Jenna (Friend)

Entered October 16, 2020 from Ottawa

Dave was so well known in the dancing community, and willing to help anyone who crossed his path. He helped me make connections for school and work that have so helped my career. I will always be grateful and remember how energetic and kind he was to be around. My condolences to his family.

Ross & June Lunn (Cousin)

Entered October 17, 2020 from Iona

Our thoughts are with you at this time of your loss. David always took time to chat and keep up with all of us at our family gatherings. Always enjoyed those chats.
Keep the many memories. May he rest in peace.
Ross & June (Carroll) Lunn

Patricia & Brent Cuthbert (Friends from Woodroffe United)

Entered October 17, 2020 from Ottawa

Dave was a big part of the Woodroffe church family our condolences to the family.

Wayne and Penny Lewis (Acquaintance from Woodroffe United Church)

Entered October 17, 2020 from Ottawa

Our condolences to the family on your loss. We have known him for many years as a member of the church and as a representative of the presbytery.

Olivia and Douglas Lee (Friends)

Entered October 17, 2020 from Toronto

David has been a friend of mine since 1948.

Doug Lee

(Personal Story written to the Stevenson Grandchildren Christmas 2006)


When your Mom suggested this special Christmas gift she said it was OK to admit a bit and boast a bit so here goes.

I took a course at the University of Toronto (U of T) called Engineering and Business. It was developed after the Second World War to bring returning servicemen back into the work force with some technical and business training and exposure. I wasn't in the war but I picked up the course which was still offered in the early 50's. I enrolled in 1952.

Unfortunately, I missed my first year. I passed the 15 subjects we took but didn't have a high enough average to go into second year. There were a combination of factors involved. My mother took ill that year with a "nervous breakdown". She and I were on our own as my father had died when I was nine. I got sick for one of my key exams probably from undercooked chicken at a Scout father and son banquet the nite before that I probably shouldn't have gone to anyways. Hindsight is 20/20 vision, as they say. Also probably a big factor was adapting to the social life, freedom and different style of teaching at university and the fact that I wasn't that great at school and had to 'work for every mark that I got' as they used to say.

Anyways, enough of all that. Engineering students, at least in my day, were required to work a certain number of hours during their summers at course related work to become registered as Professional Engineers and obtain their ‘iron rings’ at the successful conclusion of their course. The first summer job I had was at Canadian General Electric’s Electronics Division (CGE) in Toronto.

I forget exactly how it all went but somehow I left the summer job I had at CGE in Toronto to go back to university but it didn’t work out. Mother had been better and then sick again I guess and the money situation was tight. I'd saved up for university from paper routes and various jobs for grocery stores etc. but my supply was getting pretty low and with my mother still sick I decided to work for a year and get some money and maybe go back to university later. Anyways, I remember working delivering groceries for the North Yonge Fruit Market for a month or so and the wangling my way back into CGE for the next year in the same section of the Electronics Division I had worked in during the summer. Incidentally I ended up working there after I graduated although I had had summer jobs at various places in the other summers.

It was kind of fun to have a car all year and some money in my jeans Whoops !!, no jeans in those days, in my pocket and time to play bridge with the boys without missing a lecture (whoops again !!). No really my cards at University were all covered with jam stains from playing bridge at LUNCH time. My mother and I didn’t have a car until I finished first year university. Fortunately I had a good friend from Scouting days ,Lou Hadwin, who worked for his dad who owned a car business. He would find me a good used car at a good price in the spring and I would drive it all summer and he would sell it for me in the fall. I digress, I told your Mom she'd be sorry she got me started on all this, getting to be a long story already.

I was kind of enjoying the freedom from studies and some money in my pocket, as I was saying, and was debating a bit about whether to go back to school and what direction to take. As it happened both my immediate boss and his boss had taken the same course I had been in. Also I saw the type of lower level work the people who hadn't had or taken the opportunity to get a university degree were relegated to doing and I developed a determination to save my money and whatever and go back to university in spite of some hurdles and risks e.g. you are only allowed to fail once in Engineering.

In any event I returned to U of T in Engineering and Business in the fall of 1954. Wow, now we're getting back to the kind of thing I wanted to tell you in the first place !! Just while I think of it Engineering students weren’t noted for their "Arts" or English skills and the joke for graduates was; "When I started Engineering I didn't no how to spell "Engineer" and now I is one"

I decided when I returned to university to do one special extra–curricular activity each year, well other than social activities. So the first year I played percussion in the Varsity Band. Had to put in some practice time but it wasn’t too onerous. We played for all the U o T football and hockey games. So I got to be at all the football and hockey games for free. We also had our way paid to London, Kingston and Montréal for the away football games along with a bunch of other team supporters. The course went quite well the second time thru the first year with 98% in Calculus and Surveying and pretty respectable marks in the other subjects.

