Renowned Canadian journalist Christie Blatchford was a force to be reckoned with.
Born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, she had already started high school when her family moved to Toronto, where NTCI was her school of choice. After Grade 13, Christie studied journalism at Ryerson, and was named the leading journalism graduate.
Continue reading Christie Mary Blatchford (’70)Loyal friend, trusted colleague, brilliant musician, stellar editor, beloved wife and mother—these are all phrases that describe Barbara Kamienski, a much loved and respected member of the North Toronto Foundation Advisory Board who lost her battle with cancer in June 2019.
Born in Winnipeg, Barbara was nine when she moved to Toronto with her mother. She soon distinguished herself at John Fisher Public School where, through the itinerant music program, she began her life-long love affair with the French horn.
Continue reading A special tribute to Barbara Kamienski (’71)Sir David Evans was a Second World War pilot and decorated senior commander of the Royal Air Force (Britain). Born in Windsor, Ontario, on July 14, 1924, David was educated in Toronto at Hodgson Public School and NTCI.
David joined the Royal Air Force in 1943 and trained as a pilot in Canada. After receiving his commission in April 1944, he flew fighter ground-attack missions and was one of the first RAF officers to enter the Belsen concentration camp.
Continue reading Air Marshall Chief Sir David George Evans (’41)NTCI lost a loyal, long-time supporter of the school when Mike Tzekas passed after a long battle with cancer. Born in Greece, Mike immigrated to Canada at the age of four. After attending Deer Park Public School, he became part of NT’s close-knit class of ’69 and was involved with the planning of its 50th reunion.
Mike had a successful career with Xerox Corporation before turning to politics. He was first elected to the City of Scarborough Council in 1991. He held that position until 1998, when Scarborough amalgamated with Toronto. He continued as Toronto councillor for Scarborough Wexford until losing to Norm Kelly in 2000.
Continue reading Michael (“Mike”) Lee Tzekas (’69)Donna’s life motto was that you make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. She lived each day with a grateful spirit and taught those around her to never lose their own voice. A voracious reader, Donna was also a skilled pianist, exceptional communicator, and a passionate teacher.
While at NT Donna was active in sports, music, and the G.A.A. She married classmate Jim Britten and they had a strong 53-year marriage. After graduation Donna briefly taught elementary school and was fondly remembered as the favourite Grade 7 teacher by a number of students from the class of ’68 at their 50th reunion.
Continue reading Donna Britten (Wakelin) (’58)On December 4, 2018, Canada lost a noted visionary and philanthropist, Ralph Halbert. Born in Toronto in 1930, Ralph graduated from NTCI in 1948 having been both a strong student and athlete. He went on to attend the University of Toronto, graduating in 1954 with a degree in dentistry, and continued his studies at the University of Chicago in Illinois, specializing in orthodontics. He practiced in Toronto for about ten years but gradually reduced his practice to focus on real estate developments. He and his partners established Glen Corporation, which developed residential communities, business parks and commercial developments throughout the GTA, including Bayview Hill in Richmond Hill and, in conjunction with Cadillac Fairview, the Promenade shopping centre in Vaughan.
With the success of his business dealings, Dr. Halbert began to giveback, as he made sizable contributions to educational and innovation programs in Canada and Israel. Deeply committed to the value of higher education, he believed in the importance of innovation and how that could be achieved through collaboration between universities across national boundaries. According to Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, “It has taken the world 25 years to catch up with Ralph Halbert’s vision… His great achievement was to bring together networks of scholars.”
Ralph was a board member of Fulbright Canada, an educational exchange between Canada and the U.S. but was best known for his work fostering connections between Canada and Israel. In 1977, as the President of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, Ralph and his wife Rosyln established the Programme of Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Renamed The Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies in 1995, the centre “fosters research and promotes the understanding and knowledge of Canadian civilization in all its aspects among Israeli academics and the public at large.” (Dr. Halbert discussed his work with the Centre for Canadian Studies in an interview posted on YouTube, http://www.cfhu.org/video/the-halbert-centre-for-canadian-studies-at-the-hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-building-bridges).
At the University of Toronto’s Munk School, Dr. Halbert sponsored the Halbert Exchange Program, promoting collaborative research between the University of Toronto and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem through the Halbert Network Fellowship for young faculty, the Halbert Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Exchange Program for graduate students. He and his wife also supported scholars through the Roz and Ralph Halbert Professorship of Innovation at the Munk School’s Innovation Policy Lab.
In 2012, Ralph Halbert demonstrated his support of Jewish Studies by establishing the Ralph & Roslyn Halbert Fund for the Centre for Jewish Studies to support the exchange of ideas in the areas of classical Judaism, Jewish thought and philosophy, Jewish history and modern Jewish culture. However, his philanthropy was not confined to areas of scholarship as he was a co-founder of Ramat Hasharon Israel Tennis Centre in Israel that encouraged both Israeli and Arab children to learn respect for one another through playing tennis.
