http://www.orilliapacket.com/2014/03...2OCIQ.facebook
James A. “Pete” McGarvey was 20 years old when he first arrived in Orillia in 1947 as a newly minted CFOR radio broadcaster. Almost immediately, he led a charge to save Stephen Leacock’s summer home from demolition. He sparked a royal visit to Orillia July 5, 1959, and co-founded the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1961.
And during the same time, he married Eileen Giles of Sebright and fathered three sons.
To Will McGarvey, he’s Dad.
“I don’t think he ever said no to anybody when they asked him if he’d help,” Will said Tuesday. “Sometimes that means you shared a lot of his time with the public. He still had lots of love and care for his family …”
McGarvey was an inspiration, he said.
“I got a lot of messages from people and so many people have said, ‘Your dad inspired me to go into journalism.’ ‘Your dad was my mentor.’ ‘I met your dad when I was seven years old and I made a decision on my career,’” Will said.
The family has been overwhelmed with words of praise for the radio broadcaster, community leader and town alderman since his death Monday at the age of 86.
“I’ve had messages from great journalists like Hap Parnaby, who attributes a lot of his good fortune and style of journalism (to) Dad,” Will said.
McGarvey’s career in Ontario radio spanned more than 50 years. From 1965 to 1973, he was news director of CFCO Chatham. He switched to CKEY Toronto in August 1973 as a featured newscaster and commentator.
As a radio journalist, McGarvey reported from Moscow, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Washington, Jerusalem and Beirut in the 1970s and ’80s. He was at Pearl Harbour when the astronauts returned from the first mission to the moon. He was in Hong Kong the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre and he stood in front of the White House the night former U.S. president Richard Nixon resigned.
In the basement of his Orillia home are autographed photos of Bob Hope, Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Atwood, Johnny Cash and numerous others.
Growing up, Will recalled, his father never spoke ill of anyone.
“People were all to be treated the same. His friends came from every walk of life,” Will said. “He was just kind and supportive and always got involved with his family and his community.”
As a travelling journalist, McGarvey sparked nightly dinner discussions about world events.
“In our house, we were fortunate,” Will said. “The acceptance or the biases you hear about other families across the world, it was never part of our life, our vocabulary … Everybody was the same.”
Will said he is proud of the lives his dad touched, noting no one has had a negative word to say.
“That’s pretty special,” Will said.
When McGarvey first arrived in Orillia, he was shocked to find Orillians did not pay much attention to Leacock’s legacy.
After Leacock’s death in 1944, the home at Old Brewery Bay on the shores of Lake Couchiching began to fall into disrepair.
“He already knew a lot about Leacock and he certainly had this great care for Orillia,” Will said of his dad. “… He thought this was such a great asset for a community to have such a prestigious figure that chose Orillia as their hometown and yet the people here really didn’t pay much attention to him.”
McGarvey decided to take action.
“I don’t think we can possibly underestimate Pete’s role in putting together the plan that saw (the) Leacock (home) become a museum in 1958,” Museum curator Fred Addis said.
Without McGarvey’s intervention, there is every possibility the museum on Leacock’s property would not have been established, Addis said.
McGarvey pressed council to buy the property, where Leacock penned Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, when Leacock’s son, Stevie Jr., offered it for $50,000. Many councillors balked at the idea. Stevie Jr. withdrew his offer, swearing he would never sell the property to the city.
The 29-acre property was listed publicly and was purchased by property developer Lou Ruby in 1956. Ruby planned to demolish the home and build a subdivision on the property.
“It would have been a terrible thing if he did destroy the home. It’s the most important literary landmark in the country,” McGarvey told The Packet & Times in 2008.
McGarvey met with Ruby several times in Toronto and persuaded the developer to spare the home. Ruby agreed to separate the home and a little more than an acre of land from the rest of the estate and make it available for $25,000.
In a move McGarvey called extortion, he got council candidates to support purchasing the home.
He planned to quit local politics, but agreed to stay if council candidates would support his resolution to purchase the Leacock Home. If McGarvey hadn’t run for council, all those seeking six seats would have been acclaimed, including a “longtime ne’er-do-well” the other candidates did not want aboard, McGarvey told The Packet & Times in 2008.
The candidate came in last and council agreed to buy the property for $25,000.
“It was the best investment this city and community ever made,” McGarvey said in 2008.
The home contained 30,000 items including Leacock’s handwritten manuscripts, journals and diaries, along with photographs and hundreds of books, which were later estimated to be worth $7 million or more.
part 2 - next post