Category: R

Honoured by Peggy Mueller

Honoured by Mary Rankin.

Thank you for honouring James Lee Rankin with a Leaf of Inspiration and for supporting your Community Waterfront Park project.  Story to follow.

Honoured by his children.

It is with great pleasure that we celebrate our Father’s 80^th birthday by honouring him with a Leaf of Inspiration on the Pergola.

Roger Ricci was born in North Bay, December 12, 1932.

Dad was one of 13 siblings.  Life was hard and work came at an early age. Dad started delivering papers for the North Bay Nugget and soon afterward started within the company in the job printing division.

Dad obtained his black belt in Judo and started his own judo club, The North Bay Judo Club in 1956/57 at the age of 24.  Dad trained two police forces in North Bay; the North Bay Police and The Ontario Provincial Police. Dad also trained the nurses at what was called the Ontario Hospital in North Bay and the Sudbury Police Department as well as several other members of the community.

Dad, at the age of 19/20 joined and was one of the founding members of The Davedi Club and later became president for a year.  He is now a proud life-time member.

Married in 1959 to our wonderful mother Carol, they had six children and now have 15 Grandchildren and step Grandchildren.

In 1963, Dad and our mother decided to open their own printing shop, Ricci’s Fine Printing Ltd. with three children under the age of three years old.

Dad’s hard work and dedication to his family proved to be rewarding by raising his six children the best way he knew how.  To this day Dad is still hard at work either at the printing shop or working on his apartments.  Dad always said, “I am doing this for all of you,” and kept true to his word.

Thanks to our father, we will always carry with us a strong work ethic along with pride and determination.

Dad you are in our hearts forever.

Happy 80^th Birthday Dad.

With love from your children Tom, Sue, Chris, Paul, Jason and Steven.

Honoured by Charles & Judith Beaudry.

Thank you for honouring James and Rae with a Leaf of Inspiration and for supporting your Community Waterfront Park project. Story to follow.

Just who is “Dolly Reny”? A look back and perhaps you will come to know her in some small way because I don’t think 500 words can accurately explain who she really was.

Marguerite “Dolly” O’Toole was born in Regina, Saskatchewan on November 28th, 1914. She was the seventh born of ten children, having four brothers and five sisters. The family grew up in the Town of Lebret which is a picturesque small town in the Qu’Appelle Valley, forty or so miles east of Regina. Their father was the station master for CN Rail and their mother was a homemaker raising her large family; later on her own when the marriage broke down. From what we heard it was a happy, hard-working family, helping each other and living the full life of a small town. She remained close to her brothers and sisters although she didn’t see them often as they mostly remained in Western Canada and Dolly lived in Eastern Canada.
Dolly came east as a 17 year old when she was a nanny for a Doctor who was promoted from his position in the Tuberculosis Hospital near Lebret to become the head of the TB Association in Ottawa. She travelled there with them to care for their two young sons. In the Lindenlea area of Ottawa she met her future husband Joseph Henry Louis Reny at a skating rink. Eventually Louis joined the royal Canadian Air Force. They had eight children together, two of whom did not survive their first three months; five children in a ten year span and then a sixth some 13 years later. I was one of those children and Dolly Reny was our mother.

Being part of the military we were required to move often and mostly between Ontario and Quebec bases. I am sure this was very hard on my mother but she never wavered in her encouragement of how great the next posting was going to be. She helped us with homework when we attended French schools (even though her mother tongue was English). She was always cheerful and I don’t ever recall a mean or cross word from my mother no matter what the provocation. Yet she knew how to make her children behave simply with a look. To this day we call her discipline “The Look”. Some of us seem to have inherited “the Look” in dealing with our own families. Dolly, or Mother, played games with us. She played cards with us. She played the piano and we all stood around singing old songs together. They were some of the most memorable times of my childhood. She always had surprises hidden away such as chocolate bars or candies for special treats and sometimes even forgot where she had hidden them and then the search for them became a game. She was the glue that held our family together.

