William Wallace BARRETT

BARRETT, William Wallace
Peacefully, after a brief illness, on October 21, 2003, in his 87th year. Known to his family as 'Pops'. Much beloved and missed by his life partner of 25 years, Joan Osler, his children Douglas, Rod, Gord, David and Virginia Chapple, his children-in-law Hatty Reisman, Wendy Barrett, Christel Barrett, Karen Barrett and Rodney Chapple, Joan's children Jane, Graeme (Dawn), and Brit, Bill's many grandchildren Jeff, Rob, Scott, Lindsay, Trish, Jackie, Julia, Jamie, Hillary, Matt, Carly, Christine, Aaron, Stefan, Andrea and Kate, and Joan's grandchildren Darragh and Cameron, together with countless friends and admirers and the many friends of his children who developed a lasting affection for him.
Bill attended U of T and Osgoode Hall Law School. During the war, he was an artillery officer in the 13th Canadian Field Regiment. He saw action from June 1945 to the end of the war in the Normandy and Netherlands campaigns, and wrote the Regimental History.
Soon after his return to Toronto he married Patricia Turner Chown. Winnipeg born, Trish was a feisty and passionate wife to Bill and mother to their active family. Sadly, she passed away in 1965.
He has been Joan Osler's partner in life since the early 80's. Each has given the other many rewarding years of companionship, adventure, support and fun.
Bill practised law for 40 years with Kingsmill, Jennings, now merged with Miller Thomson, and retired in 1987. For most of his working life his main hobby was property development. He built and managed until his death a group of commercial buildings near the Toronto airport, and designed and built numerous private homes.
He was a serious carpenter, furniture builder and amateur architect. He instinctively knew how to design, configure and fill a space to make it functional and welcoming.
For the last 16 years of his life, he was principally a private handyman for the members of his family. Bookshelves, furniture and cabinets, renovations, building plans, project management: no challenge was too big or too small.
He was a voracious student of history, especially military history. He loved to travel with Joan, friends and various offspring. While he particularly favoured France, he was in Tuscany with Joan, Brit, Jane and friends when he became ill. He loved the Georgian Bay, in particular his many projects, bad weather and really big, adventurous family picnics. He loved to weekend and ski with his family at the Osler Bluff Ski Club.
To the very end he was astonishingly active and productive, and always a true gentleman. We will miss him every day.
Funeral arrangements for Saturday October 25th will be announced shortly.