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THE PROBE VOLUME 30 ISSUE 9 JUNE 2018

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE PROBUS CLUB OF ST. CATHARINES

To stimulate interest and participation in activities at a time of life when one often welcomes new friendships and an atmos-phere of sharing ideas and information. The PROBUS Club of St. Catharines meets at 9:30 a.m. on the second Tues-day of each month at the Grantham Lions Club, 732 Niagara St., St. Catharines, On-tario. Mail: 37 Wakelin Terr., St. Catharines, ON

L2M 4K7 Website: www.probusstcatharines.com Password: lionsclub

2017-2018

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

President: Hugh Gayler 905-684-9097 Vice President Len Thibeault 905-397-6735 Past President John Senn 905-984-5360 Secretary: Jim Stangier 289-213-2460 Treasurer: Denis Woods 905-646-1285 Programme: Tim Kaye 905-945-8677 Membership: Ralph Steffen 905-935-3282 Spec.Evnt/Ed. Visits: Herb Woods 905-401-9905 Probe Editor: Hugh Learmonth 905-934-2268 Webmaster: Russ Milland 289-362-3420

NEXT MEETING

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2018

GRANTHAM LIONS CLUB

732 NIAGARA ST., ST. CATHARINES

Our speaker at the June meeting will be Julie

Proulx, a licensed funeral director, who has

turned her talents to helping ease the con-

cerns of pet owners through Pets at Peace.

GENERAL MEETING

TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2018

Call to Order: President Hugh Gayler called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.

O Canada: Bob Henderson led the singing of the national anthem.

Moment of Silence: There was a moment of si-lence observed to remember Joan Tester, the wife of Life Member Wayne. Hugh also announced that it was Wayne's 89th birthday.

Guests: Membership chair Ralph Steffen indi-cated there was three guests present: Bob Sheppard, guest of Bill Smith; Stewart Greavette, guest of Jim Wagner; and Eric Crawford, guest of Walter Asbil

Outreach: Hugh (reporting for John Senn) indi-cated that Bill Brice is now in the Fort Erie Hospital. Visitors are welcome. (Editor’s note: Bill is now in room 125.) George Allan underwent colon cancer surgery Monday. No visitors at this time. Bob Shiels is also in hospital.

Romeo Lunch: Art Currie indicated that only 18 attended last month's lunch. Next lunch will be Wednesday, June 30

th. The management barbecue

will be Thursday, June 7th. The cost is $15/person

with drinks $7 each for wine or beer. Social hour between 5 & 6 with dinner at 6 p.m.

Juliet Dinner: Next Juliet dinner will be Thursday Sept. 27

th. More details to come.

Educational Visits: The proposed visit to the Sea-way Control Centre has been cancelled.

Guest Speakers: Tim Kaye indicated next month's speaker topic will be on Pets at Peace.

Men’s Breakfast: Jim Cameron reminded mem-bers of the monthly men’s breakfast on Monday, May 14

th at 8:30 a.m. at Angels Diner. The break-

fast gathering is always the Monday following the PROBUS meeting. Those attending are urged to wear their name badge.

Stratford Trip: Bob Henderson reminded every-one that there is still time to sign up for the trip on

(Continued on page 2)

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September 21 to see the matinee performance of The Music Man. The all-inclusive cost is $160 per person.

New Member Induction: Duncan McLaren, was inducted into the club by membership chair Ralph Steffen. Duncan was sponsored by Bruce Knicley.

New Member Bios: Duncan McLaren and Art Wing, who had joined earlier, both presented their bios which appear later in the newsletter.

Cameo Speaker: Jim Stangier gave a cameo presentation cover-ing the highlights of the investiga-tion into serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickten that occurred while Jim was serving on council in British Columbia.

Attendance: Ralph reported the attendance was 64% of membership.

(Continued from page 1)

Jim Stangier

Welland Canal mapping project

helps bring historic canals to life

Hugh Gayler introduced guest speaker Colleen Beard, Map Librarian and Head, Data & GIS Li-brary of the James Gibson Library at Brock Univer-sity, who spoke about the Historic Welland Canals Mapping Project.

