I have had a look at some of my classmates’ biographies and also some of the old copies of the “Southfield Jay”.  I noted that Cheryl Commons has 11 grandchildren (I am no competition with merely one granddaughter), Steve Cooper became a judge and Frank Kip was voted most likely to succeed.  The latter begged the question in my mind about whether I, or my classmates had any idea of what we meant by succeeding.  Were we thinking about fame, fortune, career, relationships or all or none of the above?  My own limited view of success at the time was probably finishing high school and university and sailing away on some metaphorical ship on an uncharted and independent life journey without an anticipated outcome or, for that matter, a destination.  If that idea was in my mind, I have probably succeeded.

After graduating from Michigan State, I taught school in inner city Detroit and in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  In the summer, of 1971 some friends visited me and told me that they were short of teachers in rural Newfoundland.  Moments later, I talked to the Superintendent of Schools in Green Bay, Newfoundland and he offered me a job on the spot.  I drove my old jalopy to the Canadian border a few weeks later, was interviewed by a Customs Canada official. I guess he liked what he heard because I have lived in Canada ever since.

I met my wife, Mary Pat Short (an Englishwoman), in Crete in 1972, (we were both teachers on summer holiday).  We were married in Baie Verte, Newfoundland and worked in that province for a number of years.  In 1980, we moved to Baffin Island in the Arctic and spent 10 years there working with Inuit children.  I spent several years as a school principal.  During our early years in Canada, we had two children, Clare-Estelle (who lives with her husband and child in the Yukon) and Sarah, who will be starting a masters’ degree at the University of Victoria in the fall. 

We moved to Fort Smith in the sub-Arctic around 21 years ago.  Mary Pat and I ended our careers as educators training Aboriginal students as teachers at Aurora College.  We retired about seven years ago.  Mary Pat then became Chairperson the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission and I became an adjudicator for labour disputes.  I am also a very involved volunteer as President of Sport North, an organization with 19,000 athletes, coaches, officials and other volunteers.  Both activities require quite a bit of travelling. 

In school, I was involved in both varsity and recreational sport and have been physically active ever since taking part in tennis, squash, cross-country skiing and swimming.  So it is not altogether surprising that my younger daughter, Sarah, became an elite cross-country skier and represented Canada in world cups and world championships in North America, Europe and Asia.

On our near-term family agenda is a visit from our Yukon daughter and granddaughter and the wedding of Sarah both later this summer.  On reflection, I guess I can echo Harry Breniser’s words, “...life turned out much better than I could have hoped...”