Musings

3

David Binder - A Notable Harbordite

5

Harbord Vets & Western Front

6

Dr. David Was-ser

9

A Lost Harbord Soldier remem-bered

10

2nd Lieutenant Irving Basil Rieder

11

Greetings!

Fellow Harbordites! :D

I’d like to welcome you to warmer Spring weather and hopefully an amazing Sum-mer after the long ice, snow and wet “Winter”!

Another school year is com-ing to an end! The students are beginning their summer vacation!

This is also a time when the Harbord Club meets for the last time before the summer holidays. The Remember-ance Day ceremony, fund-raising efforts, selection of our 120th Award winner are in the works.

As an editor of this newslet-ter, I cannot stress enough how much we look forward and are excited to receive an email, with information to be shared in the Harbordite!

On a personal note, this is the year that my third and youngest daughter will grad-uate from Harbord. I am so proud to be a Harbord par-ent times 3 and a Har-bordite myself!

I’ve been a Harbord parent since 2004, spanning 11

years! It has definitely been a very positive experi-ence. Having my children walk the same (well renovat-ed) halls that I walk through in the 70s! It not only

brings back memories for me, but also creates many new positive experi-ences also. I feel truly blessed that my girls were able to have such great high school experiences attend-ing the same Collegiate that I attended. I hope that some day they will join the Harbord Club and help out as well!

Cheers for now! Off to have a wonderful dinner with my Har-bord Club team. Have a Safe and Great Summer!

- Ben

Onward Harbord!

Editorial: Message from Co-Editors

- Belinda Medeiros-Felix (‘81) & Ben Lee (‘78)

We invite you to submit any ideas, thoughts and tell us what you are up to these days; after all, without you, where would we be? Send an email to harbordcelebra-tion@live.ca and we will post it in the next Harbordite. Our email list for alumni is continuing to grow (primarily by word of mouth). We would like to reach many more. It would be greatly appreciated if you could let other Harbordites know that they too can get on our email list and begin to receive their newsletter. Don’t forget to visit har-bordclub.com to see and write on our excit-ing blog.

Submit all articles and info to be published in next Harbordite to

harbordcelebration@live.ca

and remember to check us out on Facebook-

Harbord C.I. grads/alumni

The volunteers are now do-ing the same for all those who gave their lives in the First World War. This pro-ject is to be completed, we hope, by Remembrance Day, November 11th 2014.

The technical “wizardry” of engineering the voice re-cording and list of the Vet-erans’ names and effecting the connection between the individual name and photo and voice recording is being masterminded by Sheldon Hua (HCI 2007) who is our website designer. We are also working with Sheldon in upgrading the Harbord Club website. It will have more information, be easier to navigate and more current.

During the past year we re-ceived inquiries about Har-bordites who served in both World Wars.

The most important from an historical point of view is Lt. Harold Tutzer Cohen – a “A lost Harbord soldier remem-bered”. (There is an article about him elsewhere in this Harbordite.) Suffice to say, that his name will be added to “Our Soldier” mon-ument and his photo will be installed in the First World War section of our Hall of Memories as part of this year’s Remembrance Day service.

In our Hall of Memories (2nd World War section) we have a photo of Captain Irving B Reider. We do not have any military service records as he served in the United States Air Force. He cuts a very dashing figure. He even has a niece living in Toronto. Connie Cherba of Dubuque Iowa , U.S.A., was doing research on a friend’s brother when she came across Captain Reider and his connection to HCI. She contacted us and we sent her his photo. The article she has written about his last flight is also in this Har-bordite. Also in this Har-bordite on page 11, you will find an article by Lydia Wong, one of the Museum volun-teers, being the words she recorded about Captain Reider in our oral history pro-ject.

When preparing and dedicat-ing our Second World War Monument in 2007 we were made aware of a name missing from our records, that of Sub-Lieutenant Robert John Orok of the Royal Canadian Navy. We were told that he had gone to night school at Harbord. This did not mean that the person was a Har-bord alumnus. Further inves-tigation indicated that Robert Orok had had to leave Har-bord after Grade Ten to work in order to help out his family. He attended night school

Museum Musings – Syd Moscoe

My eleventh year working with student volunteers is now coming to a close.

