Columnists
My friend, Peter Carver
I hope, dear reader, you will allow me to digress from my usual pattern. The city of Kincardine lies on the shores of Lake Huron. That turf is quite similar to the shores of Lake Ontario. The lake rages for days at a time, as is the case with Lake Ontario here in Prince Edward County.
For many years, I spent my time there with a childhood friend, Peter George Keith Carver. The “Keith” part is his mother’s maiden name. The “George” part was his father’s name. His father is somewhat responsible for this column, and for much of the writing I do.
George Carver was a legendary sports writer who spent most of his career with The Intelligencer in Belleville. His roots were in Wellington. He was born here, and there are many family connections remaining here, if one were to take the time to do the ancestry thing: Baitley’s, Ogilvy’s, Channel’s, and a host of other names arise when looking at Peter’s family history.
There are several items of history in George’s background including the fact that he was in Halifax when the ships collided in 1918. He was with the Canadian Army at the second battle of the Somme, in France, in the First World War. He also spent time in Europe with the Belleville McFarlands in 1959 when they won the World Championship. He sent back his columns to the local paper. One column was picked up internationally, and appeared on the front page of the New York Times.
Mr. Carver attended thousands of sports events: hockey, baseball, softball, cycling. swimming marathons, boat races. If it had anything to do with sport, George Carver was there. His writing was brilliant, always with a personal touch. On many occasions, he carted Peter and me to the event, and then let us do our own thing. We attended the wrestling matches at the Memorial Arena in Belleville for many years. What an experience those matches were! “Whipper” Watson, Lord Athol Layton, the Iron Sheik, Bo Bo Brazil, Argentina Rocca. Naturally I collected all of their sports cards that Topps issued in 1954.
Peter Carver moved to Kincardine more than 40 years ago with his wife Mary. They raised two children, Murray and Esther, and now surround themselves with a host of grandchildren on holidays, or at the cottage. Peter taught history at the local high school. As we traveled around the area, we ran into several former students. You could tell instantly that they had great respect for the man.
He often carted classes of students to historic places. He knew that those trips would last forever in their memories. Battlefields from the American Civil War, the streets of Boston. Great overnight trips to encourage further learning. Peter knew that this whole learning thing was a life-long adventure. He was just involved in whetting their appetites.
When we were together, we had a tendency to reminisce. That is only natural because we attended school together for many years: Queen Alexandra, Queen Victoria, Belleville Collegiate Institute and Vocational School, Queen’s University. We were in the same classes, usually, although as time went on, our interests differed.
He became a history scholar, and I spent time trying to learn other languages.
Remarkably, he and I were born on the same day, just after the Second World War ended in 1945. Heather Durno, now Muirhead, was also born on that day. She went to the same schools that we did, same classes. We considered ourselves to be triplets, in a way. The three of us became teachers. There may be a reason for that, but, for the life of me, I don’t know why.
Peter was a font of sports knowledge. He taught for some time in Windsor, and spent many nights and days across the river at sporting venues in Detroit. He remains a fervent Detroit fan: Wings, Tigers, Lions, maybe even the Pistons.
Peter always did his part to spread the good word about Belleville, and the County, over the years. Whenever there was a note in a newspaper about this area, he posted it on the bulletin board at the school. Before I left to return home on one visit, he gave me a book of hockey heroes from the Hall of Fame. There were two characters that he pointed out in the book who were born in Belleville. I had never heard of either of them.
Alas, no matter how hard his kids and I nattered at Peter about joining us in the computer world, he would have no part of it. He went out in the morning to buy daily papers. I thought he was missing the boat.
Peter passed away last Thursday. RIP.
Thank you for this lovely tribute. I took history from Peter between 1971 and 1976. Great teacher. He also taught a world religion course which I loved and we had many discussions of religion over time. He often said he wished he could be more certain of the existence of God, like I was. I went on to become a United Church of Canada minister, ministered 30 years and then became a psychotherapist and writer. I moved to Vancouver in 1979 and never saw him again, but I think of him often. I just learned of his passing today. May his memory always be a blessing to you, and to all of us who loved him.