George Evans on "surprises, improvisations and desperate measures" at old Chapleau High School in early 1960s before new era began on top of the hill

GEORGE EVANS WAS KILLED IN A CAR ACCIDENT ON HIGHWAY 129 ON MARCH 28, 2012.  "Requiescat in pace"


SERVICE FOR GEORGE: THERE WAS  A SERVICE FOR GEORGE ON THURSDAY APRIL 5 AT ELEVEN A.M AT TRINITY UNITED CHURCH, CHAPLEAU. DONATIONS TO ROTARY CLUB OF CHAPLEAU WILL BE APPRECIATED.


HERE IS PART OF THE OPP REPORT ON THE ACCIDENT: On March 28th, 2012 at approximately 10:30 a.m., the East Algoma Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) attended a two vehicle collision approximately 100 kilometres north of Thessalon on Highway 129.The OPP Technical Traffic Collision Investigation unit (TTCI) is investigating the accident which involved a transport truck and a car. George Evans, 77, of Chapleau was the driver and lone occupant of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.


By Michael J Morris




When George Evans arrived at Chapleau High School in 1961, it was located in a red brick building beside the Kebsquasheshing River where airplanes landing and taking off interrupted lessons on hot, open windowed afternoons in September and May.

Writing in the CHS Souvenir Edition newspaper marking its 60th anniversary in 1982, George, who taught History, English, sometimes Latin, and Phys Ed too, and for many years was assistant principal, noted that from 1962 to 1966 when the present school building opened, they did not have a gymnasium which led to some surprising timetables, where "only in such circumstances would anti athletic I, for instance,  find myself teaching physical education to a group of Grade 12 boys".

As CHS prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2012, George, who retired in 1989, and lives in Chapleau, is a member of the reunion committee, and active in community life. His article in the 60th anniversary publication captures CHS the way it was in those years when the student population started to increase as the first baby boomers arrived, but I enlisted the aid of Hugh McKechnie, who was a student when George arrived and later returned to teach at the school, to share some memories of "Mr. Evans" who was so much part of the school's history from 1961 to 1989.

Hugh recalls that he met Mr. Evans "one day in August. He was sitting at his desk, planning a unit of ancient history and we, a boat-load of ex-tenth graders, clambered up the wooden steps wondering what was going on at the school in the middle of the summer. 

George with Michael Cecile

"In those days doors were rarely locked, including doors to schools, town halls, churches, rinks, etc. If we could find a basketball, we could play unsupervised, at the school. It had always been that way, and so would it always be in a world where kids needed exercise and facilities were sometimes ready and available. The Law Society of Upper Canada had not yet envisaged the lucrative hockey sticks they would eventually poke routinely into the spokes of a healthy society. It was an era of trust, honour, conscience and passive good-will whose expiry date had not yet arrived."

"We met a youthful blond-fringed man with a winning smile in what would be our home room in September for that year. After handshakes and welcomes he promptly pointed out that he had not had a bath in a week. I invited him to bring his towel to my parents’ place, on Connaught Street. The rest, they say, is history."

In his article, George noted that single teachers "boarded in private homes, but lived at the school, trying to cope with the demands of full and surprising timetables" thus his stint as a Phys Ed teacher.

Despite the lack of a gymnasium, George notes that "following the energetic example of our inimitable principal, Dr. (Karl A.) Hackstetter, who liked on summery afternoons to take the whole school for a stroll to the Golf Club, to terrorize members,.I partially solved the problem by walking my gym class over the trestle to the golf course, for a philosophical pipe."

As an aside, those of us who attended CHS in the 1950s during Dr. Hackstetter's first years at CHS will remember  his Golf Course walks which as I recall were undertaken at a very brisk pace.

L, Terry Way-White, Lucy Bignucolo,Rick Selin, George, 

George  recalled the occupation of the upper floor of the Bank of Montreal, earlier Dominion Store at the corner of Young and Birch streets that Dr. Hackstetter filled with three ping-pong tables, "and all the school learned how to play, Or else'.

George also wrote about the library that "consisted of two or three hundred aging books kept in a narrow dark, stuffy closet on the second floor... Few students or staff realized that we had a library; fewer used it."

His first years at CHS were full of "surprises. improvisations and desperate measures" but the new era began when the high school moved to its new home on top of the hill in 1966. Although for a couple of months they shared the building with the contractors, then, "we had it all to ourselves. The bright classrooms, the spacious gym and the library!"


Rene Hackstetter recalled that, "I remember taking Greek lessons from Mr. Evans! I think I may still have the blue spiral binder with a few Greek words in it!" Dr Hackstetter is Rene's father.

But living in Chapleau has been much more for George over the years than Chapleau High School. He has been, and remains an active participant in community life. 

For example, in 1974, George ran for Chapleau township council, was elected and served two terms before retiring, the last one as deputy reeve.

George on left at Chapleau 75th anniversary

Let me turn  to Hugh McKechnie again, who provides an anecdote about George that sums him up so completely, although I have to admit that I have known George since 1989 when I arrived at CHS to teach and never knew he was a canoeist.

Hugh wrote: "During the summer of that first year, in the early 60s, we stragglers who met George that day took a notion to show him the river. There was one problem. My old canvas-covered cedar-strip Peterborough canoe was full of holes. This was normal for that kind of canoe. The technology of the time offered a perfectly acceptable solution. You set out, allowing the canoe to leak until the cedar has swelled enough to staunch the flow of seep-water. This only worked if the cedar-strips were fitted tightly, and if the canvas had some integrity. Our canoe boasted neither of these virtues. 

"Out came George’s bank book. He scribed a cheque for the full-value of a fiberglass skin, available at Newt Pellow’s Canadian Tire. It was flabbergasting. We have the pictures of the repair work. The canoe trip went forward, all the way to Pickerel Falls. The gesture had happened in the manner of an afterthought, an off-handed response to a question only half heard; it was second nature to this new teacher who would go on to give us so much more for years and years to come." 

And to Chapleau too. Thanks George!


My thanks to Hugh McKechnie, Mac Evans George's brother, to George for writing about CHS and Larry Martel for research assistance. My email is mj.morris@live.ca


Please preregister for the CHS 90th reunion at http://www.chs90threunionfestival.com/