We will be saying goodbye to Vivian Martin, Pascale Wal-ters, Lydia Wong and Julia Lam, all who are graduating from Harbord this year. In addition to Museum volun-teering, Julia Lam was the student representative to the Harbord Club Board of Direc-tors.

Together with Mr. Daniel Le-blanc, teacher advisor, a great deal has been accom-plished. Assisting in addition to the above volunteers, we had Ben Heywood-McLeod and, during the first part of the school year, Kira Knight and Cameron McGlade Bou-chard.

The volunteers reviewed the Armed Forces Service rec-ords of those who gave their lives in the Second World War. They then prepared an oral history of each person. Each oral history was then read into the computer and will be attached to the photo-graph of the named person and all will be posted on the Harbord Club website under the tab “Veterans” – Second World War. You may recall that last year the volunteers scanned in the photos of all veterans as displayed in the “Hall of Memories”.

when he was working. So, his name was found just in time and added to the me-morial before it was erect-ed.

But we overlooked obtaining his photo. Recently we re-ceived a visit from Dr. M. Stubbs, a nephew of Robert Orok’s sister. He will be providing a photo of Sub-Lieutenant Orok for installa-tion in our Hall of Memories.

Mack Topplin, formally known as Flt. Lt. Marshall Topplin, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War as a nav-igator. He went overseas in November 1942. He was listed as missing on March 24/25 1944 on his 24th Op-erational Flight.

The plane crashed in Germa-ny near the border with Hol-land. He was one of four survivors and became a pris-oner of war being repatriat-ed to the United Kingdom on May 19, 1945 and returned to live in Toronto.

In January this year we re-ceived an email from Martin Kosters who lives in Legden, Germany, the village near where Topplin’s plane crashed and where the four survivors had bailed out. Mr. Kosters is researching

the history of his hometown including through the Sec-ond World War. He has a fascinating story, together with photos, regarding the flight path of the plane and of the surviving crew mem-bers. We received the sto-ry in the German language and it is presently being translated. When complet-ed, we will put it on the web for all to read.

We certainly had a busy school year in the Harbord Club Museum.

We are now working on the program for the Remem-brance Day service to be held on Tuesday November 11, 2014.

Keep tuned.

Museum Musings – Continued...

One of our notable Har-bordites, David Binder, passed away last year at only 62 years of age. His wife of over 40 years, Marilyn Bind-er, sent us several emails in which we were able to share some of his story with you all.

David Binder was in the grad-uating class of 1967. David was one of Harbord’s success stories. He worked at Sta-tistics Canada, where he had risen to the position of Di-rector General of the Meth-odology Branch. He was well known internationally and had an impact on the practices of Official Statistics interna-tionally. David was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Dia-mond Jubilee Medal posthu-mously in December of 2012.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harbord in 1967, David went on to the University of Toronto where he graduated from the Math, Physics, Chemistry program for a Bachelor of Science degree. He later graduated from Imperial College, Uni-versity of London , England with a PhD in Mathematics: Statistics.

He worked at Statistics Can-ada, where he had risen to become a Director. For sev-eral months before his re-tirement, David was the Sen-

ior Advisor to the Assistant Chief Statistician of Canada.

He was very active in the Statistical Society of Canada

and was honoured with two prestigious awards from them.

He was well known interna-tionally and had an impact on the practices of Official Statistics internationally. He was a Fellow of the American Statistical Society, an elected member of the International Statistical In-stitute, and a member of the Royal Statistical Society. A write-up on David’s profes-sional career can be found on the Statistical Society of Canada’s website:

http://www.ssc.ca/about/david_binder_1949_2012

David Binder, a notable Harbordite

Harbord Vets & Western Front

Miles Langstaff, M.C.

4 April 1917-Sgt. Douglas G. Mitchell

19April1916 -Sgt. Wm. T. Crummy, M.M.

