With great sadness the family shares that Earl James Nelham passed peacefully from this life on February 14, 2024, in his 92nd year. He leaves his beloved wife, Grace, daughters Lori-Anne and Jennifer (Robert), stepson Neil, grandsons Christopher (Kim) and David (Eryka), great-grandchildren Charlotte and Jackson, and many friends and fellow music lovers. He was pre-deceased by his mother Helen and father James, as well as his brother Roy, and his son-in-law the Reverend Canon Dennis Dolloff.

A gifted and passionate musician, Earl earned his ATCL (Associate of Trinity College, London) degree in piano performance at the age of 16. Earl left high school to pursue playing piano professionally with dance bands in Toronto and Muskoka. A self-taught organist, he began playing organ at the Beaver Bible Class during his early teens and was organist and choirmaster at several churches in the GTA including St. Agnes, Long Branch, St. Paul’s, Lorne Park, St. John’s, Dixie, and St. James, Islington, before retiring from Cooksville United Church in 2004.
He founded a community choir in the 1980’s first known as the Meadowvale Community Choir, which took the name “The Earl Nelham Singers” until his retirement. The choir continues under the name “The Ambiance Singers.” He passed along his love of music to his two daughters, who both became music teachers and performers. Earl continued to play with jazz bands through his later years, especially the Mississauga Stompers, and the Mississauga Seniors Jazz Band, and regularly played with a jazz trio, entertaining at local art galleries and community events. A founding member of the Mississauga Music Council, he was later named Mississauga Musician of the Year in 1991.

After a short stint in the Royal Canadian Navy, Earl began working for the Township of Toronto (the future City of Mississauga) in the early 1960’s. He moved his young family to the newly created Erindale Woodlands from Long Branch in 1965. Earl continued living in Mississauga for the rest of his life. At the City of Mississauga Works Department, he began as a junior draftsman and worked his way through various positions in the Building Department, before achieving the position of Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment for the City of Mississauga. He could be found at the piano at city events, often with Mayor Hazel McCallion sitting next to him on the piano bench. He retired from the City of Mississauga in 1990 and devoted himself to music-making with the Earl Nelham Singers and Cooksville United Church, leading a handbell choir as well as the church choir and playing the organ. It was at Cooksville United that he met Grace, his wife of almost 30 years.

An avid woodworker, he designed and crafted many of the early presentation awards of the Mississauga Musician of the Year, including one for Oscar Peterson. Earl enjoyed the outdoors, photographing nature, canoeing, camping, and later spending summers at his trailer in Grey County. Throughout his life, Earl could be found at the piano playing for friends, family, and the community, no matter the size of the audience. His joy in music-making touched many lives in his beloved Mississauga and during his winter visits to Florida.

A private cremation has already taken place. A Celebration of Life will take place at 11:00 am on Saturday April 13 at Cooksville United Church, 2500 Mimosa Row, Mississauga, Ontario.