Chapleau Senior Citizens Club honours Dr G. E. Young for contribution to Chapleau at ceremony in 2010

The Chapleau Senior Citizens Club honoured Dr. G..E Young for his contribution to Chapleau at a social held in the Bignucolo Residence in February, 2010.

Making the presentation to Dr. Young, who was born and raised in Chapleau, and practised medicine in the community for almost 50 years, were Margaret Fife and Velma Morin, while the Township of Chapleau was represented by Andre Byham.

He was presented with a plaque "acknowledging his tremendous commitment to the health and well being of the citizens of our community during his years of medical practice."

The exact wording on the plaque which Dr. Young hung above the photo of his graduating class in medicine at Queen's University in 1942 read: "In acknowledgment of your tremendous commitment to the health and well being of the citizens of our community during your many years of medical practise in Chapleau. You will always be remembered and loved by all for your dedication. Presented by the Chapleau Senior Citizens Club, February 11, 2010".

In response, Dr. Young said he was "pleasantly surprised" and deeply appreciative of the gesture, according to a story in the Chapleau Express. 

On the same occasion the Senior Citizens Club made a presentation to the Chapleau General Hospital Foundation.

After graduating in medicine from Queen's University in 1942, he interned at Columbia University in New York with no intention of returning home. He did to replace a doctor who wanted a vacation, and the rest is history.

Not only did he practise medicine, but became involved in many aspects of community life which included building the town beach using his own funds, establishing a television system, serving as a township councillor for six years. He was also the second president of the Chapleau Rotary Club. 

He always seemed to have a new project underway.

Related to his medical practise he served as served as coroner, medical officer of health and chief of staff at the hospital. There were occasions when he was the only medical doctor in Chapleau, who also "hopped freights" to look after patients along the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Over the years Dr. Young and I became good friends, and I was delighted to stay at his place when I was home for the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of Chapleau in 2001. In 2004, on his cross country trip he visited with me in Cranbrook. Dr. Young and my father Jim Morris were born only weeks apart in the Lady Minto Hospital soon after it opened in 1914.

In 1997, shortly after he retired, Dr. Young was honoured at a reception hosted by the township.

During my 2001 visit home I learned from Jean Hong that when she and other Chapleau girls were in training to be nurses, they would visit with Dr. Young when home and he would provide assistance and support. Over the years they would make it a point to have a visit with him.

Jean died recently and I extend my most sincere sympathy to Yen and all the Hong family.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Chapleau's second reeve Thomas Godfrey 'pioneer builder of the north' dies as Highway 129 opened in 1949

Although best known for his role in the construction of the Chapleau end of Highway 129, and his untimely death from a heart attack just as it was completed in January 1949, Thomas J. Godfrey served as the second reeve and was otherwise greatly involved in community life in its early years.

Writing in Chapleau Trails, edited and published by the late Dr. W.R. "Bill" Pellow, Betty (Good) Godfrey, the wife of Thomas Godfrey Jr, his son,  wrote the following about her father-in-law and the completion of Highway 129.

"Tom Sr. lived to see his beloved Chapleau highway completed in 1949 and he was a member of the party that drove the first automobile across those last one hundred yards to join Chapleau to the outside world by uniting two primitive bush roads. It was winter. 

"The snow was heavy and deep. It was a bitter cold day. The drive had been long and arduous, excitement was high, anticipation of this moment was trying on the healthiest and bravest, however it proved too much for Tom Godfrey and on that day when he was experiencing fulfillment, ultimate pleasure and satisfaction, he had a heart attack and died."

The Chapleau Post reported that Mr. Godfrey had commented that it was the "happiest moment of my life" just before he died.

Mr. Godfrey had succeeded G.B. Nicholson who had served as reeve from 1901 when Chapleau was incorporated until he chose to retire. Mr. Godfrey was reeve from 1914 to 1916.

Born in Godfrey, Ontario, he arrived in Chapleau in 1898 to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

Like so many of Chapleau's early pioneers he quickly became involved in community life playing hockey, baseball, curling, golf as well as becoming a member of the Chapleau Town Band. He became a big asset as he was already a violin player but switched to cornet and euphonium.

