About

I have been profoundly influenced by my parents.  They were strong, believing in personal risk to protect the downtrodden.  They grew up poor in rural Suffolk, England, in the 1920s, and remained proud of their roots.  They had a difficult childhood.  My mother moved from foster home to foster home – yet still managed to finish secondary school.  My father won a scholarship to Framlingham College but could not graduate as he had to work.  Both served in WWII, my mother as a Sergeant in the WAAF, and my father as a fighter pilot in the RAF.  He was shot down, helped by the Resistance, caught by the Gestapo, rescued by the Luftwaffe, and ended the war in Stalag Luft IIIB, site of the Great Escape.  All by the age of 24.

After the war, Dad climbed the ranks of Royal Dutch Shell in London and Caracas, Venezuela, and later in the National Energy Board in Ottawa.  Mum raised three sons; loved music and literature; and published her autobiography, Tinklebrook, in 1993.  As well, I have been lucky to have had two older brothers who were intelligent, supportive, and sensitive.

I was the black sheep of the family, destroying my father’s car not once, but twice.  My first job was shovelling sand on weekends in high school.  “Garlic and smiles” were my memories here – my colleagues ate garlic, and we all sweated profusely.  They were kind and opened my middle-class eyes to manual skill and patience.  They liked that I worked harder than they did to prove my worth to them.

Later, driving a truck in the summers paid better and helped with tuition and residence at university.  I learned about people’s motivations, ambitions, limitations, and yet more of their backgrounds.  I graduated from The University of Toronto in English Literature and Renaissance Philosophy.

Mammon called and I became a Chartered Accountant.  Then a Vice President of an international company, Magna International, stationed in Germany.  The business world is narrow and impersonal.  It was like walking on a tropical beach; yes, it has the sights and sounds of the waves and the warmth of the sun, but it is sterile and empty on that beach.  And the ground underneath you moves with every footstep.

I returned to Canada and bought a company, started others, and sold some.  As a business owner there is more flexibility in your time.  I travelled.  I learnt welding; taught welding and represented America and Canada at ISO for over 20 years writing welding standards.  It was the ultimate irony – a romantic trying to bring stability and order to worldwide welding protocols!  At the same time, I pursued R&D, obtaining numerous patents in a newer type of welding, electric spark deposition.  One day, “ESD” will be quite common…

I have been lucky to have a wife of 40 years and three successful children with their fascinating spouses, families, and unique histories.  The perspectives – and lessons – that you learn from those dear to you add layer upon layer of additional meanings to the purpose of life.

What have I learned?  Two lessons.  The first is that irony is fundamental to life.  Thus, I have started The Ironist, and will continue to be an editor of it as it grows.  Please take a look at this online newsletter here.  The second lesson is that people can be like a beautiful sunset.  They come unexpected, they overwhelm, and then they are gone, a fading memory.  They surprise you with their loyalty. But there are others who betray.  This is unnerving, especially if unexpected.  Greed seems to be the reason for evil.  Passion varies between them all, complexity doubly so.  Character can be an easy read; or unknowable.  These uncertainties combine for intrigue, laying seeds for fiction…