George Robert Charles Funnell, In Memorium
George was born in Toronto in 1928, on July the first, the eldest of seven children. He graduated from Central Tech by the age of 15, but finances and family need dictated he go to work instead of university. Possibly as a result, he had a lifelong love of learning, and strongly encouraged, if not expected, his three sons to go to university. He met his future wife, Joan Elizabeth Newland, at Bible Study, after class at Social Time, since the classes for young people were separated – one for boys and one for girls. The next time Joan saw George, he had showed up at the Baby Clothes store where she worked, and he walked her home after closing. She was 15 at the time, and he was 17. They were married on October 29th, 1952 at St. Chad’s Anglican Church in Toronto. Together, they had THEIR three sons: Larry, David and Doug. Their house on Queen’s Drive in Weston where they lived for 43 years was a welcoming home where many Christmas Open Houses and family functions were held, and people could always stop by for a cup of coffee. “Is the pot on?”
George worked for two companies during his career, first with Gutta-percha (a rubber company), then for Canada Packers meat packing and processing for 39 years, retiring at age 61. His first job at Crappy Packers was shoveling coal in the steam plant, and he worked his way up, studying and earning his First Class Stationary Engineering license, something about which he was quite proud. After a course in “Work Simplification” in Lake Placid, New York, he ended up transferring to the Engineering Department, working on a variety of projects. His last project there was the designing and building of the new Food Services plant in Bramalea (now Brampton), transferring out there as Facilities Supervisor when the plant was completed. He once said if he had known he was going to end up working there, he would have designed himself a better office! Since retiring, up until recently, George maintained a strong relationship with the engineers, getting together for monthly lunches with his peers.
George worked long hours, and earned a reputation of being the person to call when something went wrong. Many nights, there would be a call to the house for some problem or another, and if he couldn’t fix it through conversation over the phone, George would get out of bed and drive to the plant to try to solve it. Joan, I think, got used to the pattern, but I’m pretty sure she never liked it. Doug remembers a time when George fell back asleep, though, without hanging up the phone, and left them hanging.
All three sons, and many of their neighbourhood friends as well, worked at Canada Packers as summer and part-time labourers. When they saw their dad at work, they felt awkward calling him “Dad”, so they started calling him “Chief” instead, and it stuck. I guess George and Joan had nicknames for the boys as well, so “Number One Son”, “Charlie” and “Spider” were referred to quite often.
The first few times I met George, I was a little scared of him. He would be just home from work, exhausted from having been there for an extended period, yet he had an authority about him that seemed to command all of his sons’ attention. When he needed to rest for a bit before supper, the house became eerily quiet for the late afternoon time of day – while he slept, no one made a noise. I soon learned, however, that this wasn’t the kind of authority I thought it was going to be; instead, it was utter and complete RESPECT for the man that made his sons and his wife abide by these house rules. I also learned that, once awake and back with his family, he was a gentle, kind and fair man. I witnessed him get down on the living room carpet with his first grandchild, Christina, to play with her at her level. And I witnessed him joyfully play with their new dog, Shelley the Sheltie; and seeing this and being a dog-lover myself, I decided that he wasn’t that scary after all.
Chief taught his sons (and others) many helpful skills, such as wood-working, carpentry, plumbing, and how to drive stick. He encouraged people to participate in jobs that needed to be done, rather than demand that people help, and in this way, chores became opportunities to learn and practice these skills. Measure twice, Cut once. Larry remembers dinners at home being a family event, with frequent math quizzes to ensure that the boys learned their Times Tables.
Christina says that at one point when her mother, Carmelina, was trying to learn how to drive a standard car, and Larry was – let’s just say he was not the best teacher for her – Chief called her up and said that he needed her to take him to work. She told him that she couldn't drive stick, and he just said she was taking him to work. And she did. And she drove standard for years after that.
Chief made sure to pass his experience, attitude and commitment on to his sons. No job was out of reach if it was researched and planned. Keeping busy, getting an education, and working hard were all good values. When they were children, March Break meant it was time for the annual ritual of taking apart their bicycles, cleaning, inspecting and lubricating them before reassembling them to use outside. The boys’ desire to ride probably made for good motivation to get the job done, but the skills and appreciation for machinery endured with them, possibly leading all three of them to become Engineers.
Chief was never one to avoid work or getting involved in things. We worried about him in retirement, concerned that he was going to go from 70-80 hour weeks, to having nothing to do. We had little to worry about, seeing him less frequently after retirement than before, as he delved first into computers, and then into volunteering in the library at the hospital with Joan, digging out medical research for the staff. At the cottage, he designed and built an addition, modernizing the rest of the building and making it more comfortable for him and Joan to enjoy their summers in retirement. He also converted the boathouse into a “bunky” with more sleeping accommodation for the next generation of grandchildren when they started getting older.
Chief had a way of naming tools a little differently, so here’s a quiz: What’s a “binga-bang”?....... A hammer. What’s a “bongy”?....... A pencil.