In my second year I participated in "Skule Nite", the Engineers’ annual stage show put on at the "Hart House" (University centre with gymnasiums, pool, lunch room, dining hall etc. originally men's only !!) Theatre. The Engineering faculty had somehow acquired the nick name of the "Skule" and the main building for the Engineering faculty was affectionately known as the "Little Red Skule House". It was torn down sometime after I graduated and I have a paper weight with a piece of one of the RED bricks encased in plastic in the condo. We put on a mock TV show and I was the producer dressed in a neat suede jacket that I borrowed from my more well to do cousin, Ron. By a real coincidence my close cousin Ron and I ended up in the same course in the same class together for four years and were constant partners. He got married while at University and didn't do much in the way of extra curricular activities. I digress again !!! The show was about a group of Engineering students who went to Montreal (a pretty big excursion in those days)for the week-end to cheer on the football team and ended up getting so engrossed in their poker game etc. in the hotel room that they ended up listening to the game on the radio and continued to play poker and never did get to the big game after their long trip down there.

In the third year I was Treasurer of the Engineering Society . This was
the student council, like Keifer’s on, for the Engineering faculty. We ran special programs like dances, chariot races etc. for the Engineering students. The chariot races were a goofy Engineering thing where we had a race with whatever moved on wheels with a passenger ( who usually fell out and injured something !! and several pushers) -- old wagons, baby carriages, wheel barrows , rigged up wagons etc. Whenever Engineers got out on something like this and inter-faculty football games they fired off a miniature cannon which gave a real blast. There was also the Lady Godiva Memorial Band in attendance, sans Lady Godiva, who were not really noted for their musicianship.

Anyways, the Engineering Society had more serious pursuits too , one of which was to operate the Engineering Store, which involved me heavily as Treasurer, and which was located right in the Skule House. The store provided the many necessary supplies engineers needed like slide rules etc. Engineering students spent countless hours in those days in "Drafting" . We calculated and had to record on drawings in precise detail bridge and building structures, the static and rolling weight, snow load, wind resistance etc. they could withstand and record all this on fully dimension blueprints and drawings . We were seated (stools I guess) at large drafting boards. So engineers needed a constant supply of sharp pencils, T-squares, scaled triangular rulers, drafting paper, pads of squared paper etc. etc., in addition to the normal school supplies. They also sold Engineering Jackets, a must have for all self respecting Engineering students with your expected year of graduation in big letters on the upper sleeve, "Skule Ties", cuff links etc. We had one or two full time staff members and ran it like a little business.

So much for well made plans of mice and men. I forget what plan "A" was for the fourth year. Maybe to be on the Students Administrative Council for the whole University. However, I kind of came at that from the back door as it turned out. I ran for President of the Engineering Society but didn't win that. Di and Al Matthews (GP’rs) were both in my class and on the executive that year and as well, Gus Bruneau, also of GP was President ( In aeronautical Engineering, a tough course) However, I was appointed Foreign Affairs Rep. of the Engineering Society which did give me involvement with the U of T Students Administrative Council, and reps from other faculties and involvement in programs for the overall university.

There was a major revolution in Hungary at the time and Canada agreed to take in a number of refugees. The government issued a plea for organizations across the country to sponsor and help settle the refugees. The University of Toronto undertook to help settle a number of university students. I become a member of a committee, made up of representatives from various faculties to raise money and administer the distribution of the funding to the refugee students. It was a challenging task and time was pretty tight.

Two fund raising activities that we organized in Engineering, that I remember, were a lost and found ‘Bazaar’ and an auction of dates and tickets for the Engineer’s ‘At Home’ ( annual formal dance).

We gathered up the “Lost and Found“ articles from various Faculties, Libraries, student Centres etc. from around the University and had a very successful bazaar in the basement of the ‘Skule House’.

