Terence Haight, third from left, a former resident of Gravenhurst (a baker and hardware merchant who unexpectedly turned out to be rich when he died) left most of his wealth to the municipality with no conditions on how the money should be spent.Handout
The town of Gravenhurst is a bustling hub in Ontario's cottage country, a place where life's great questions are whether it's warm enough to swim, if there's enough bait to catch some bass and how many beers to put on ice before the guests come over.
But there's something else the locals have been wondering lately: Who was Terence Haight?
A childless widower more than 300 kilometres away, he never lived in Gravenhurst. But when he died, he left the town more than $1-million in his will.
As it turns out, a key period of his life some 60 years ago seems to have forged a lifelong devotion to the town, the magnitude of which it could never have suspected. As a young man, Mr. Haight ran a bakery in nearby Bracebridge, and the tourist establishments in Gravenhurst always gave him plenty of business.
"The restaurants and hotels in Gravenhurst were very good to him, buying his buns and rolls and such," said his only surviving brother, Rev. Neil Haight. "I can only think that's why he remembered them."
Although the town has known about the generous donation since March, it was not until this week that Father Haight visited and helped local residents learn the details of his eldest brother's life.
Mr. Haight was born in Peterborough, Ont., on Nov. 5, 1920. His father, a newspaper pressman, moved the young family to Bracebridge for the bucolic setting and the clear air. Terence, along with his three brothers and one sister, loved the outdoors, swimming, canoeing, snowshoeing and skiing. They also helped tend their father's vegetable garden, hunted and trapped.
Unable to serve alongside his brothers in the Second World War because of a bad eye, Terence Haight spent those years working at a munitions factory. Afterwards, he took a job at the bakery, eventually coming to run the business.
It was hard work – he would put in about 12 to 15 hours a day – particularly during the tourist season each summer.
Mr. Haight's gregariousness likely also helped his business. "He had a wonderful personality – if he was in the restaurant, everyone could hear him. We used to tell him, 'Stop talking, you're being loud,'" Father Haight recalled. "He was very outgoing."
He eventually married a Gravenhurst woman named Audrey McDonald and they moved two hours away to North Bay, where he worked in a hardware store. After Audrey died, he relocated even farther north, to New Liskeard.
He lived modestly, fishing from a small boat on Lake Temiskaming, reading magazines at the local library and attending weekly mass at the Catholic church. He was often seen ambling about town, driving his beat-up red pickup truck or sitting on the veranda of his house greeting passersby.
"If you looked at him on the street, you would just see a simple old man," recalled his parish priest, Rev. John Lemire. "He had a very gentle disposition and didn't ask much of people."
But despite his friendliness, no one, including his brother, had any idea Mr. Haight was also a millionaire.
It wasn't until he died that they discovered his fortune, stored in savings bonds. Besides the million for Gravenhurst, he left portions to a hospital, the Salvation Army and his parish.
Thinking back, Father Haight believes he knows where the money came from: One night, while visiting him, he saw Mr. Haight pull out a newspaper and scrutinize the stock page. Father Lemire also says Mr. Haight was known to play the stock market.
Mr. Haight died on Dec. 21, 2008 at the age of 88. He was buried with his wife in Gravenhurst.
The town's citizens have been sending council suggestions on how their windfall should be spent – with ideas ranging from setting up bursaries to revitalizing the downtown – but council has not made any decisions yet. The first order of business is arranging a ceremony, likely this October, to show its gratitude to the benefactor who never forgot the town's generosity toward him all those years ago.
"There's no rush to spend the money," said Mayor Paisley Donaldson. "I truly believe this is a legacy that could last the town forever if it's spent correctly and invested wisely."
But one question remains. Why didn't Mr. Haight leave his fortune to his brother, the only living member of his immediate family?
Father Haight laughed. "I suppose he figured that since I was in the priesthood," he said, "I wouldn't need it."
Adrian Morrow