It is always with great sadness when we loose members of our District 7070 Rotary family. Everyone in District 7070 wants to expresses their deepest sympathies to our extended Rotary family. Please send your notices to Newsletter Editor Dave Andrews at dave.f.andrews99@gmail.com .....
JOHN TALUM - ROTARY CLUB OF TORONTO
We are very sorry to report the passing of our long time member, John Talman in his 83rd year. Born in Toronto, he grew up in Parkdale and became interested in stamp collecting at a young age. After working for CN Rail and Falconbridge for a number of years he decided to see if he could make a living with his hobby and opened an office downtown. Successful from the beginning, he became well known in his field and hosted large auctions for collectors on a regular monthly basis.
John joined our Club in October, 1978 with the classification “Professional Philatelist”. He was active on the Program and Fundraising committees. He was very interested in the history of our city and wrote numerous articles for the Voice on the subject and also columns on Member News. Our Club honoured John with a Club Builder award in 2001. A private family service has been held. Condolences from the Club have been sent to his family - Jean, his wife of 51 years, and his daughter Andrea. "
Please see the link below from an article in The Star from 2008, it definitely sounds like John...........
KEN RIDGE - ROTARY CLUB OF OSHAWA
Kenneth (Ken) Ridge died on the 19th of August, twelve days after his 91st birthday. He was a passionate educator, community leader, and naturalist, who spent most of his life in Oshawa, a city where his contributions and influence can be found everywhere, from libraries to community gardens. After graduating from Victoria College, he became a history teacher, and later Vice-Principal and Principal of both R.S. McLaughlin and G.L. Roberts Collegeiates in Oshawa. He knew every student’s name, and had a reputation for being strict, but always fair. He was famous for trying to talk a young Bobby Orr out of hockey, telling him there was no future in it.
He took early retirement and plunged into a dizzying array of community leadership roles. He was elected to the Durham Region School Board as a trustee. He was Chair of the Library Board, President of the Rotary Club of Oshawa, Chair of the Cancer Society (he was a three-time cancer survivor), and he played leadership roles in a wide variety of historical and environmental groups. Ken, and his best friend and wife Edna, were active parishioners in St Luke’s and later Knox Presbyterian Churches, and in the winters they were fixtures at the Oshawa Ski Club. Ken was a Scoutmaster, and introduced numerous young people to camping, hiking, orienteering, and the tying of bowlines.
An avid birder, for many years he and Edna were volunteers and supporters of Thickson’s Woods where Ken could often be found, binoculars in hand, generously sharing his extraordinary knowledge of the natural world with others. Family vacations often centered around favourite birding locations, such as Presqu’ile Provincial Park. A civil war buff, other vacations involved trips to obscure civil war battlefields where his family might be dispersed across the battlefield so he could visualize where the various armies had been deployed. A dedicated anglophile and monarchist, he adored all things English and royal.
Ken had a long, happy life of service and community. As an educator and volunteer he enriched a lot of lives and made his community a better place. As a naturalist he made the world a little bit greener and healthier. His exceptionally rich life was filled with family, countless dear friends, love, laughter, and his beloved German Shepherds. By any standard, Ken’s was a life well and generously lived. Ken is greatly loved, and greatly missed, by his wife of 65 years, Edna, daughter Ellen Brohman (Brad), and son James Ridge (Donna). In his later years his six grandkids, of whom he was immensely proud, were his favourite topic of conversation. He is missed by Vanessa, Amelia, Joel, Charlie, and Alex Brohman, and by Maxwell Ridge (Marion). Ken was a strict grammarian, so we have used the Oxford Comma in his honour. There was a visitation at Armstrong Funeral Home (124 King St E, Oshawa) on Saturday the 28th of August, followed by a private family service.