20April1917-Lt. Johm F. McLaren

23 April 1917-Lt. Cecil V. Perry--we have in our Museum 2 letters Hw wrote home.

Arras- 29August 1918- Robert J.D. Conklin

21 June 1918- Lt. Col. Armour A. Miller

Valenciennes-7 November 1918-Clifford C. Rogers

Cambrai-19September1918-Lt. Wm. Proudfoot-also at Ypres, Somme,

Passchendaele,Hill 70

2October1918-Lt. Lloyd B. Kyles

11October 1918-Capt Arthur J. Duncan

30September-Cpl Harold G. McConnell

9 July 1918-Fl. Lt.C.Victor Hewson-Royal Air Force-scouting raid over Cambrai

The Student museum volun-teers are now working on the records on those who served and died in the First World War. Some of the information we do not now have may become available as we read through their service records and will be corrected accordingly.

The Harbord C.I. Hall of Memories was dedicated by Sir General Arthur Currie on November 11, 1932.

The following is a list of names of Harbord's vets who gave their lives along the path you are following. (There will be some with no location and some with no date.)

Loos-en-Gohelle-22 Sept 1918 - Capt Robert Home

Lens-9 Sept 1918 - Wilfred Macklem

Lt. John Leonard-13 June 1918

Vimy-9Sept1918-Lt. Charles D. Hewson

20April1917- Lt. Frdk.J. Scott

9April1917 - Fl.Lt. Charles Morrison

1March1917 -Major

Somme-1October 1916-Lt. col Wm.D.Allan,D.S.O.,from wounds at Langemarck &Somme

no date-Norman Wheadon,M.M.

21March 1918-Lt. John C. Necombe-also at Arras, Hill 70

1September1918-Capt. Brian M. London- wounded at Hindecourt

15September 1916

26October 1916-Lt. George T. Davidson

Amiens-11August 1918-Norman C. Gayle

22August1918-Lawrence B. Ramsay-Honoured at Harbord's Remebrance Day service-November 11,2012 with an aunt present who ws born after his death. In our Museum we have a copy of his last let-ter home as well as

excerpts from his diary written in the trenches.

Combles-Lt Robert G.Hamilton-Sept.21,1918

Courcellette-25November1916-Lt.B.H.Acton Burrows

15Sep1916-Major Wm.H.McLaren

Cite St. Pierre-24March1918-Raymond Henderson

the present staff and stu-dent we appreciate all you are doing. The few words you can say at each of the stops along your way is one way of remembering these gallant veterans.

I hope when you return that you will have an opportunity to share some of what you are experiencing with our Harbord students.

Keep up the good work.

Syd Moscoe

President pro tem-Harbord Club

Museum Director

Onward Harbord!

Harbord Vets & Western Front ...

Zilleberce-2June1916-Alfred McAllister

2June 1916-Stuart Hough

Kemmell Hill-17April1918-Lt. F.H.Langstone

St. Julien-30April1915-Capt. H.Gerald Muntz

Mt. Sorell-13June1916-Eric. G.Jones

Le Te Pore-18June1918- Lt. John Howard

Avion-8June1917-Wm. H. Moffatt

Hill 70-31July1917-Harold Worthingto

Bomlon Wood-27September1918-Major James P. Crawford

The Paive-20August1918-Lt. James. A Garvie, M.C.-also at Passchendaele & Vimy

Bapaume-9October1918-Sgt. Guy Garrett

Bailleul-G. Gordon Galloway-10 February 1916-Graduated Harbord 1911 as Prince of

Wales Scholarship recipient-highest award available in On-tario-his sister

Louise, also a Harbord grad,taught at Harbord from 1921 until 1945 established an award at Harbord in 1918 in his honour for highest Grade 13 mathematics student . One of early winners was Leon Lep-pard who went on to be known as the father of modern ra-dar-he had been seconded to the Britsh forces from the Ca-nadian Forces in the WWII. He was also a Prince of Wales scholar

Forest of Saissons-18 July1915--Lt Harley Smith- Royal Air Force-alsoSous Of-ficer #rd Battalion French Foriegn Legio, recipient of Croix de Guerre withBronze, Silver and Gold Stars,and cit-ed for Medaille militaire.