Contemporary technologies for data capture and mapping have revolution-ized the way information can be collected and shared. Colleen has been applying these tech-nologies to map the three 19

th

century historic Welland Canal routes and their features as they appear in today’s land-scape.

Colleen pointed out that the aim is to resurrect Welland ca-nal history. Hundreds of histori-cal maps and photos have been converted to a digital for-mat to visualize the routes and features of the 19

th century canals. The project in-

cludes an interactive web site that makes the data available for the world to view and use.

The collection of data involved mapping every lock, bollard, weir, weirpond, towpath, raceway, bridge and tunnel as these appear on today’s land-scape. The collection involved extensive hiking, covering over 80 km either by foot, bicycle or boat

taking hundreds of photos, videos and a substan-tial inventory of visible canal remnants.

Colleen demonstrated how the web site can be used to compare past and present landscapes and how to zoom to different areas and features of the canal. She said that all three historic canals used Port Dalhousie at the north terminus. While the first two used the natural waterways of the 12-Mile creek and Dicks creek, the third route crossed St. Catharines and used a less-steep approach up the

escarpment.

She displayed numerous then and now images including the Pedestrian Tunnel at Lock 16 also known as the Blue Ghost Tunnel and, from the third canal, the Niagara St. overpass as it looks today and, skaters on the canal in 1920.

She pointed out that much of the route of the third canal is accessible via greenways to Lock 10 at Victoria Lawn Cemetery.

Colleen said that the ultimate goal of the project to map the canals would be for a federal heritage designation.

To find out more about the project you can do a Google search: Brock maps geodata and go to the Welland Canals Mapping Project under Digital Ex-hibits.

Ralph Steffen thanked Colleen.

Membership chair Ralph Steffen officially wel-comes Duncan McLaren into the PROBUS Club during the May meeting.

New member welcomed

Colleen Beard illustrates canal data

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New member Duncan McLaren My story begins in Smiths Falls, followed by a

misspent youth in Ottawa and, upon graduating high school, a move to Toronto. I chose to attend Ryerson from which I graduated three years later with a diploma in one hand and a spouse and young son in the other. Within three more years another son and a daughter joined the clan.

I was very fortunate to be hired by F.H. Brig-dens, a Toronto company with an established in-house printing, art studio and photo studio. It was here that I learned the craft of sales and customer service which would be the basis for my entire working life.

After six years it became clear I needed to move on to a much stronger competitor, Gaylord Planned Promo-tions. I stayed at Gaylord for 12 years becoming their top sales person and ultimately managing the Promotional Marketing division of the company.

In 1989 I chose to set up my own marketing and pro-motion agency, McLaren Marketing. It was a great 20 years with many ups and downs, a lot of work and a great deal of laughter with some superb people, for the most part. McLaren Marketing won a National Award for re-launching Added Touch Fat-Free Muffins (from a #4 brand to #1) and later went on to help launch Dr. Oetker’s Ristorante thin crust pizza developing a national promotion and print advertising campaign.

It was shortly after starting McLaren Marketing that I met my present wife Julia. Suffice to say within three weeks, we were engaged and seven months later we were married in our new home in East Oakville. Julia introduced me to a whole new wonderful world with three teen-aged sons.

We have moved around starting with the home in east Oakville then to a lakefront home in Stoney Creek and later to a beautiful old 1875 Victorian home in the village of Durham.

I had a personal hobby for many years as a book collector. It was in the village of Durham that

thoughts of one day operating a home-office book store business was bantered about. As a result, Julia suggested the name, Lord Durham Rare Books. It was not until early 2008 however when we were living in Fenwick (Pelham) that I decided to make my hobby my new business career. It has been over 10 years now I have been buying and selling antiquarian books, maps, prints, and manu-scripts.

Our move to St. Catharines was a very practical decision. We wanted to be closer to our kids.

We were seeing them get older and launching into careers and creating families of their own. A three-hour drive to come and visit was not particu-larly desirable.

Our oldest son, Trevor attended Brock and after graduation stayed living in St. Catharines. He is now a VP at Stelco. Trevor is married to Kim and they have two boys — Brian 10 and Mathew 7.