In her later years she lived here in North Bay. This had been one of our postings and she always said she would come back to live in North Bay because she liked it so much. She moved to North Bay in 1989 and she lived near the North Bay Mall and loved to wander over there and window shop. She also loved to travel in later years when she was on her own. When we were growing up she always said that her big dream was to go to Hawaii and she did manage to do that in her late 60’s. During her travels and throughout her life she had the great quality of being a good listener. Whether it was the person next to her on a plane, standing at a bus stop, riding the train, or sitting on a bench at the Mall, wherever she went her words were kind and positive and she made that lonely person feel better. She truly had a quality about her that makes her the kind of person we would all like to emulate.

Mother loved her grandchildren dearly and had a special way to relate to young people. They were her friends. Each of her grandchildren could tell their story of a special time and some escapade they shared with their Nanny and which was their secret and not for Mom or Dad to know. She was indeed a special person to her children, family and friends and she left her mark in many hearts. This leaf is a special way of remembering her forever.

Honoured by her family.

Honoured by daughter Gwen Millard and Family.

Thank you for honouring Gladys and Harry Reid with a Leaf of Inspiration and for supporting your Community Waterfront Park. Story to follow.

Honoured by Anthony Rota & Family.

Thank you for honouring your father with a Leaf of Inspiration and for supporting you Community Waterfront Park project. Story to follow.

Thank you for purchasing a Leaf of Inspiration honouring Rebuilt Resources and for supporting your Community Waterfront Park project. Story to follow.

Honoured by John & Freda Barrett.

Thank you for purchasing a leaf honouring Joyce Richardson and for supporting your Community Waterfront Park project. Story to follow.

Honoured by Ed Roche Junior.

Edward Joseph Roche was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, January 1st, 1887. He grew up on a farm, ate some days and some days he went without food. He only went to school when there was no work to be done on the farm which was rare. He also worked as a coachman for an elderly lady in Wicklow.

From 1904 to 1906 Ed was employed as a transfer man for Dublin Southwestern Railway between Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry for 8 cents an hour, 12 hours a day.
In 1907 he sailed across the Atlantic , a journey which took 3 weeks, in search of a new life in Canada, working at a Beaverton farm for one year for $300.

In 1908, he walked to Orillia and caught a train to North Bay. His first job, with the city, was to sweep the streets of the wooden sidewalks for two dollars a day. His luck continued as he secured an additional position with the city. These two jobs with the city lasted six months. He then picked up a contract with T & N. O. to clean up every station along the track. He walked and worked his way from North Bay to Cobalt, had two men work Cobalt to Cochrane, and on to the branch lines. These jobs took one month.

In 1913, he landed his first contract with the City of North Bay.
In 1920, he won first place for the best horse and mare at the North Bay fair. He started his own garbage business. He secured contracts in Kapuskasing, Iroquois Fall,Kirkland Lake, Parry Sound, North Bay, Callander, Widdifield, Nobel, Depot Harbour, Algonquin Park and the Dionne home. He had ten teams of horses, four in North Bay, two in Parry Sound, two in Kirkland Lake, one in Kapuskasing and one in Iroquois Falls.

In 1925, at North Bay Old Home Week, Ed had twelve teams of horses on parade. At that time there were only three automobiles in town. The next year he bought his first vehicle, a Ford touring model.

Ed was diverse in his entrepreneurial spirit, raising chickens, selling eggs, and wood, emptying septic tanks and hauling rocks sold as souvenirs, for visitors to the Quints’ home.

When the city started its own garbage pick-up, Ed was employed to organize the job, purchase trucks, hire employees and design routes.

Ed was a shareholder for 27 years in Northern Oil which owned all Sunoco service stations in the area.

Five men, including Ed, started the Georgian Bay Creamery, built in Parry Sound, then bought Johnson Dairy in North Bay, a creamery in Powassan, and built a creamery in Englehart.

He was one of the key figures in the construction of the airport, Ferguson and 63 highways and the Ontario Hospital. He was involved in nearly every community project, from the Agricultural Association, the Humane Society, the Motor Club, Cassellsholme, the Shrine Club, Bay Club, Railway Men’s Club, the Rotary Club and many more.

Ed was a member of the Ontario Parol Board for several years.

He passed away December 20th, 1985.

My Dad was always a positive, thoughtful, giving person. He never lost his temper, loved people and adored North Bay. He had great common sense and enjoyed life to the fullest. He was by far the best person I have ever known.

Ed lived a full and meaningful, purpose-filled life and gave back to his community in so many ways. Ed’s motto? “Live as long as you can and die only when you can’t help it.”