The following have no known location for their death:

Lt Geoffrey Taylor-24 April 1915

Capt. W.M. Carlton Monk-20 February 1916

Norman E. Patton-2 June 1916

Capt Lou D. Anderson-no date

Flt Lt. Geroge R. s. flemong-17April1917-Royal Naval Ser-vice-shot down returning for air raid over Frieburg

On behalf of the Alumni, and

Harbord Vets & Western Front ...

Dr. David Wasser.

Here is a photo of Dr David Wasser in his new Harbord sweatshirt. David lives in

Saratoga Springs NY, where he practised psychiatry until his retirement.

Family members and colleagues joined David for a birthday lunch at The Saratoga

National Golf Club.

David has very fond memories of his years at HCI and gave a rousing cheer to his old

Alma Mater in thanks for the education he received, especially for sparking an

interest in music.

David is heavily involved as a supporter of the music scene in Saratoga Springs,

particularly SPAC and the Sara-toga Chamber Players.

After graduation from Harbord, David went on to study medicine at UofT. He is the

proud recipient of the UofT Chancellor's Medals for his 60th and 65th year of

graduation.

He can be reached at

davidawass@aol.com.

A Lost Harbord Soldier Remembered:

Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen M.C.

A LOST HARBORD SOLDIER REMEMBERED

By Syd Moscoe

Lieutenant Myer Tutzer Co-hen, M.C.

His name is missing from Har-bord Collegiate’s list of those who served and gave their lives in the First World War. According to the “Happy Ghosts of Harbord”, over 500 students and staff served in the First World War , but on-ly about 480 names have been located.

Last fall we received an email from Mr. Earl Chapman , his-torian of The Black Watch, today’s name for the Royal Highland Regiment, inquiring about Lt. Cohen and if we could confirm that he had been a Harbord alumnus. Nei-ther the Harbord Club nor the TDSB had records going back that far.

Mr. Chapman then sent us a copy of an article from the Toronto Star dated Novem-ber 17, 1917 reporting on Lt. Cohen’s death in the battle of Passchendaele on November 3, 1917. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on October 19, 1917. The article went on to state that he had been educated at Harbord

Collegiate. He and his family lived at 558 Huron Street, well within Harbord’s catchment area. The award was accepted by his fa-ther, Moses Mark Cohen, at Gov-ernment House in Toronto on April 19, 1918.

I quote now directly from Mr. .Chapman’s email to me:

“Myer’a service is commemorated in the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal, the Regi-mental Church of The Black Watch of Canada. The church features a magnificent memorial window, said to be one of the fin-est in Canada, which was dedicat-ed to the 42nd Battalion (one of the three battalions raised for service with the Royal Highland-ers). In the window, above the head of David, the Warrior King, is a six pointed Star of Da-vid inserted in honour of Lieuten-ant Cohen-a tribute to the ‘ memory of a gallant young Jew who, in sharing the high and chiv-alrous traditions of a proud and great Regiment , gave all he had for Canada’”.

As Lt. Cohen’s name is not on our First World War monument, “Our Soldier” , your Harbord Club has undertaken to have the appropri-ate bronze plaque with his name created and have it affixed to the monument. It is intended that the plaque be unveiled and dedicated on Remembrance Day, Tuesday November 11, 2014.

If we have any alumni out there who would like to assist us by making a do-nation, please see page 14.

The Student Activity Council and the Key Club have offered to assist in raising funds to cover the cost of the plaque. We would like to extend our gratitude to the Class of 2014 Prom attendees who have contributed $1 of each ticket sold for a to-tal of $208 towards the plaque.

It is hoped that at this ceremony we will have in attendance a representa-tive from The Black Watch as well as from Lt. Cohen’s extended family.

Please save the day and time so that you can be present for this very spe-cial occasion.