In Canada, Dr. Halbert was one of the early backers of the Canadian Open tennis tournament (now known as the Rogers Cup) at York University. He and his wife were also supportive of filmmaking and were early financial supporters of the Festival of Festivals (now known as the Toronto International Film Festival). Also interested in the visual arts, the Halberts were both benefactors of the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. Ralph lived a rich and full life for 88 years and leaves behind an everlasting legacy as an exemplary family man and philanthropist who truly made an impact.
Robert James LeRoy, one of Canada’s foremost theoretical chemists and a North Toronto grad, passed away August 10, 2018, at the age of 74.
The second of four brothers, all of whom attended NTCI between 1955 and 1967, Bob was a keen and talented student. His brother John (’67) recalled:
“I remember in his final year of high school… he wrote exams in three different types of math. In two of them he received a perfect mark of 100%, while in the other he received a little less. He knew where he had made a careless error and he lamented about it for weeks after. He knew he should have been perfect in all three.”
After graduating from NT, Bob attended the University of Toronto, earning his B.Sc. in Math and Chemistry in 1965 and his M.Sc in Chemistry in 1967. He left Canada to pursue doctoral work in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, where he received his Ph.D. in 1971. He returned to U of T for a year of post-doctoral work before becoming an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo. He spent the rest of his academic career at the U of W and at the time of his passing was a Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of Science for Computing.
His work focused on the behaviour of molecules and atoms, particularly the forces occurring among them. He became a giant in this highly specialized field, starting with his doctoral work focusing on non-covalent bonds. When asked to explain the complexities of his profession to laypeople he was known to say: “I study the sex life of molecules.”
Brilliant and energetic, Bob possessed an endless enthusiasm for new experiences and ideas. He inspired and mentored thousands of young scientists. One page of the chemistry textbook currently in use in Ontario high schools is devoted to the LeRoy radius, a technique for mathematically defining the radius of a small molecule, which is key to understanding the forces at work both inside and outside of that boundary. John Polanyi, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, remembers: “Robert, whom I came to know as a student and later as a fellow scientist, exhibited indomitable courage and infectious joy in his creative life.” His page on the University of Waterloo website lists 114 research publications in addition to nine scholarships and awards. (http://leroy.uwaterloo.ca/cv.html).
It is interesting to note that Bob was not the only one in his family to follow a career in science. His father, D.J. LeRoy, was a research scientist at the National Research Council, and later the head of Chemistry at the University of Toronto (where he hired John Polanyi). His older brother Rod, ’60, pursued doctoral and post-doctoral work in supersonic molecular beams, and later became the CEO of one of the Noranda companies. Niece Jennifer is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Oxford, working on materials development in single molecule power generation. Quite the family business!
To view Bob’s full obituary in the Globe & Mail, point your browser to: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-chemist-robert-j-leroy-studied-the-sexlife-of-molecules/
Bud’s obituary was simple – “Charles “Bud” Hill was born on July 12, 1929 and passed away on May 3, 2018”. No doubt somewhere along the line, Bud had told his family that he wanted nothing fussy, “just the facts, man”. However, in between the day he came into the world and the day he left, there was a whole lot of living! As a musician and educator, Bud touched hundreds of lives and inspired more young people than any of us will ever know. Although he was on staff at NTCI for just seven years during the 60s, his impact on the music program was enormous. Never short on opinions, those of us who were in his class can never forget his rants about the proper way to play a dotted eight and sixteenth, the virtues of an Alford March (as opposed to a “never-to-be-played” Sousa March), the necessity of attending TSO Student Concerts in order to pass and, of course, this reminder to any brass player, “don’t play like a girl” and to just “pick up the horn and WAIL, man!”
Even NTCI music room’s organizational system was a Bud original – his duct tape labelling system for school instruments was yellow for grade 9 instruments, gray for grade 10 and white for senior instruments. A novel system but clearly developed by Bud as it was dictated by his colour blindness. There was good reason why he drove a yellow car and most of his ties were yellow as white, black, gray and yellow were the only colours he could see.
However, there was much more to Bud! Behind the passionate and charismatic educator, there was a superbly talented composer and arranger. His iconic march written for NTCI, 17 Broadway, was praised in Kiwanis competitions, as was his captivating Chant and Dance for Solo Piano and Concert Band. As an arranger, he had an uncanny ability to score perfectly for his performers and in doing so, delighted his audiences. There was nothing as carefully and caringly written as Bud’s Maytime Melodies medleys. His arrangement of Oh Canada is still the standard at NT and for many years was used to open the annual concert of the Toronto Board of Education Secondary School Music Teachers’ Association. In later years, when playing tuba with The Band of the Royal Regiment of Canada, Bud also composed the delightful Brutish Tubadiers featuring a tuba trio!
Bud’s contribution to music education is best measured by the tributes to him. As one his former students wrote, “inside the tiger was the most gentle and caring soul” – a truly insightful description of an unforgettable teacher who was passionate, inspirational, dedicated, and fiercely patriotic.
