Alex Blair

[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.

[Catherine Blair]

We will be holding a service to celebrate my dad's life on Wednesday, October 2 at 1 pm at Our Lady of Fatima Parish, 153 Woodroffe ( at Byron) in Ottawa, reception to follow. Dad always loved to be early, so the family will be there at 12:30 to greet everyone.

Edit to add: Reception will be at the Westboro Masonic Temple, Churchill at Byron immediately after.

[Ken Hughes]

i am so sorry blair family,i joined back in 2003 and alex was one of the first to greet me here.
over the years he helped many of us with his wisdom and knowledge,and im sure rosies wont be the same without him along with this forum.

[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

[RHClarke]

We said good-bye to one of our own today. Alex would have liked the service - short and sweet. Kinda like the man himself.

Photos:
1. Photo from Alex's memorial service booklet.
2. One night at Gracies...
3. Alex's interests were quite varied. He holds one of George Blackburns great books, "Where the Hell are the Guns?"
4. A rose between two thorns?

[Catherine Blair]

Thank you so much to the people who came. We truly appreciated seeing you. Thank you to Stuart F and Stewart L, thank you Bob, Robin, Grant, and anyone else I may have missed. Stuart, thank you for bringing your baby. Dad would have loved it. And to all the people who sent tributes, thank you. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day and we were all touched at how many people from dads various adventures came.

Edit to add: a special thank you from my mom, sister and brother in law.

[Alex van de Wetering]

I don't know where the perception "we weren't allowed to call him Mr. Manual anymore"

Grant, I was referring to a post by Alex himself in which he said he was no longer Mr. Manual. Maybe my choice of words could have been better.
As I said, I and probably others got to know him as Mr. Manual, so it's good to see this nickname is now displayed under his forum name to honour Alex.

Alex

[Harry Moon]

Alex, you were so helpful in getting me started, the manuals now wonderfully worn and greasy are my constant reference guide. Your hospitality when I was in Ottawa was very much appreciated.
Here's a pint to you Alex...

[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.

[servicepub (RIP)]

Catherine,
This 'book cover' is an inside joke. I publish a series of books on artillery and vehicles "..in Canadian Service". Following one of our evenings at Gracie's*, where the tradition was to have a photo taken with our lovely server, I made up a mock cover with your dad sitting next to a pretty young thing.
I always enjoyed these outings and took a bus from work to get there. Your dad was teetotal and always insisted on driving me home - even though I was in Nepean and this was a significant distance out of his way. Of course, this meant I could drink to my heart's (and bladder's) content.
Clive
* Ottawa Rotters - time for another night out where we can toast Alex.

[Catherine Blair]

Clive, thanks for that. Mom thought it was cute.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by servicepub

... I made up a mock cover with your dad sitting next to a pretty young thing... Ottawa Rotters - time for another night out where we can toast Alex.

I went through my photos looking for pictures of Alex - many of which are posted in this thread. I do not think it was an accident that Alex was sat next to the "pretty young things", as a lot of the photos with Alex at Gracies consistently show just that. Nothing wrong with our Alex!

Speaking of Gracies, I will be putting out a call to order this week with two dates as options - hopefully before halloween.

[Catherine Blair]

We moved to Ontario from Saskatchewan when I was 15. We took a moving truck and dad's lovingly restored 1964 harvest gold Valiant convertible (he SAID it was mom's - but it was his) through the states in an evil summer heat wave. We reached our next destination - Ingleside Ontario, just west of Cornwall, midsummer and unpacked. Dad had already started working for a contractor out of Cornwall, which he liked - he got the fun of meeting new people and fixing things without the headaches of business ownership. He stayed there for a few years, and finally got the itch to do it himself and started his own little contracting business out of Brockville.

He sold that to his partner and started working in Ottawa's west end just about the time my sister and I were in university. He moved around a bit, looking for new challenges, until he finally retired and starting stock trading.

Some of you may know the manuals story but I'll put it down again - this is how he found this forum and all of you.

My parents purchased a house for my sister and I to live in (and rented out the balance to students) while we were in university. Just as we were finished up they both decided that they wanted to move to Ottawa as it made more sense than running two households, let the renters know and returned the house to being a single family home. We lived next to a retired couple, and when the man passed away, his sons came to help, and they were cleaning out stuff that didn't make the cut for moving day. Dad looked out the window, decided to go and talk to the sons, and he found out that the dozens of boxes were from the man's work. He had worked for the government in procurement in WWII and had saved copies of all of the military vehicles R&O manuals he had ever used. Dad had the boys move the boxes across the lane from their back door into ours.

Dad, being a lifelong opportunist (and a bit of a packrat), asked if he could have them. The neighbour's kids said sure, and they moved all the boxes into a spare room of the house.

Dad worked his way through the manuals, realized what he had, made master copies of everything and contacted Dana Nield (I think) to see if he could put a copy of his manual list on his website. Dana agreed and the manuals repro business started.

Might have to edit for corrections later - but part three will be coming soon.

[chris vickery]

Wow, what a story. On the manual side of things just amagine all that history that could have been lost forever had it not been for Alex and his "pack rat" nature!
I know he certainly had some rare and wonderful copies in the collection.

[Nigel Watson]

Catherine, I have just picked up the really sad news about your dad, I'm so sorry not to have mentioned it before. I met Alex the once when I came over from Scotland to research carriers for a book I was thinking of writing. He was so helpful and knowledgeable it was so good to chat about all things that were in his manuals that I could use. I spent time with him and Geoff talking about military stuff, it was a great time which I will always remember with a smile.
It was a year or two ago he contacted me to see if I would be interested in coming over to give a talk on carriers to military vehicle folk, many of which were likely to be on this forum!

A great person who will be remembered by me and I'm sure many others, he will be sorely missed, and I hope you and your family get through the next wee while okay.
With happy memories of my first visit to Canada where I met Alex.
Nigel

[Hans Mulder]

RIP Alex. Thank you Catherine for keeping us in the loop and for the history. I don't know how I missed this thread until now.

[Catherine Blair]

Thanks Hans and Nigel. It's much appreciated.

Rob Clarke suggested you might be interested in some of the pictures we used for Dad's memorial reception.

Dad always liked to play guitar but his songs changed a bit, then to now (less rock and roll, more wheels on the bus. )

[Catherine Blair]

Some of the ones I want to post are too large - I'll pick through and post what I can.

This one was one of his favourite pastimes - skyping his grandsons.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Catherine Blair

Thanks Hans and Nigel. It's much appreciated.

Rob Clarke suggested you might be interested in some of the pictures we used for Dad's memorial reception.

Dad always liked to play guitar but his songs changed a bit, then to now (less rock and roll, more wheels on the bus. )

What an amazing set of pics. It only confirms what a rich life you can have...and Alex obviously had.

[Catherine Blair]

Just finished high school - then off to the air force.

family man.

[Catherine Blair]

first of many vehicles. He was enamoured with old cars and motorcycles. also attached is an early motorcycle - probably while posted in Canada.

another set of bikes.

[Catherine Blair]

I think this might have been the photo Rob Clarke was referring to, Elvis hairstyle and all.

[Catherine Blair]

Dad and his beloved Dotty, then and now.

[Catherine Blair]

The second car he restored. It's now in a museum in Saskatchewan.

"Mom's" 64 Valiant.

[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