The other idea was a bit more way out but in the end worked pretty well too. We auctioned off Cheer Leaders, I think from both Victoria College (The United Church Arts faculty on Campus) and the “Varsity’ (U of T) cheer leaders. One of the Engineering students had access to an old Fire Engine so we picked up the various Cheer Leaders from around the campus, in their Cheer Leading outfits, on the old fire engine with the bell and siren going occasionally and created some publicity for our cause. As you might have gathered the Engineers were the ‘Wild Ones’ on campus. Not particularly my style but I jumped on the band wagon for a worthy cause, especially when I was organizing it.

We set the auction up in the largest Engineering lecture room which was located in the modern ‘Mechanical Engineering‘ building that was shaped much like a theatre with sloping floor and a huge counter right across the front of the room in front of the blackboard. We had a good crowd out of maybe 150-200 students. The ‘girls’ stood up on the counter and were auctioned off one at a time along with a pair of tickets to the AT Home. The bidding went up pretty quickly so next thing we knew members of the same class were pooling their resources together and bidding against other classes and in one or two cases, at least, one side of the room started to bid against the other which was great for the fund raising but left a couple of unanticipated problems . Who gets the tickets and the date and how can we get the money from the losing side ??

In the one case there was a series of lot drawing to determine which class and then which individual won. On the other our pleas were mostly answered and the money was collected up and donated for the worthy cause. At one point we had one Cheer Leader in tears in the back room because she was going steady with an Engineering student and wanted to go to the dance with him and not the winner. We got off the hook on that one because the winner had a girl friend so he just took the tickets and it worked OK. We got pretty good press out of it from the University paper but naturally with some rumblings about running a ‘slave market’ !!! I think all the other dates worked out well and everybody was pretty happy in the end.

I was living on the edge a bit in my last year and missed one subject
(a bit too much committee work and probably participating too much in some of the other frivolities of university life !!) and had to rewrite it in the summer but I passed it and graduated in the fall of ’58. My mother was very determined and put her all her energies and heart into making sure I got a good education so I was glad I finally made for her sake and it certainly benefited me over the years.

Working with students from other faculties was a fun and enriching experience and probably mostly because of my involvement on this committee received a SAC ‘Honour Award’ for a significant contribution to student life at the University along with the football and hockey stars, Student Councils Presidents etc.

Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

A Very Merry Christmas to each of You.

Love

Grandpa

(Personal story written to the Stevenson Grandchildren Christmas 2007)

Odd Job Experiences:

Where to start ??? Well going back to the real early days, my first “job”, when I was still in public school, was selling subscriptions to Liberty Magazines, door to door , for Jack Kent Cook, who lived on my street, Briar Hill Ave., up near Avenue Rd. and at one point was an owner of the now defunct Toronto Maple Leaf baseball team and eventually became owner of the Washington Redskins NFL football team. He was quite a strong promoter and gave out rewards for good performance such as attending a Marlies ( Leafs Jr. A team) and a Maple Leafs practice. It was on one of these excursions down to Maple Leaf Gardens that my friend and I spent all our “car fare” (streetcars) money on chocolate bars and had to walk home. ( a good three to four miles and yes in a snow storm). My mother was a fair bit worried and perturbed. I also received a hockey stick signed by several Leafs players which I managed to leave in the change room at the local rink at Pierres Park now Eglinton Park while I went out on the Pleasure rink, probably chasing some girl, and someone stole it . One of my first experiences learning not to leave my stuff unguarded or someone else may want it more than I do.

The next job was as a paper boy. We delivered two afternoon newspapers, The Toronto Telegram, ( now defunct), published by a well known Toronto entrepreneur, Charles Basset and the Toronto Star which is still going. I had a huge carrier on the front of my bike constructed with wide metal bands. We picked the newspapers for the day up at a two different depots, a few blocks from my home, a put them in huge canvass bags supplied by each Newspaper that fit in the carrier on the front of my bike. We had to collect from each customer each week , so we got to know some of them pretty well. Also if they had any complaints you heard about them first hand. They were pretty happy most of the time I think, ahmm. The daily newspapers were pretty thin in those days compared to now, no inserted ad papers etc. Hence we were often able to fold the paper into a small bundle so we could toss it up on the customer’s veranda .Unfortunately some of them landed on the veranda roof !!! or in a wet spot.!!!. Some guys claimed they could ride along the sidewalk and hit all the verandas without stopping/ I never got that good nor saw them actually do it . One day in 1944 we had a very heavy snow storm and all the roads were blocked I can remember walking down the middle of Duplex Ave., a fairly major road parallel to Yonge St. in knee deep snow. No traffic was moving that day and pick up, several blocks away, and delivery was strictly by sleigh. The Telegram didn’t publish that day. As I delivered the Star the Telegram customers were anxious to read about the storm etc. And kept coming out as I ploughed along, looking for their paper. Could have sold a lot of extra Stars that day.!! We had to turn the money in by a deadline each week to the local depot manager. My memory is kind of vague on this but I think the price of the papers was 3 cents or 5 cents each and we got 0,5 cents per paper.

