Ron F. Yorke
Teacher, coach, family man, avid cyclist. Born on Sept. 25, 1943, in Sarnia, Ont.; died on Dec. 13, 2014, in Sarnia, of cancer, aged 71.
In the summer of 1950 there were three young kids in the Yorke family with a fourth on the way. All of their birthdays were within five days of each other in September, and six-year-old Ron, the middle child, wished mightily that the new baby (that would be me) would arrive after his Sept. 25 birthday, so that his special day would no longer be the last. As it turned out, I arrived promptly on Ron's seventh birthday. Sharing a birthday was the start of a close sibling friendship that lasted a lifetime.
With his seven-year head start, Ron always led the way for me. When I was 6, I started helping him with his paper route, delivering papers to close neighbours and bringing in new customers as our Sarnia neighbourhood grew. Several years later he quit the route on condition that it come back to me when the new carrier gave it up (I got it back at 11 and kept it for five years).
When I was 9, I joined Ron in the Sertoma Boys Band, a marching brass band that played in local parades and competed annually at the Canadian National Exhibition. I played cornet, Ron played sousaphone. Two years later it became the Sertomanaires Drum and Bugle Corps, and every summer weekend we were off to events in Southern Ontario and the U.S. Midwest. When he turned 21, Ron become our drill instructor. Though interest in the drum and bugle corps movement faded in Sarnia over the years, it remained our shared passion, at least as fans.
The fall of 1966 was a momentous time in our family. All three of my siblings began their teaching careers, and I turned 16. Ron started off teaching business and commercial at Northern Collegiate in Sarnia, and soon bought a beautiful new 1967 Impala Super Sport. That Christmas, he gave me his old '57 Ford – my first car. Later in his teaching career, Ron moved to Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School, from where he retired as business director in 1998.
In 1964, as Ron was completing his B.A. at the University of Western Ontario, he went to a dance at a roller-skating arena, where he met Mary Stonehouse, the absolute love of his life. They married in 1967 and raised three sons, Craig, Christopher and Steve. As his boys became involved in sports, Ron began coaching hockey and soccer. Sadly, in 1993, Christopher died during soccer practice due to an unknown heart problem. In 2012, Mary succumbed to cancer. Ron was devastated by those losses, but soldiered on.
He was an avid cyclist throughout his adult life, which led him to help launch Sarnia Bike Month and become chairman of the Bluewater Trails Committee. Shortly after I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, Ron took part in the two-day MS Bike Tour fundraiser, cycling 75 kilometres each way between Grand Bend and London, Ont. The next year he organized a team of family and friends for the ride and continued this wonderful annual event right up to last summer. One year he put together a Power Point show from the ride, accompanied by the Hollies singing He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. I will never hear that song without becoming very emotional.
I have lost not only a big brother, but a hero, a mentor and a true friend.
John Yorke is Ron's brother.