In 1916, Mr. Godfrey played baseball on the 'Young Elephants' coached by Father Romeo Gascon of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. My grandfather Harry Morris also played on it.

In fact, when I was a a child walking past his house at the intersection of Birch and Lansdowne streets where the Louis Hemon Cultural Centre is now, I still recall him practising on his front porch.

Earle Sootheran, Mr Godfrey, Oliver Korpela

Mr. Godfrey became Indian Agent in 1916, a position he held for many years, but he also became an entreprenur owning a pool room established circa 1910, and for a time the "old old rink" on Lorne Street.

But his first love was to complete the "big gap in the middle" which would result in Highway 129 with Thessalon. Until it was opened, Chapleau was really only accessible by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The highway was also under construction from the Thessalon end.

The newspaper referred to him as " a pioneer builder of the north" well known as Indian Agent and road superintendent from 1923 into the 1930s and the Great Depression.

On that January day in 1949 when he died, the Chapleau Post reoprted that the Chapleau contingent was "battling snowdrifts and biting winds over a rugged trail where no cars had ever passed he had driven completely over the Chapleau end of the road."

As Mr. Godfrey celebrated the "happiest moment" of his life, he had a heart attack and died on Highway 129. He was 74. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Stanley Deluce inducted into Canadian Aviation Hall of fame put 'incredible entrepreneurial stamp on aviation'

Stanley Deluce, born and raised in Chapleau,was "a genuine aviation pioneer", according to Michael Posner of The Globe and Mail, in an article written about him after his death on January 27, 2010.

Predeceased by Angela, his wife of 59 years, and his parents John and Elizabeth Deluce, in World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force becoming a Flight Officer in Squadron  126. 

At the end of the war he returned to his employment as a locomotive engineer at Chapleau with the Canadian Pacific Railway. He retired in 1976. Mr. Deluce was born in Chapleau on July 20, 1923.

In 1947, he married he married Angela Spadoni, and by 1949, he had bought a Flight Canuck aircraft to combine "his love of flying with his love of hunting and fishing", according to article about him.

Soon therafter White River Air Service was established, and over the years it led to Mr. Deluce putting an "incredible entrepreneurial stamp" on aviation, Mr. Posner wrote.

In 1970, as the Chapleau Aiport was under construction, Mr. Deluce with passenger Yvon Martel made the first official landing there. Gene Bernier, the chair of the airport commission, after whom the airport is now named, greeted them on arrival.

After Mr. Deluce was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, his profile stated in part : "His development of a small commuter airline in Northern Ontario, which led to one of the largest regional airlines in Canada ... has been of great benefit to aviation in Canada".

As well as being inducted into the aviation hall of fame, he was member of the Civil Aviation Tribunal, a director of the Air Transport Association and was selected as an outstanding aviation pioneer of 1993 by the Rusty Blakey Heritage Aviation Group. He was also an honourary Life Member of ATAC.

His obituary in the Toronto Star, notes that "Stan oversaw the growth of White River Air Services with its acquisition of Sault Airways, Kapuskasing Air Service, Austin Airways, Superior Airways, Air Manitoba, Air Ontario and the startup of both NorOntair and Air Creebec. At one point in the mid 1970's after further relocating to Timmins, Stan's companies were doing charter and scheduled operations all over North America and were supplying planes, pilots and services to places as far away as Denmark, France (Reunion Island), Tunisia and Nepal."

Mr. Posner wrote that "There was never, Mr. Deluce once explained to an interviewer, any grand, master plan. 'It seemed to just come naturally. When you see opportunities you take them, but I never really had ambitions past doing things in Northern Ontario. I guess we grew because of the boys [among nine children, seven were sons, all of whom acquired commercial pilot licenses]coming into the business. Other than that, I probably never would have bothered, because after a certain point you're just adding headaches.'"

Mr. Posner noted that "As the large family and many friends gathered to pay final respects a Harvard AT-6 made a slow tributary pass over the cemetery in a fitting salute. Mr. Deluce trained on precisely such an aircraft" after joining the RCAF. A friend had arranged for the flight.

Mr. Posner also wrote that as the funeral cortage was making its way to the cemetery from the church, it was forced to stop at a railway crossing as a Canadian Pacific Railway train passed through it. All so very fitting!  My email is mj.morris@live.ca