A Lost Harbord Soldier Remembered:

Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen M.C. Continued...

2nd Lieutenant Irving Basil Reider (1923-44)

By Lydia Wong

Irving Basil Reider was born in Canada on May 7th 1916, the youngest of three children and the only son of Eva and Samuel Schulman. When his father passed away in 1923, Irving took on his step-father’s name Reider.

He graduated from Harbord Collegiate Institute in 1934 where he had been an avid swimmer. He then continued his education as a mechanical engineering student at the University of Toronto –one of the few engineering schools that would admit Jews. During these years, Irving sold dresses on Spadina Avenue as a means of support for his widowed mother.

In March of 1943, Irving en-

listed in the United States Army Air Corps in Queens, New York and was awarded his aerial navigator’s wing in April of 1944.

The same year, he also re-ceived his 2nd lieutenant’s commission at Selman Field, Monroe, Louisiana which was the largest navigation train-ing school in the Army Air Force training command. Af-ter his training, Irving was sent overseas to Italy.

He later served as the navi-gator of a plane called Lady Irene that was attached to the 885th Bombardment Squadron. This squadron en-gaged in special operation missions, flying into parts of Occupied Europe including

occupied France, Fascist It-aly, and Yugoslavia.

On October 4th 1944, Lady Irene left the base in southern Italy on a secret operational mission into northern Italy. At first, no contact was made with the aircraft as planes operating in the squadron often kept radios silenced until after leaving the target area.

However, when attempts were made to contact the aircraft after it was ex-pected to have completed its mission, there was no re-ply. An hour after Lady Ire-ne was due, air and sea res-cue units began to search for the aircraft but to no avail.

2nd Lieutenant Irving Basil Reider (1923-44)

By Lydia Wong Continued...

It was eventually assumed that Lady Irene had either been shot down, or had crashed into a mountain. The entire crew of ten as well as three Italian agents were re-ported missing in action.

Irving’s sister and brother-in-law were soon notified via tel-egram of Irving’s passing. They delivered the message to Irving’s mother and all were heart-broken at the news.

A few witnesses who were in the area testified that they had seen the aircraft crash in a mountain some 35 kilome-ters north of Bergamo in northern Italy. They remem-ber burying twelve to four-teen bodies found around the crash site.

Eventually, the remains of those onboard Lady Irene were exhumed and returned to the United States where they were buried in a common grave in the Jefferson Bar-racks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri on January 16th 1950.

Why a Harbord Club?

#1. To establish and maintain a sense of common identity among former students and teachers of the school

#2. To share news from Harbordites everywhere

#3. To provide funds for prizes, awards and scholarships in all grades of the school

#4. To promote school spirit and pride in the stu-dents through historical knowledge

#5. To collect, preserve and display the school's historical photographs, papers and artefacts

#6. To assist in class reunions and annual home-coming events

Contact us:

on Facebook - Harbord C.I. grads/alumni

via Email - harbordcelebration@live.ca

or - contact@harbordclub.com

Harbord Club Executive

President Emeritus - Murray Rubin -HCI-1950

President Pro-Tem - Syd Moscoe -HCI-1952

Harbordite Co-editors - Ben-1978 & Belinda-1981 - Staff

Director - Ben Lee -HCI-1978

Director - Sidney Ingham -HCI-1978

Director - Belinda Medeiros-Felix -HCI-1981 –Staff

Director - Vasan Persad HCI-1994 - Staff

Director - Diana Da Silva -HCI-2009

Director - Sierra Medeiros-Felix -HCI-2010

Director - Harvey Mandel -HCI-1964

Student Representative - Julia Lam - HCI-2014

Please donate to the Harbord Club. Charitable receipts are only issued for donations of $50.00 and over. All cheques of $50.00 and over for which a charitable receipt is required should be made payable to "Harbord Charitable Foundation" and on the face of the cheque in the Memo line insert the words "For the Harbord Club" . For any amount less than $50.00 or if a receipt is not required please make cheque payable to "Harbord Club" Thank You.

Wishing Everyone a Great Summer!