RICHARD CALLERY PEARCE

RICHARD CALLERY (DICK) PEARCE Died peacefully, surrounded by family December 7, 2014, age 93. He leaves Betty, his best friend and dearly loved wife of nearly 72 years, his son Michael (Kathy Karn), daughters Susan (Martha Ralph) and Jan (Victor Gamble), as well as grandchildren Michelle, David (Rachelle), Roger Leavens (Claudia), Sarah Leavens and Meghan Gamble, great- granddaughters Cleo Sherfey and Yvette Leavens and great-grandsons Micah and Ryan Pearce, Ian Leavens and Adam Sherfey. Born in Cannifton, ON (near Belleville), in 1921, Dick was the only child of Lt. Col. Norman and Norma Pearce. Much of Dick's boyhood was spent in Port Credit and Appleby College. He left his engineering studies at University of Toronto to join the Royal Canadian Navy, achieving the rank of Lieutenant (N). Dick served over four-and-a-half years in WWII, including three years in corvettes on the North Atlantic convoy run between Newfoundland and Ireland, with stops in New York, Halifax, Saint John, Bermuda, Iceland, Scotland and England. He was navigating officer in two corvettes and was also second in command of three of the ships. Afterward, he joined his father, uncles and cousins, who published The Northern Miner newspaper. Dick ran Northern Miner Press (the award- winning printing division later became Norgraphics), progressing from reporter travelling to mine sites across the country to sole owner of the company - a company remarkable for its high percentage of long-term employees. He also served as chairman of the Council of Printing Industries of Canada, was a life member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and the Prospectors & Developers Association. He was a longtime member of the Engineers Club (Ontario Club). By the time Dick sold his company in 1989, he had increased staff from 50 to over 200 and had acquired five small companies and opened branch offices of The Miner in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. A member of the Granite Club for over 60 years and the Toronto Hunt for over 20 years, Dick was a keen traveller. His business and personal trips took him throughout Canada, especially in the years right after the war when he regularly visited mines from coast to coast, plus several times to Europe (sometimes purchasing printing machinery) and on over 20 cruises from the Mediterranean to the Orient. With a permanent home in Toronto, he and Betty wintered on Longboat Key in Florida for 25 years. But Dick's heart was truly at home at the Cedar Point cottage property he purchased on Georgian Bay in 1951; he designed the cottage built in 1952 that the entire family considers its emotional base. The family wishes to give very special thanks and love to Dad's main caregiver Cory Dalangin who extended his life and gave him reason to smile every day as he struggled with Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia. We are also most grateful to his other caregivers through the years, especially Mophel, Zed, Glenda and Dalma. Our thanks, too, to Dr. Mark Nowaczynski of House Calls for his great care and kindness. Dick was a man of generous spirit and enormous integrity. His life's work was to support and protect his family in the best way he knew how. He will be greatly missed by his family and by all who knew him, whether as friend, employer or colleague. A private memorial service will be held. Condolences and memories would be welcomed online at www.etouch.ca Donations may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario (www.heartandstroke.on.ca) the Kidney Foundation of Canada at (www.kidney.ca) or a charity of your choice.