In Celebration of
Lynn Gordon
February 28, 1922 -
February 1, 2017
The Life of Lynn Gordon
Lynn Gordon was born in Kamloops in February 28, 1922. The Gordon family were early European settlers in British Columbia arriving in the mid-1870's from Goderich Ontario. His father was the youngest of four brothers and arrived last in Kamloops in 1892 at the age of 21. He owned a furniture store on the main street of downtown Kamloops. Lynn’s parents married in 1918 and his Mum, Kathleen Gordon, moved out west from Toronto to join her new husband. She took great interest in art and studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the 1920's. She was acquainted with some of the Group of Seven painters and knew Emily Carr.
Lynn was a camp Counsellor at the YMCA Camp Elphinstone and spent many happy summers at Lake Shuswap, east of Kamloops. He began studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto in the early 40's completing his degree in the mid-40's and becoming a Professional Engineer.
He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940 serving in the summer break from his studies. He was stationed on a ship accompanying convoys to the middle of the Atlantic bringing arms and food to support allied forces and people in Britain and Europe in the Second World War.
Lynn met Evelyn Mitchell in the early 1940’s as both were studying at the University of Toronto. In 1946, they got married. The next year they moved to their first house in Etobicoke at One Old Oak Road. Their first child Nancy was born that year as well. Their second child Michael was born in 1954. With a growing family, they moved to a larger home in 1955 several blocks away on Wimbleton Road.
Lynn was a Professional Electrical Engineer working for Ontario Hydro from 1946 - 1985 during a period when a significant amount of the electrical infrastructure serving the Province of Ontario was built. He supervised more than 100 professionals who were responsible for designing the transmission lines and transformer stations. When you are travelling through Ontario and spot some of this infrastructure, chances are that Lynn and his team designed it. Lynn took his son Mike on many tours of transformer and generating stations through out Ontario and was very proud of his work.
Lynn had a great love of carpentry and renovated the basement of their new home. He also designed and built a cottage in Muskoka in the late 1950's. He continued to build additions (with the help of family and friends) to the cottage until the early 1990's. Family summers were spent there and also at Evelyn’s parents' cottage on Georgian Bay.
Lynn loved children and was thrilled when his daughter Nancy gave birth to Sean Douglas in 1980 and Katie Douglas in 1983.
Lynn loved to garden and travel. Lynn and Eve took their children on a number of trips to places such as New York City, Montreal, the Maritimes, British Columbia, Virginia and Washington DC. With their children, they encouraged a love of travel, music, books, art and architecture and an interest in current affairs and politics. Lynn and Eve also travelled together to Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Holland, Thailand, China, Japan, the United States and Mexico.
In the 1960’s Lynn’s cousin, Lester Pearson was Prime Minister of Canada. Lester knew Lynn by his first name having spent many family gatherings together and hosted the Gordon family in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Eve developed ALS in 1982 and lived with the disease until her death in 1991. Lynn was a devoted care giver for her for nine years in their home. Shortly before she passed away, they moved to a new apartment on Aberfoyle Crescent overlooking Mimico Creek with a view of the Toronto skyline.
During the same period, Paul Barber, the husband of Maryon Barber passed away. The Barbers had been close friends of the Gordon family for many years. Eve and Maryon had been close friends since attending high school together in North Toronto and both attended the University of Toronto.
Lynn married Maryon Barber (who became Maryon Gordon) in 1992 at Islington United Church. It is remarkable that they found each other in a period when they would consider marrying again after losing, respectively, their wife and husband. They honeymooned in England with Maryon’s brother and his wife Audrey.
Lynn and Maryon were a very happy couple enjoying travels to many places including England to visit with Bruce, Terri and Gemma, Fort Myers to visit with Pete and Maria and Mexico to spend time with Lynn’s children, Nancy and Mike in Puerto Vallarta. They also travelled to Europe, Egypt, Madeira and the United States. They loved good food and wine and going out for a nice meal.
Lynn was very active as a volunteer. As a member of the Islington Kiwanis Club, he distributed oranges each Christmas to raise money for charity. Lynn was also one of the organizers of the Kiwanis Youth Music Festival. He was President of the Islington Kiwanis Club in 2013. Lynn served breakfast to elementary school children in North Etobicoke for many years. He also was a driver for meals on wheels for homebound seniors.
Lynn and Maryon shared a love of ‘cottaging’ spending time at each of the cottages in Muskoka and Lake Simcoe. In 2011, Lynn sold the cottage he built on Six Mile Channel in Muskoka. For the last decade they spent almost all of their summer cottage time at Lake Simcoe. They shared a lovely daily routine – 8 am breakfast on the east Verandah, followed by reading the Globe and Mail, a nap, lunch at noon, then a nap, often followed by a swim, a glass of Scotch while watching the news, dinner in the dining room and a glass of port while watching the sunset together.
Likely, amongst the happiest memories people had of Lynn was visiting with him and Maryon at the Lake Simcoe cottage. He loved spending time at a cottage having enjoyed summers over an almost 90 year period beginning in a lakeside cottage beginning at Lake Shuswap, then Nottawasaga Bay (Georgian Bay), Six Mile Channel and Lake Simcoe.
Lynn loved people, places, ideas and nature. ‘Pleasant’ was one of his favorite adjectives. His favorite songs were ‘Somewhere my Love’ and ‘La Vie en Rose.’ He was a positive, intelligent and loving man – a real gentleman and a true romantic guy.
