Alex Blair

[Mike Cecil]

Catherine,

What can I say? The nicest bloke to correspond with, sad we never got to meet.

RIP

Mike Cecil

[Catherine Blair]

Dad was born in Saint John, NB, in 1944. His father was a bank manager for Bank of Nova Scotia and for most of his childhood they moved around the Canadian Maritimes (Newfoundland once it joined Canada, New Brunswick and finally Nova Scotia). His favourite spot was Burin, Newfoundland - an outport. He continually reminisced about growing up there because of the extreme freedom he and his brother experienced. He joined the air force the year Kennedy was assassinated and trained as a radar tech but there were too many of them so the military was going to release him along with others. He talked his way into being trained as an HVAC mechanic and was posted to radar sites across Canada. He eventually was posted to a base in Sardinia (he was single so could pick up and go much easier than someone with a family).

Dad, being an extremely social person (as some of you know first hand!) was drafted to help organize events and parties while posted in Sardinia, and one evening walked around the base to invite people to a "come as you are" party.

He knocked on one door, and a pretty girl with short dark hair, face cream and curlers, wearing a caftan answered. He invited her to the party, and was VERY impressed when she showed up - in face cream, curlers and a caftan. (Some of the officers wives showed up to the party in cocktail dresses and heels - not normal attire for most mid week homes.) They started dating and he eventually married Dorothy - my mom, in Lahr Germany.

They moved home to Canada. Their first posting together was Penhold Alberta. My sister and I were born in Alberta, and when I turned 4, dad felt that he didn't want the itinerant life. Because of the radar base turnover, he was posted every two years, so decided to leave the military after 14 years and bought into an HVAC business with his friend in Saskatchewan. We lived there for the next 11 years.

Dad lived pretty vividly. He drove motorbikes (and crashed a few, causing a couple of injuries and broken bones) from before he was married until I was in university, restored old cars, smoked and drank pretty hard. Eventually, my mom gave him a choice - alcohol or his family. He (as always) chose his family. He didn't touch a drop of alcohol from that day forward for 28 years.

He loved to hunt (really he loved to plan out the trip, and he and his best friend would start almost from the day they got back from a trip to plan out next years.) He loved the prairies and the wide open spaces.

[servicepub (RIP)]

Catherine,
This 'book cover' is an inside joke. I publish a series of books on artillery and vehicles "..in Canadian Service". Following one of our evenings at Gracie's*, where the tradition was to have a photo taken with our lovely server, I made up a mock cover with your dad sitting next to a pretty young thing.
I always enjoyed these outings and took a bus from work to get there. Your dad was teetotal and always insisted on driving me home - even though I was in Nepean and this was a significant distance out of his way. Of course, this meant I could drink to my heart's (and bladder's) content.
Clive
* Ottawa Rotters - time for another night out where we can toast Alex.

[Catherine Blair]

Clive, thanks for that. Mom thought it was cute.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by servicepub

... I made up a mock cover with your dad sitting next to a pretty young thing... Ottawa Rotters - time for another night out where we can toast Alex.

I went through my photos looking for pictures of Alex - many of which are posted in this thread. I do not think it was an accident that Alex was sat next to the "pretty young things", as a lot of the photos with Alex at Gracies consistently show just that. Nothing wrong with our Alex!

Speaking of Gracies, I will be putting out a call to order this week with two dates as options - hopefully before halloween.

[Catherine Blair]

We moved to Ontario from Saskatchewan when I was 15. We took a moving truck and dad's lovingly restored 1964 harvest gold Valiant convertible (he SAID it was mom's - but it was his) through the states in an evil summer heat wave. We reached our next destination - Ingleside Ontario, just west of Cornwall, midsummer and unpacked. Dad had already started working for a contractor out of Cornwall, which he liked - he got the fun of meeting new people and fixing things without the headaches of business ownership. He stayed there for a few years, and finally got the itch to do it himself and started his own little contracting business out of Brockville.

He sold that to his partner and started working in Ottawa's west end just about the time my sister and I were in university. He moved around a bit, looking for new challenges, until he finally retired and starting stock trading.

Some of you may know the manuals story but I'll put it down again - this is how he found this forum and all of you.

My parents purchased a house for my sister and I to live in (and rented out the balance to students) while we were in university. Just as we were finished up they both decided that they wanted to move to Ottawa as it made more sense than running two households, let the renters know and returned the house to being a single family home. We lived next to a retired couple, and when the man passed away, his sons came to help, and they were cleaning out stuff that didn't make the cut for moving day. Dad looked out the window, decided to go and talk to the sons, and he found out that the dozens of boxes were from the man's work. He had worked for the government in procurement in WWII and had saved copies of all of the military vehicles R&O manuals he had ever used. Dad had the boys move the boxes across the lane from their back door into ours.

Dad, being a lifelong opportunist (and a bit of a packrat), asked if he could have them. The neighbour's kids said sure, and they moved all the boxes into a spare room of the house.

Dad worked his way through the manuals, realized what he had, made master copies of everything and contacted Dana Nield (I think) to see if he could put a copy of his manual list on his website. Dana agreed and the manuals repro business started.

Might have to edit for corrections later - but part three will be coming soon.

[chris vickery]

Wow, what a story. On the manual side of things just amagine all that history that could have been lost forever had it not been for Alex and his "pack rat" nature!
I know he certainly had some rare and wonderful copies in the collection.

[Nigel Watson]

Catherine, I have just picked up the really sad news about your dad, I'm so sorry not to have mentioned it before. I met Alex the once when I came over from Scotland to research carriers for a book I was thinking of writing. He was so helpful and knowledgeable it was so good to chat about all things that were in his manuals that I could use. I spent time with him and Geoff talking about military stuff, it was a great time which I will always remember with a smile.
It was a year or two ago he contacted me to see if I would be interested in coming over to give a talk on carriers to military vehicle folk, many of which were likely to be on this forum!

A great person who will be remembered by me and I'm sure many others, he will be sorely missed, and I hope you and your family get through the next wee while okay.
With happy memories of my first visit to Canada where I met Alex.
Nigel