Obituaries/Notices
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Grieve, Gilbert Richardson
Passed away peacefully in his sleep at Prince Edward Hospice in Picton, ON
on April 14th, 2020
He was in his 93rd year
He is pre-deceased by his wife of 67 years, Betty Grieve.
He was born in Toronto, ON and had a very full life.
He and was happily retired for 33 years.
Gil is survived by his son James (Carolyn), grandchildren Kristy (Jason) of Cambridge and Katie of Belleville,
great-grandchildren Braxton and Mollie, niece Jenise (Larry) McGregor and nephew Rob (Andrea) Grieve.
Updated: We are finally able to hold a service and a celebration of life for our Dad Gilbert Grieve.
We are doing this on Monday June 6th, 2022.
The service will be at 1:00 pm at the Wellington United Church with
a Celebration of His Life to follow from 2-4
at Wellington on the Lake Recreation Centre.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to Hospice Prince Edward. (hospiceprinceedward.ca)
Arrangements entrusted to the
Ainsworth Funeral Home,
288 Noxon Avenue, Wellington, ON
Online donations and condolences at
www.ainsworthfuneralhome.com
A little about Dad’s life by Jim Grieve
After graduating high school, Dad took a trade as a Tool and Die maker. One of his first jobs was working in a laboratory at the
University of Toronto, where he met Mom. They were married at Hart House Chapel at the U of T, which according to Dad
was quite special then. He worked at Applied Research developing gyros for aircraft, including the Avro Arrow.
The company transformed over the years, but eventually became Spar Aerospace, the developer of the robotic Canadarm
used by Nasa for the U.S. Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
Dad was an avid hunter and fisherman and was one of the first people in Canada to teach a hunter safety course back in the 50’s.
At that time, there wasn’t a qualification to do so in Canada and his credentials to do so came from the National Rifle Association.
Dad was a quality control supervisor at a sheet metal and printed circuit board manufacturer in Scarborough and also at
North American Arms, a manufacturer of rifles and shotguns for some years. In 1967, Mom and Dad bought a cottage lot on
Cordova Lake and built their own cottage. That is where I met my wife, Carolyn.
He decided to go out on his own and started a printed circuit board manufacturing business in Toronto, before becoming quite ill with asthma. The doctors told him to get out of town and away from those chemicals. He listened and him and Mom bought a retail clothing store in Norwood, Ontario called the “Friendly Towne Shoppe”, and though they knew nothing about retail, they successfully operated it in the 80s and early 90s. He was one of the first in the whole area to get into the latest thing – video tape rentals – and divided the store into 2 parts so he could do so. They did quite well. He was also the President of the chamber of Commerce in Norwood for some years.
Dad retired when he was 60 and did many things. He and Mom travelled to many places including across Canada (planes, boats and trains), parts of the Caribbean, the British Isles, Europe, South America and the United States. They wintered in Panama City, Florida for many years, and then Victoria BC when health care coverage became expensive.
23 years ago, Mom and Dad moved to Wellington-on-the-Lake, a wonderful community where they made lots of friends
and had a really full life.
Dad had many hobbies including copper enameling, gold wire jewelry, rock tumbling, photography and dowsing, just to name a few.
If you needed a well to be drilled, you just called Dad and he could tell you where to drill. One day, Dad did a dowsing demo for
his great-grandkids, Braxton and Mollie. They were amazed when it worked for them too, and asked Dad how it worked.
Being young, they were figuring it would be an answer based on technology. We had a hard time trying to explain why and how it worked, because nobody really knows. They will remember that day forever.
In the early days, both Dad and Mom were quite active with Wellington-on-the-Lake and did the newsletter, ran the Saturday morning coffee, and were involved in many events held at the recreation centre. He was a member of the Wellington Legion, where he could be found on a Friday afternoon enjoying a pint with his closest friends. He also belonged to the ROMEOs (retired old men eating out) and played in the snooker club up until late last year.
I know that I have missed a lot about Dad. What I do know is that because of all of his great friends in this community, he kept on going and enjoyed life. He lived on his own after Mom died up until about 5 weeks before he passed.
Thank you so much for being the great people you are.
In the final weeks of his life, Dad received amazing care while at MLP Residence in Picton, and finally where he passed away in his sleep at Hospice Prince Edward. In these very unusual and tough times, I have also learned that there are some really tremendous folks working in the health care and related fields that do a difficult job without complaint and ask for very little in return. As we are learning today, we have new heroes, people that deserve our respect, all of our lives will change and we have them to thank for helping us get through this.
One last, or almost last thing; one of Dad’s favourite sayings was “It’s not what you earn, it’s what you save”.
Boy, we sure had some interesting conversations around that.
Dad wrote the following about 2 weeks before he passed away; I will say no more in order to give Dad the “last word”:
As I walk up the hill of time honoured, with a tear in my eye, I see my family that I have left behind
I walk to the top towards the shining light and see all the foot prints in the sand of those gone before me
As I climb the hill and come to the top that light guides me into a green valley
There I see all of my family and friends that are there to greet me.
What a wonderful reunion we have
Now I better help wash up the glasses.
Gil Grieve
