Alex Blair

[Jon Skagfeld]

On the one hand, we'll be missing Alex; on the other hand, he and Geoff can catch up!

Rest easy, Alex.

[Lynn Eades]

Catherine, I am very sad for you and your loss. I have only known your Dad via the written word on this forum. I have enjoyed his many posts. Thank you for stepping up and keeping us informed. Chris and I wish you and your family the very best as you deal with the difficult times ahead

[colin jones]

Catherine, so sorry for your loss and sincere condolences from the Jones's in Adelaide.
Life is just so short. R.I.P. Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Oh no...was my first reaction when I saw his name in the "tributes" sub-forum. Although we weren't allowed to call him Mr. Manual anymore, that's how I first got to know him on the forum...Mr. Manual. Rest in Peace Alex.

Alex

[Robin Craig]

Catherine,

My most sincere condolences to you and your family.

R

[Catherine Blair]

Thank you all for your kind words. We truly appreciate them. I hope people will agree to this - we would like to post your comments around the hall after the service. I will be able to confirm details tomorrow morning. If you have something specific you'd like to say please let me know. We'll gather everything by mid day Tuesday.

[servicepub (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Catherine Blair

I hope people will agree to this - we would like to post your comments around the hall after the service. I will be able to confirm details tomorrow morning. If you have something specific you'd like to say please let me know. We'll gather everything by mid day Tuesday.

Catherine,
I have no issue with this.
Clive

[hrpearce]

Catherine, what ever feels right for you at this sad time is fine.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Alex: the most cheerful, helpful and upbeat person there is. I'm truly sorry to hear this news.

[Keith Webb]

Please feel free to post my comments.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Catherine, I have no issue with my comment being posted

[Phil Waterman]

Hello Catherine

Yes, by all means feel free to share our comments, they are just an indication of our feeling for your dad. Your dad share with us several thousand comments on our share interest in CMPs, Canada, and history. So he will be missed in our daily conversations on MLU.

You have probably already noticed that MLU is different from most other web forums people use their real names here not handles. This makes our contact and conversations that go on around the world and over time far more real. We really get to know each other and weather we ever meet face to face we have people all over the world that we call friends and mean it.

Our best to you and your family.

Phil

[Lynn Eades]

Catherine, quite happy for you to do as you wish.
Catherine, later on, when you are up to it, could you come back and tell us a little about your Dad's private life? We here on the forum are spread around the world, many of us only knowing Alex (and each other) where our interests meet, but not so much about Alex Blair, the family man and Dad.
As his regular contributions have reached around the world, I think I speak for many of us, at the far reaches of the planet, in saying "He will be missed"
We thank you Catherine, for time with your Dad.

[Bob Carriere]

The MLU email was relayed while at a cottage on White Lake.

Alex had not been feeling well for quite some time. COPD can be very limiting for a man typically very active. Last time I saw him he was tethered to a 25 foot line attached to a portable oxygen concentrator to assist his breathing.
It pained me to watch him trying to get around particularly with the additinal complication of some hip problem. Nonetheless he carried on and joked with us.

Almost 20 year ago, when I first signed on the Bulletin Board of MLU, registration was very simple in those days, and so was the format fo MLU.

My first posting requested " permission to come aboard Sir!!!"

Alex was the first one to greet me and extend a Welcome from MLU..... he also wanted to know if I was ex-Navy...... I sheephishly replied that I was not EX anything but wanted to join in the interesting conversation.

Since then Alex attended our Hammond Barn BBQ and he organized numerous evening gatherings in various Ottawa pubs. I dropped by his place often..... now in retrospect .... not often enough.

Rest in Peace Alex your pain is over. We will miss you dearly.

To Mrs. Blair and the whole family, in particular Catherine, who took the time to keep us informed as Alex would have wished, I extend my deepest condolences and my prayers.

Over the last few years, with much sadness, the MLU membership has gradually lost a number of literally founding members of this great community ...the likes of Alex...... I cannot help but wonder who will be next.


Bob C.