On February 23 2018, during a research trip to Paris, France, NT grad James “Jim” Laxer, suffered a fatal heart attack. A political economist, well-known intellectual and political activist, Jim was a professor in the Department of Equity Studies, York University at the time of his passing.
Born in Montreal on December 22, 1941 into a politically active family, Jim started his high school career at Oakwood Collegiate but after two years, transferred to North Toronto CI. He found NTCI a less militaristic and rigid environment and thrived in its learning environment. Those in his year will no doubt recall that he ran for president of the student council, narrowly losing to Peter Acker, a family friend.
After graduating from NTCI, he went on receive his BA from the University of Toronto followed by an MA and PhD from Queen’s University. While at university, he was active student journalist, first at The Varsity and later at the Queen’s Journal. In 1965, he was elected president of the Canadian University Press.
In the 1960s, along with economist Mel Watkins and others, Jim played a central role in founding the “Waffle” – a left-wing nationalist movement within the New Democratic Party. In 1971, he ran for the leadership of the NDP and surprised many by coming in second to David Lewis.
The Waffle was ultimately forced out of the NDP and briefly became a separate political party under the name “Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada”. In 1974, Laxer and others from the party were unsuccessful in their bid to be elected to the federal parliament; this defeat led to the Waffle’s demise and Laxer’s decision to concentrate on his position at York University and writing. To this end, he authored over twenty books on the Canadian economy, Canadian politics, free trade, the oil and gas industry and Canadian History. In the 80s, he also hosted a current affairs show, The Real Story and hosted the 1986 National Film Board series, Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada. His essays and opinion pieces also appeared in many Canadian newspapers and magazines and for several years he was a columnist for the Toronto Star.
At the time of his untimely death, he was researching his next book examining Canada’s role in the Second World War. His teaching, writing, activism, concern for greater equality and the future of Canada motivated him throughout his life; he will be missed.
Mr. Dunlevie was a gentleman through and through. He was always dressed in a dapper suit, often with a bow tie, and I imagine he looked very much the same as he did as a first-year teacher when my mother was at Oakwood Collegiate in his very first Grade 13 Latin class. Mr. Dunlevie wrote about their relationship in a letter to her on her 70th birthday, back in 2006:
My first association with Estelle, half a century ago in 1953–1954, was a curious kind of role reversal, played out in my first Grade 13 Latin class at Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto.
I was a callow first-year teacher, while Estelle was a mature seventeen-year-old whose calming and steadying presence in the class helped me through the year. My students’ whole high school careers would be made or broken by their performance in the externally set and marked Departmental Examination, so it was unheard of for a neophyte to be entrusted with the responsibility of preparing them for it. The experience was a steep learning curve for a teacher and students, but Estelle’s support and encouragement played no small part in our success; they all passed, and Estelle got the mark in the 80s that she had so richly earned.
This letter is characteristic of Mr. Dunlevie’s humility and appreciation of his students. It was no doubt his hard work, and not my mother’s, that led to the success of every single one of his Grade 13 students that year.
Years later, when I entered Grade 9 at NTCI in the fall of 1983, I had no doubt that Mr. Dunlevie knew exactly who I was. He always had a smile for me, and a wise quotation to share. I always enjoyed talking with Mr. Dunlevie, as he was a font of knowledge and supremely respectful of his students—he talked to us as if we were all very important indeed. In Grade 11, I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Greece and Rome with Mr. Dunlevie and other members of the Classics Department. I remember sitting at a little restaurant in Athens as Mr. Dunlevie and Mr. Maitman took turns pouring retzina and ouzo into my glass. After all, Mr. Dunlevie did like a good glass of wine—and I was not much of a drinker. I believe he felt that part of my classics education should involve an appreciation of the Bacchic delights such as wine and other alcoholic pleasures.
In my final year of high school, I had the great honour of being Mr. Dunlevie’s final student. Once a week at lunch, I would go to Mr. Dunlevie’s office, and he would teach me ancient Greek. He clearly instilled a love of the subject in me, as I returned to it in university, where I completed a major in ancient Greek studies. Such was his impact on so many of his students.
Mr. Dunlevie and I “graduated” from NTCI in the same year—1988. Mr. Dunlevie retired, and I finished Grade 13. Both of us went on to study at the University of Toronto; I completed an Honours B.A., while Mr. Dunlevie engaged in a PhD in modern Italian. Once in a while, we would bump into each other on campus, and he would invariably invite me to join him for a refreshment at Hart House, where we would catch each other up on our lives and our studies. Mr. Dunlevie continued to include me and my mother in his life, inviting us to attend his graduation celebration and, most recently, his 88th birthday party, which we were both honoured to attend.
In the above letter to my mother, Mr. Dunlevie, in characteristic Mr. Dunlevie fashion, quoted Louis Hémon’s heroine, Maria Chapdelaine, as saying she “knows the essential hierarchy of things that count.” We could just as easily say the same of Mr. Dunlevie. He was a man who valued the pursuit of knowledge, strong relationships, love, good food, fine drink, and music. The light he brought to the world will be sorely missed.
— Nancy Steinhauer (’88)