My route , which I had to buy at what I recall was 25 cents per customer, went west on Briar Hill starting in the next block past my place to Avenue Rd.( a major four lane north /south road) , north on both sides of Avenue Rd. and east on the next street north, Hillhurst Ave. There were some exciting experiences. One day I was crossing Avenue Rd. on my bike. I figured I could cross n front of this bus and beat it. Unfortunately there was a car passing the bus.Whamoo ! Me and my bike ended up on the far sidewalk in two pieces. Fortunately the driver said he had just got his brakes fixed, and I was real lucky I was just badly shook up and nothing was broken. I lugged my bike home by the back wheel The front end was pretty badly mangled. The “paper” bags had huge straps on them with big snap type clips that attached to big rings on the bag so you could carry them over your shoulder and do a walking route. One time I was charging down a hill on St.Clements Ave.( next south of Briar Hill ) coming home from school with an empty paper bag in the carrier and one of clips snapped onto the spokes of my bike and I went ass over tea kettle onto the road .No helmets in those days so I was lucky again.

A similar thing happened when a friend of mine from down the street was helping me deliver an extra route I was doing for someone on holidays. Ron was riding on the cross bar and the shoulder strap got wrapped between the front wheel and the forks and we both wet ass over tea kettle.. It took us a lot of walking around to get our breath back that time.

Somewhere about that time I worked in a dry goods and lady’s wear store on Yonge St., on Saturdays I guess. I was a “Gofer”, someone at the bottom of the staff totem pole that everybody tells to 'go for' or go fetch this and that, whatever they needed at the time. I spent a lot of my time in the basement folding boxes and handling the refuse.

Not sure where this fits in chronologically, but I was quite young at the time. I went to Pieres Park, which was several blocks from home, to take in the “Circus” which came there every summer. I ended up getting a “job” in one of the booths, I think picking up rings in the Ring Toss booth. We went to a similar thing, a Fall Fair perhaps, near Carlisle, when Teraleigh was quite young and she or we won a little teddy bear or something like that at one of the games ?? Anyway, after awhile my mother wondered where I’d gotten to and made the long walk to the park and extracted me from the booth. I wasn’t planning to run away with the circus but she wanted to make sure I didn’t get any ideas. I was quite proud of myself as a ‘kid’, having got this job and a promise of some pay, but of course, I should have realized the position I put my poor mother in. I don’t want to leave the wrong impression about my mother . She was a very kind and gentle person and was very devoted to my well being. As you can see I tempted fate sometimes !!

I started working at Battaglia’s Fancy Fruit Market one summer but I didn’t last too long. I was a bit too young and inexperienced and maybe a bit too slow to do the jobs they wanted done. However, I went back sometime later and they gave me a second chance and I worked there after school and on Saturdays for two or three years of High School. Also did baby sitting for them. Occasionally, did other baby sitting jobs. I think one of them was for a family I originally met as a paper boy. One day I borrowed their grocery delivery truck ( sort of a large Van but with only a seat for the driver.) to take a driving test to upgrade my licence from an operators licence to a chauffer’s licence so I could drive a truck and be paid for it. The examiner from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications had to sit on a Coke crate ( Coke bottles were delivered to stores in those days in double sided wooden crates about three feet long and a foot or so deep and wide). My boss had been to the Farmers Market earlier that morning to pick up fruits and vegetables for the day, which were still in the back of the truck, When I braked too hard once one of the huge crates of lettuce slide up to the front and just about pinned the examiner against the dashboard. Needless to say, I didn’t pass that time but I got ‘em next time.

I had a job chauffering ( no cap and uniform) for a retired shoemaker and his wife for a while, mainly for drives in the country. No mishaps to report there that I can recall !!

I worked for a Loblaws on Eglinton Ave., near Avenue Rd. The pay of a dollar an hour was very attractive in those days, however the manager was kind of squirelly and kept having some questionable meetings with staff in his office in the basement !! I didn’t stay there very long.