[Catherine Blair]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Catherine, quite happy for you to do as you wish.
Catherine, later on, when you are up to it, could you come back and tell us a little about your Dad's private life? We here on the forum are spread around the world, many of us only knowing Alex (and each other) where our interests meet, but not so much about Alex Blair, the family man and Dad.
As his regular contributions have reached around the world, I think I speak for many of us, at the far reaches of the planet, in saying "He will be missed"
We thank you Catherine, for time with your Dad.

I absolutely will. Thank you Stuart for the photos. Dad is the one in the last photo in the red shirt and ball cap, leaning on the vehicle.

[Grant Bowker]

As the current custodian of the manual collection started by Alex, I don't know where the perception "we weren't allowed to call him Mr. Manual anymore" came from and right now that doesn't matter.
As far as I'm concerned - Alex was, is and always will be the original Mr. Manual. Without his recognition of the value of the manuals to collectors, restorers and researchers many of the manuals would have been lost and they certainly would not have been gathered into a unified information source. Where others may have seen a group of dusty old books about rusty old trucks Alex saw a gold mine of information that he took joy in sharing with the world.

[Eric B]

Catherine

On behalf of myself and the other Ontario Military Vehicle Association members who met or knew Alex our condolences to you and your family.

Alex will be sorely missed.

Eric

[Mike Cecil]

Catherine,

What can I say? The nicest bloke to correspond with, sad we never got to meet.

RIP

Mike Cecil

[Catherine Blair]

Dad was born in Saint John, NB, in 1944. His father was a bank manager for Bank of Nova Scotia and for most of his childhood they moved around the Canadian Maritimes (Newfoundland once it joined Canada, New Brunswick and finally Nova Scotia). His favourite spot was Burin, Newfoundland - an outport. He continually reminisced about growing up there because of the extreme freedom he and his brother experienced. He joined the air force the year Kennedy was assassinated and trained as a radar tech but there were too many of them so the military was going to release him along with others. He talked his way into being trained as an HVAC mechanic and was posted to radar sites across Canada. He eventually was posted to a base in Sardinia (he was single so could pick up and go much easier than someone with a family).

Dad, being an extremely social person (as some of you know first hand!) was drafted to help organize events and parties while posted in Sardinia, and one evening walked around the base to invite people to a "come as you are" party.

He knocked on one door, and a pretty girl with short dark hair, face cream and curlers, wearing a caftan answered. He invited her to the party, and was VERY impressed when she showed up - in face cream, curlers and a caftan. (Some of the officers wives showed up to the party in cocktail dresses and heels - not normal attire for most mid week homes.) They started dating and he eventually married Dorothy - my mom, in Lahr Germany.

They moved home to Canada. Their first posting together was Penhold Alberta. My sister and I were born in Alberta, and when I turned 4, dad felt that he didn't want the itinerant life. Because of the radar base turnover, he was posted every two years, so decided to leave the military after 14 years and bought into an HVAC business with his friend in Saskatchewan. We lived there for the next 11 years.

Dad lived pretty vividly. He drove motorbikes (and crashed a few, causing a couple of injuries and broken bones) from before he was married until I was in university, restored old cars, smoked and drank pretty hard. Eventually, my mom gave him a choice - alcohol or his family. He (as always) chose his family. He didn't touch a drop of alcohol from that day forward for 28 years.

He loved to hunt (really he loved to plan out the trip, and he and his best friend would start almost from the day they got back from a trip to plan out next years.) He loved the prairies and the wide open spaces.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Last December Catherine Blair made a $100,00 CAD donation to MLU "in memory of Alex Blair".

Thank you Catherine, we will remember him!

Best regards,
Hanno

[Phil Waterman]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Last December Catherine Blair made a $100,00 CAD donation to MLU "in memory of Alex Blair".

Thank you Catherine, we will remember him!

Best regards,
Hanno

Hi Hanno

Yes Alex Blair, will be remembered.

Our thanks to Catherine from the MLU community.

Cheers Phil