Selby, our middle son moved down to Niagara with us and was hired at the Niagara Native Friend-ship Centre. He is now married to yet another Kim, lives in the Beaches in Toronto and works at the Hamilton Native Friendship Centre

Our youngest son Jordan attended Niagara Col-lege along with his now wife Jen. They too chose to live in St. Catharines until leaving for Leesburg, Virginia literally the month after they were married in order for Jordan to take on the position of Wine-maker as well as later, GM at Tarara Winery. They have added three more little boys to the family unit — Ethan 7, Declan 5, and Brock 1.

We are pretty confident this latest move of a year ago, is probably the last for us, well until the big one.

Living in the downtown of St. Catharines is a new and positive experience for us.

I trust my participation in PROBUS will be mutu-ally beneficial. I thank you for being so welcoming and Bruce Knicley for the PROBUS introduction and invitation.

Duncan McLaren

Reminder of annual barbecue

The 2018 Management Barbecue will be held Thursday, June 7 at the Dalhousie Yacht Club.

A social hour from 5 to 6 p.m. will proceed the buf-fet style meal at 6 p.m.

Last chance to sign up is May 31. If you haven’t already done so, contact Art Currie to see if there is still room. The cost is just $15 per person.

Attendees are reminded to please use cash to speed service at the bar.

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An introduction to Art Wing

I was born July 4, 1935 in Hamilton but grew up in Stamford and went to Green Corners school – 2 room, 8 grades – and Stamford Collegiate.

My father along with eight others was killed on July 5, 1944 by a V1 rocket. My mother remarried a few years later. After my mother’s death in the early 70’s my stepfather remarried and my now stepmother just died this past May. My stepfather is 97 and living in his home in Niagara Falls.

I graduated from University of Western Ontario in 1959 with an honours degree in business ad-ministration. Later, in 1972, I earned a Master’s Degree in Edu-cational Administration from the University of Toronto.

After graduation I sold Canadi-ana Encyclopedia and later drove sightseeing tours of Niagara Falls but in June 1960, St. Catharines Collegiate principal Evan Mac-Donald offered me a job teaching business subjects. I thought I would give it a try for a year.

I taught for seven years and then became vice principal at the Collegiate, was named Principal first at Grantham High School at age 33 and then at the Collegiate, when Evan MacDonald retired, before being ap-pointed as a superintendent for the Lincoln County School Board in 1977. After completing my planned one year working in education 34 times I retired in June 1994.

In my first year of teaching I went on a blind date with Marjorie Pancheff from Thorold and two years later we were married. We moved to St Ca-tharines in 1966 where our four sons grew up.

Marjorie’s parents were from Bulgaria. In 1976 we took our four sons to Bulgaria to this little village of 3,000 in a Communist country to meet the rest of Marj’s relatives. Half the village was related and the other half thought they were. They basically adopted us. I have been there now over 20 times.

1984 was not a good year. My wife had a num-ber of surgeries related to her breast cancer and our 18-year old son died while playing basketball at the Collegiate. In February 1990, Marj died after a month in hospital.

Four years later, five days before my retirement, I married Jacquie Herman and acquired two mar-

ried daughters and two sons in law. We now have eight grandchildren – four in the US and four here in Niagara.

I am a Past President and was a 10-year mem-ber in the 1980’s of the Board of Family and Chil-dren’s Services of the Niagara Region. From 1998 to 2005 I was the Founding Chair of Contact Niag-ara a centralized access service for children and developmentally handicapped people. At the same time, I was a member of the Early Years Action group coordinating regional services for children 0-6 and Chair of the Early Years Liaison Committee

and chair of the Early Years Advi-sory Committee for the Niagara Region.

In 1974 I was sponsored by Roger Allen and Evan MacDonald to join The Rotary Club of St. Ca-tharines.

Since 1990 I have been in-volved with a number of Rotary Clubs in Bulgaria. In the last 10 years both Jacquie and I have been involved with a number of Rotary projects in Bulgaria.

I was President of the Rotary Club of St Catharines in 1991 and we brought Ann Bain into the Club as the first woman member of a club of 150 men – we lost about 12 men – fair exchange.

In 1997 I became involved at the Rotary District level, served as District Governor in 2005-06 and spent four years as District Foundation chair and was assistant Regional Foundation chair for East-ern Canada in 2015-16.