In my latter years in High School I delivered groceries for North Yonge Fruit Market which I think is still there at the foot of Briar Hill Ave, on the east side. I worked on Saturdays and at least one summer. As with Battaglia’s ( one son ) it was run by sons of Southern Italian immigrants who had started the business when they came to Canada and still dropped by to keep an eye on things. The southern part of Italy tended to be the agricultural area and the Northern the industrial. The owners went down to the Farmers Market near the Lake Shore each morning to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables for their store. North Yonge had two trucks, the Van type for grocery delivery ( a Fargo, which I really liked driving) and a stake truck which you had to double clutch to change gears (ask your dad). About 3-4 times the size of a pick up truck, I guess, with a big open rack cargo space at the back with a canvass roof. They left about 5 o’clock in the morning so that they could pick up the products and get back in time to uncrate and prepare the goods for sale, when the store opened.. I went along with the older brother one morning. When I was driving the truck, coming back, it was raining and when I braked we slipped sideways on some streetcar tracks and two eleven quart baskets of “blueberries”, that were perched on the back of the front seat and against the back of the cab fell off all over us and the front of the cab. !! The owner wasn’t happy but no docked pay or anything, part of a young guy learning. I found the Southern Italians good to work for. One brother and his family lived above the store as did the Battaglias and invited me for meals sometimes etc. They expected you to work as hard as they did but they weren’t too hard nosed about things.

Once I get going it’s hard to stop. Do you want to hear more.?? Ready or not here we go !!!!!!

In the Niagara fruit season they left North Toronto about eleven o’clock at nite and drove to a market in Hamilton , parked the truck ( to get in a good position to be loaded early and get back to Toronto early) and slept till the fruit farmers arrived with their peaches etc.around four or five a.m.and loaded up their truck. On one of these excursions (getting one of those tunnel syndrome things in my wrist – had to take a break and check out a dance and get advice from one of my young friends what exercises I could use to relieve this – I’m good now and back at it - whew !!!) --where was I, Oh Yeah -- I was driving the truck back to Toronto along the Queen Elizabeth highway, with the boss asleep beside me , when all of a sudden we both woke up with a jolt as the truck hit the shoulder. Lucky again, no damage, no injuries . I think Martin drove the rest of the way home. !!!!!

The snow clearing wasn’t that great in those days - them good olde days, and big ruts developed down the middle of the road where cars kept passing along the same track. Sometimes these ruts were difficult to cross at intersections. I had to be a little careful not to bounce my load too much. The groceries were packed in open bushel baskets and I didn’t want to get my orders mixed up lol. A couple of times I got stuck trying to cross these ruts. I had to put the Van in low gear, get out and push at the side by the front seat and then jump in quickly and drive once I got the Van over the ruts.

Once or twice after I left North Yonge Fruit Market I delivered for a local florist at peak times in their business. No mishaps that I can recall, but then again my memory’s not that great sometimes. There was an old guy, who was a bit of a character, and used to help load the truck and do odd chores around the place. When the schedule was getting tight and there was a heavy load to deliver he’d say “Push Down Dave” to get me going !!

At least one Xmas, during University, I delivered mail for the Post Office

Well, I guess that’s about it . All in all, good learning and relationship experiences that kept me in pocket money plus some to put away for University fees.

P.S.

One wee supplement to last year’s epistle on University Days. I obtained one year of a Masters of Commerce (equivalent of todays MBA) degree along with my Engineering degree, so my extra year wasn’t completely wasted.

With All My Love and
Merry Christmas to;

Teraleigh
Keifer
Rourke &
Leah

Grandpa

In memory of David Carroll Watson
1933-2020

And in honour of the brief knowing of his youngest
Scott Thomas Watson
1969-1972
 
There once was a man named Dave
Who some might have said was naïve
Yet beyond his show of innocence, was a smart man with a true heart brave
Giving what he could
More than most anyone else would
And being very grateful for what he was allowed to save

For 37 years he was united together with Judy
And as a loving loyal husband and father
Always did his duty
From providing a home and being its man, “handy”
To taking his wife and children
With car and trailer out to roam
And sharing the way he saw the world
As a land sweet as candy

In having happy feet
There are few that can compete
As Dave kept going from dusk to dawn
From an early morning jog to check out the neighbourhood
To work all day at the office, in the garden, on the roof
Or at whatever was on his ‘to do list’ and of his love
Needed proof
On Saturday, there was no sleeping in
No sirree
That was the day for fun
As there was usually a job to be done?
Weeding and watering the garden and snow shovelling quickly come to mind
Then there were the special projects
Like painting: inside, outside, wherever there was wood or rusting metal; once one round was done it seemed it was time to start the next with the foot to the pedal