Chief was also a great planner when it came to vacation trips. Doug and Larry both told me of how he planned their trip out west in 1971 for over a year; he had it all laid out as to how far they would travel each day, which campsite they would stay at, which attractions they would see, which maps to follow for which part of the trip, and so on. The following year, they went east so they could see the total eclipse of the sun on July 10, 1972 from Prince Edward Island, one of the best places in Canada from which to see the eclipse. After the boys finished school, more trips were made, both driving and flying. George and Joan made their first trip overseas in 1982, to England, just after Christina was born. They shared many travelling adventures with their good friends, Howard and Rhoda Best, and of course Auntie Gwen. It was with a sense of sadness that reaching the age of 75 brought with it high insurance costs that curtailed their travelling.
But it didn’t slow him down when it came to boating, as he was driving the boat for us to water-ski and tube behind, into his eighties. Dave says that Chief asked him more recently when we were already into our fifties, “Why don't you ski as far as you used to?”
This prompts me to tell you the story of how, back when they were teenagers, Christina’s friend Dave made the mistake of bragging about how he'd never been tossed out of a tube. Grandpa Chief promptly took him and another friend, Greg, out behind the yellow boat, and tossed them out a number of times. So, when they got out of the water, they said: “Christine, your grandfather is insane” – of course, meant in a good way, and Dave recognized that he had adequately been put in his place.
Chief sometimes posed as a great philosopher, saying things like: “I’ve got something to ask you: Do you think the rain will hurt the blueberries?” A bit of a jokester, he would wait until the boys were already out of the room, then call them back and ask: “How far would you have gotten if I hadn’t called you back?” And a great surprise awaited the boys one day when he told them they now had a colour TV! The boys rushed downstairs to find that he had painted the cabinet of the television set a different colour – now it was grey.
He loved dogs, having had a succession of Shetland Sheepdogs – Shelties – (let’s see, Scruffy, Scampy, Shellie) and then being grand-parents to Ralph-The-Wonder-Dog, Carly, Maude, Reba and Blaze. Dave and Mae remember when George and Joan were visiting them at their home in Wasaga Beach, and Chief was encouraging Ralph to get on their furniture – that is, until Dave and Mae pointed out that they would be bringing Ralph to THEIR house when they visited. One of Chief’s favourite things to say to the dogs was: “Ohhh boy, dog food again!” at their meal-time.
His Faith was important to him, and he poured his energy into many church projects over the years, acting as Sunday School Teacher, Sidesman, Church Warden, and building superintendent (wholly voluntary – not paid positions).
He LOVED music, especially played by bagpipes! Especially songs like “Danny Boy” on the bagpipes!! He also enjoyed many hymns, and in his later years, enjoyed TV shows that gave him the ability to sing or hum along, or just enjoy.
And as much as we laughed along with him when he sang Bugs Bunny’s parody of the Doris Day song, “It’s Magic”: “Carrots are divine, you get a dozen for a dime, it's magic” – it turns out that the original lyrics are actually a beautiful love song, and I can totally see George and Joan dancing to this in 1947, gazing deeply into each others’ eyes… (the song ends with):
“Why do I tell myself These things that happen are all really true?
When, in my heart I know, the magic is My love for you.”
Larry says throughout his life he had a wonderful sense of humour, madly mangling the English language for comedic affect. Matt and Joanne referred to him as “The Teasing Grandpa”. With his grandchildren he was patient, quick to help and teach, and in the event one of them fell, he’d check on them to make sure they were okay before demanding, “Did you hurt my floor?” which would usually stop the fussing and complaining and have the child checking the floor, saying “No, see Grandpa, the floor is fine!”
Christina tells about when her brother, Mark, was learning to read, smart boy that he was, he was actually memorizing books and not really reading them, so Grandpa worked with him every day during the week they were staying at the cottage to teach him to read. In a book about cars, Mark was reading the word “Buick” as “Bu-Kick”. Grandpa corrected him. Mark objected to this particular correction, feeling the word was pronounced the way he said it was. Every day, struggles ensued when they would read and Grandpa would make him correct his errors, and any time they got to that book (which they did every day because Mark hadn't done it right yet), Mark would dig in his heels on “Bu-Kick” and Grandpa on “Buick”.
Grandpa never raised his voice, never showed anything but the utmost calm, but after each session with Mark, he would go out to chop wood. Larry was supposed to do it when he came up for the weekend to get the kids, but he didn't have to. It was all done and neatly stacked and Larry was left looking for an explanation. When he started to ask, all Grandpa said was, "Don't."
I was fortunate to share a special bond with Chief, having also being born on July the first. It meant that we could celebrate together, and it brought together my Dunkley side of the family with the Funnell family, at the cottages on Lake Couchiching or on Six Mile Lake, with chocolate, lemon-filled or strawberry-decorated cakes, and fireworks to top it off.
Chief liked his hair cut short, so I had many opportunities to use the clippers on him to shave his head down to a Number 1. He frustrated his boys as they aged, because Chief had little or no grey hair, even at age 88! Having cut his hair this way a number of times and knowing how soft his head got after getting his brushcut, I mentioned it to Debbie and Peter, long-time friends of the family, when we were sitting together at Dave and Mae’s wedding reception back in 1985. That prompted a lot of us to get up from our seats and get in line to go rub his head, right in the middle of the reception! Everybody agreed, though, “Wow, is that ever soft!” and Joan said, “I know!”
When they were younger, Matt and Joanne received “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets from our church to help remind them how to act and behave. Now we can say to ourselves, “What Would Chief Do?” as our reminder, because for those of us who knew him, it was like having our very own angel right here on earth – and I’m certain he will make a great angel, to watch over us from above.
