THOMAS LEE WEATHERALL

THOMAS LEE (TERRY) WEATHERALL 1922 - 2014 It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Terry Weatherall, who died peacefully at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto on May 30, 2014. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. --William Butler Yeats Terry excelled at two careers, athletics and art; both pursued with passion and skill. Terry was an extraordinary athlete, a former European amateur boxing champion who boxed his way around army rings during and after WWII while serving in the British army. Terry also coached at an elite level in gymnastics, soccer, fencing and track and field, participating as a coach in multiple Olympic Games and for multiple sports. In 1964 he was a team official at the Tokyo Olympic Games. He served on administrative sports bodies and contributed to their policy and programs, including the use of safety headgear for Canadian amateur boxers. Until his last days, Terry took pride in his physical fitness and did daily exercises to strengthen his core. In his late eighties, he had the fitness and strength of someone twenty years younger. He always gently encouraged others to enjoy the benefits of physical fitness. After his sports career, Terry turned his energy into becoming an art collector, a seller and buyer of paintings and ceramics. His home was filled with the art, paintings, clocks, glass art and sculpture that he loved. During his very last Sunday, he purchased a special find at the antique market. Born in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland, on February 26, 1922, Terry moved to England about 1941 where he joined the British Army, eventually becoming a member of the British Army Physical Training Corps. During his youth, he found a passion in the boxing ring which would mould his career for the next 30 years. After Aldershot, a British military base near London, he served in Gibraltar, Africa and Italy during WWII. At the end of the war, he remained in Europe serving primarily in Greece and Italy, where much of his role focused on physical fitness. During this period, he continued to box and one of his favourite stories was that of being in an army ring in Algiers with world champion Marcel Cerdan. After WWII Terry returned to Italy to study art. In 1950 he was conscripted back into the Army due to the war in Malaya and was seconded to Australia. He served for three years, stationed there and in Malaya. Terry was demobilized back to London and attended Loughborough College, which has long been associated with sport and whose teams excelled in competition, for a Physical Education and teaching program. After this training he was accepted into Ashbury College in Ottawa as an English and Phys Ed teacher. In 1956 Terry was accepted as a Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor and a Master Warrant Officer in the Canadian Guards and was employed at the Physical Training Wing of the Royal Canadian School. Terry became a master coach, using his expertise to ensure military athletes such as Marie Dupuis, Babe Mason, Tom Chesson, Mike Mercredi and Jim King a place in national and international competitions. From the late 1950s until the mid 1960s, Canadian army track and field, boxing and soccer personnel trained by Terry were among the best qualified in Canada. Terry coached at the Pan American Games of 1959 and 1967. During the same period, he was a coach on Canada's Olympic boxing, gymnastics and soccer teams and in 1968 served as Canada's national soccer coach. In 1965, while still in the Canadian Armed Forces and on behalf of the Canadian Soccer Football Association (CSFA), Terry conducted a national survey, the results of which became the basis for various national standards. In 1968, as the National Clinic Director, he launched a four-year plan for soccer clinics across Canada, which he proudly called an "exercise in imagination and experiment". After retiring from the Canadian Forces, Terry became an entrepreneur in Toronto in ventures such as an Aspen rent-a-car company and a travel agency. At the same time, his second passion art evolved into a new career, one that would see Terry become a respected expert collector and dealer in 18th- and 19th-century paintings. Many Torontonians have a piece sold by Terry from one of his antique shops hanging in their home, with a vivid memory of the passionate man who sold it to them. Terry, at 92, remained an energetic, disciplined man ready to "fight the fight", appreciative of beauty in all its forms, charming and modest, gracious and warm, always willing to share a glass of wine with a good laugh and a wonderful story--and more times your story, not his story. A special thanks is owed to his health team, especially to Dr. Maria Luigia Zorzitto and her team at St. Michael's Hospital Elders Clinic and the Central Neighbourhood House who provided health care support at home, to Aldo for his weekly visits during the last years which enabled Terry to continue working, to Elizabeth who remained a constant supportive friend for forty years, to Istar his part-time caregiver for many years and whom Terry considered "family" and to Nomer his compassionate full-time care giver for the past two months. Terry was a remarkable man who left his mark on the world and on his friends and he will be missed. In lieu of flowers, donations in Terry's memory may be made to Central Neighbourhood House, 349 Ontario St., Toronto, M5A 2V8, or to the Regional Geriatric Program at St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond St., Toronto, M5B 1W8. Visitation at St. James Cemetery Chapel, 635 Parliament St., Toronto, commencing at 12 noon, followed by a service at 1 p.m. on Monday, June 23, 2014. Reception at a nearby location following interment. Remembrances of Terry may be posted on the website of Rosar- Morrison Funeral Home (www.rosar-morrison.com).