There was wallpapering too and that is all I have to say
As if you have done it you will understand what kind of experience that is to go through with helpers and a supervisor too; and if you haven’t then you won’t
Hahaha
While insulating the attic dressed in longs and goggles and respiratory masks until he and his crew were unrecognizable, or cutting the grass and wearing a hard hat in case any wayward goof balls fell from the sky;
Whatever we were doing for issues of safety, Dave always kept a sharp eye
For proper procedures of repairing and renovating
Skills probably learned from his many summers with Donald on the Carroll Farm
He was patient with his children even though some of our efforts and the resulting mess we made must have caused acute alarm

When there was not ( any work to be done….right away or preventively)
Dave rounded up any willing and able participants amongst his gaggle
And in weather warm was off to the golf course with Kevin or Karen
To play tennis, throw a football or fly a kite with my brothers and me mostly
In colder weather, Dave called for White Christmas everyday
And often God gave him his way; so that:
When we children were young and the family in Toronto
He made a skating rink for us at the school across the road on Whittaker Cres
And then later in London with the golf course out the back door
He took us sledding or skiing for exercise and to explore
Until in his forties he decided to give himself and the kids a break
And accept a lift and to downhill skiing on groomed slopes his devotion did shift
At the London Ski Club he was a regular and when he had a holiday
By going to Beaver Valley, Mountains Whistler, Grouse and Blue, Tignes, France, les Gatineaux, Mont Tremblant, Southern Townships and even Boone, NC
He combined his love of travel with the chance to test his prowess and vigour
“This is the life” he would cry, amidst storms raging, to cool his enthusiasm gave another try, and being answered with “Not I, not I, whatever comes, I will be spry”

On quiet mornings, before work, often under the cover of darkness on the open fields nearby, he slipped out to enjoy peaceful time with my sister, me and Mother Nature on skis X-country
Later with friends in Ottawa, groomed trails were a well-deserved luxury

Then on Sunday everyone joyfully went with him to church to pray
Whether by ushering in others, with pastoral care, refugee rescue or organizing special events; Dave gave thanks to God constantly with his words and his work

Learning many important lessons in life
from his fine Father until he was 9 and doting Mother till 1959
How to tend a garden and then relish the food on your plate
A love of nature and how trees nourish us with syrupy sap as well as their beauty
To work hard to show you care for what you have and for who is depending on you
To find something special in every person, place or thing
In pursuits business minded, he extended his activities from his parents who diligently focused on the four walls of a church United within Canada
To uniting:
 parts within a machine;
 water gushing over the Falls Niagara with workings that could carry its energy to people and places unseen;
 Ontario companies with the financing necessary to overcome challenges and achieve goals
 Canadian companies with International companies

Of equal importance, amongst the goings on of the everyday getting by
Making the most of what came their way
Thomas and Lydia May set an example that guides him still today
Of how to give generously and respectfully receive in turn
Being patient for the things for which your heart does yearn
And simply enjoying what is around you

Lessons that he shared with his children
And we have all done well to learn

Always eager to join in with whatever friends were up to and be involved
Giving all he had to North Toronto Collegiate classes and band, his Scout Troop, newspaper and grocery store delivery routes and not only his own classes at U of T but ‘Treasured’ the whole engineering school and drummed their bugle corp….
Dave energetically played his part; changing how the world will evolve

Descended from farming folk who sailed from Scotland/Ireland
Then settled in Southwestern Ontario
He exuberantly retained the cowboy/explorer spirit
Always somewhat of a rambling man
Willing to go the distance
For the temptation of the next adventure
Having little resistance

Whether it was hitchhiking to meet friends for a dance
Or to cross the mountains of Italy and border of France
In order to of an Olympic hockey game have a glance
That he worked in Italy, Japan, South America, Egypt and the U.S.
Shows his courage to reach out beyond his familiar pastures
And with God’s support, trust in facing the challenge
Of finding new aspects of himself and others
And has inspired us all, as with most clearly the career of Glen, you can see
To think and live globally
Suffice it to say that when God called
He was willing to take a chance and join in a new dance…literally
Becoming known as Swing Idol Dave in the swing dancing circuit in Ottawa
And further afield
To his happy place today; following in step with the Lord of the Dance