I am currently working with my club on various projects including on the Centennial Committee to mark the 100

th anniversary in 2021. I have been

fortunate to receive a number of Rotary Recogni-tions including the Rotary International Service Above Self Award – one of its highest recognition awards.

We currently we live in a Southgate condo in South St Catharines and have a condo in Bonita Springs, Florida.

We both like to travel and enjoy cruising. As a new member of the PROBUS Club of St. Cathari-nes I look forward to participating as often as I am in the country.

I would like to thank Bill Smith for inviting me to join PROBUS.

Art Wing

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Don’t be left behind: sign up now

for tickets to see The Music Man

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to see the highly-anticipated Stratford Festival production of The Music Man.

Bob Henderson has arranged for outstanding seats at the Festival Thea-tre to see the matinee show, directed and choreo-graphed by Donna Feore, on Friday, September 21.

The cost of $160 per person includes the 2 p.m. performance following lunch at the Queen’s Inn, Canada Coach transpor-tation – including the driver’s tip.

You can get a behind-the-scenes peek at the production of the musical by going to www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/Production/The-Music-Man

The bus will be leaving the rear parking lot of Mountainview United Church at 9:30 a.m. with the usual return time around 7 p.m.

This trip is open to PROBUS members, spouses and friends.

Tickets usually go quickly and Bob Henderson reports that his cut-off date for ticket numbers will be Monday, July 30. If you haven’t booked your tickets as yet, make sure to see Bob.

Julie Proulx will be June speaker

Julie Proulx representing Pets at Peace will be the speaker at the June PROBUS meeting.

Julie is a graduate from Nipissing University with a BA in Psychology. Julie attended and graduated from the Funeral Service Program at Humber College as a Licensed Funeral Director in 1995. After teaching the Funeral Service Educa-tion Program Julie returned to the human funeral home of Davidson Funeral Home.

After the death of her loving malti-poo Molly, Julie decided to open Pets at Peace in Niagara Region. She did so with the hope that she would be able to provide peace of mind to pet families allowing them to know that their pet was treated with care and respect. Julie is thrilled to be able to bring together her experience in the funeral ser-vice and her passion for animals in such a reward-ing way.

DIRECTORY CHANGES Changes/additions to members mail and/or e-mail address will be published monthly in the Probe. Please inform any member of the Management Committee of your changes. Duncan McLaren: (new member) 7 Gale Cres., PH9 St. Catharines, L2R 7M8 Phone: 905-680-8115 Email: duncan@ldrb.ca

Tour planned to Steam Museum

Al Higgins reports that an educational tour has been planned for Friday, July 20 and family and friends are welcome.

The tour will include the Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology and miniature coal-burning

steam powered train rides. This is a special opening of the mu-seum and train rides for our PROBUS Club. Train rides will start at 9:45 and the museum tour at 11:00.

Advanced registration and payment is re-quired, $5.00 per per-son entrance, and train

rides by donation on site.

Registrations and collection of entrance fees will be taken at the June and July meetings.

SUB COMMITTEES AND SOCIAL

EVENT CONVENORS

The following activities are approved and spon-sored by the PROBUS Club of St. Catharines.

Romeo Lunch: Art Currie 905-938-1264 Juliet Dinners: Mac Gollert 905-934-1813 Andy Reyes 905-937-2982 Wood Carving: Jerry Benner 905-892-5878 Curling: Jack Corbett 905-682-9923 Poker: Doug Wright 905-988-5539 Theatre Visits: Bob Henderson 905-682-3724 Outreach: John Senn 905-984-5360 Couples Bridge: Len Thibeault 905-397-6735 Dancing: Andy Reyes 905-937-2982

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WEEKLY EVENTS: Wood carving resumes in September. FUTURE EVENTS: Tour of Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology — July 20 Stratford Festival trip — September 21 Next Juliet Dinner — September 27 Couples Bridge resumes in October

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2

3 4 5 6 7

BARBECUE

8 9

10 11 12

GENERAL MEETING

13 14 15

POKER

16

17 18

19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27

ROMEO LUNCH

28 29 30

June 2018