The Arrival

julie davies, cynthia fehr and kelly lawson with kevin mccarthy and bob fehr in behind

bob coulter chatting with guy simard with anne marie simard and kelly lawson in background

kevin mccarthy, bob fher, anne marie simard, richard groves, and kelly lawson

Cash and name tags

doug campbell passing out name tags to gary bruce

ian yeates taking the cash

doug and ian (yvonne madore)

doug campbell shaking hands with bobby north who is accompanied by his wife karen. waiting patiently are rick and anne cope and ed king and nick garito and susan king

steve and cecile kelly, with martha and chuck (probably) donhue, paul and yvonne madore, dom mccleod and bryn weadon

Handing out the Class of 79 Books

lutz sukstorf and marc de van der scheuren passing out the class of 79 books

john turnbull signing for his book

lutz and marc (yvonne madore)

jeff switzer chatting with craig sandiland, each with their own ideas of how to hang on to their class book

lutz and marc adjusting on the fly and deciding to hang on to the books for the guys by labelling and orgnaizing them alphabetically - it worked as only one book was left behind and that one was quickly repatriated back to calgary!

The Presentations - The Big Cheque!

rich gimblett, class secretary, getting the proceedings under way …

oh, okay, so that’s what “smart casual” is!

rich giving the background to the fundraising efforts of the class, watched by al stepehnson, guy killaby, doug fawcett, and jacques gagne on the left, photographer deb patterson in the middle and walt and leslie natynczyk seated on the right and the utpms standing on the right (with jim kightley as well) (yvonne madore)

the big cheque

the big cheque 2.0 (yvonne madore)

René lafrance, treasurer for the RMC Alumni assocation, accepting the big cheque from rich (yvonne madore)

farley (class fund treasurer) , pete avis (fund marketing), René lafrance and rich gimblett. the donated funds will go to the Rmc Alumni Association Museum capital fund.

The Presentations - Donation Pins

Our Class of 79 has had a very stellar grassroots fundraising campaign raising over $275,000 for far and more impressively from more than 85 different Classmates. The RMC Alumni Association reviews the donations annually and when someone surpasses a certain threshold they recognize those contributions by mailing Memorial Arch pins to each of the individuals. Coming from a time when some Canada Decorations were mailed to recipients, we thought the Old Brigade Reunion Weekend would present a golden opportunity to publicly recognize guys from our Class who had passed those thresholds and not yet been mailed their pins (Pewter - $1,000 - $9,999 and Silver - $10,000 - $99,999). Since the vast majority of the guys previously qualified, we double-checked with the Alumni Association and these were seven guys who had not yet received their pins.

bryn weadon presenting jim kightley with his silver pin

bryn presenting scotty mills with his silver pin

bryn presenting scott allward with his pewter pin

bryn presenting al moens with his pewter pin

bryn presenting bruce nelms with his pewter pin

bryn presenting bob hills with his pewter pin

bryn presenting steve kelly with his pewter pin

The Presentations - The Class of 79 Book

waiting for farley - not altogether surprising since he had a plaque on his door at rmc that read “slow down, you’re moving too fast”, but truth be told He was way in the back of the room “protecting” rich’s gift that was hidden behind a curtain (yvonne madore)

the group responsible for the book - pete avis, terry leversedge, tom keogh and farley (looking like a deer caught in the headlights and ironically later when driving home that friday the 13th night he hit a deer, quite unfortnately for the car and the deer)

The Presentations - Recognizing our Two Chiefs of Defence Staff and getting (Finally) a Photo of Them Together wearing Jerseys from Their Favourite Teams!

walt natynczyk with his winnipeg blue bombers jersey and tom lawson with toronto maple leafs jersey

… and the back of the jerseys

Presentations - Jersey Night - Farley

Tom Lawson mentioned quite awhile ago that after having been Cmdt at RMC he understood that most Classes had a small core group of guys who pretty much looked after their Class. Rich Gimblett held things together as Class Secretary for 45 years, ever since graduation, with periodic help from guys like John Carr who produced the 10th Anniversary Booklet. Rich’s job was greatly facilitated in the early 2000s when Dwight Davies set up a group contact list with Yahoo Groups and then later with Groups.IO. Larry Richardson was also the long term rep for the UTPMs and provided feedback on numerous issues. Then, after Farley was posted to CDA HQ on the RMC peninsula, he and Brenda first hosted the 35th anniversary luncheon at their place near Gananoque and then during the lead up to the 40th Anniversary, Farley came on board creating the Class of 79 website with the help of his son-in-law Jay Wood. After that, he had his hands in many different Class-related activities, including maintaining the Nominal Roll; reconciling the Class Funds; helping Dwight run the Yahoo and then TDV79ers eGroup; setting up and managing the Class of 79 Fund along with Pete Avis as “cheerleader”; working with Pete and Rich to develop and follow up on ideas for a Class project; helping Pete and Tom Keogh create ideas for a Class book following which Terry Leversedge agreed to use his publishing company to produce the Class Book; helping Pete edit the Class Book, after Pete did an amazing job individually tracking down a significant number of current photos for the Then and Now section; organizing the production of the name tags after a suggestion from Nelson Cross; and helping Pete and Rich organize the Old Brigade Reunion weekend. Note that Pete also agreed to become the Old Brigade Adjutant, so in addition to the luncheon at the Shire he also helped organize not only the Arch parade but also the Old Brigade Dinner, and in the process attending numerous meetings with RMC and RMC AA staff.

tom laughing because he said “I hope you are a sens fan!” and farley said “i am now!!” In fact, he has been a fan since the team was reborn in the 1990s because he was posted to ottawa when they started in the 92/93 season. in fact, farley took his stepson riley to see the sens play the anaheim ducks in the stanley cup finals in 2007 and were fortunate to attend the first ever finals game the current version of the team won.

shaking hands (wayne hirlehey)

later, farley wearing his new sens jersey at shinny at the constantine arena (photo taken by stepson riley).

Presentations - Recognizing Rich Gimblett - Our Class Secretary for the last 45 Years!

huge smile on rich after finding out it was a very expensive bottle of scotch - Johnny Walker Blue Label Special Edition for "The Year of the Dragon".

pete assuring rich that there were already a number of naval colleagues from the class who had “volunteered” to help him do the taste testing of said bottle! (yvonne madore)

the bottle stowed away safely at home in port hope - sort of. he was to able to confirm the outstanding taste after sharing a glass with richard greenwood and ian yeates. also on the desk, the master copy of the class book with classmate signatures in the then and now section, which is being donated to the rmc museum

Watching the Proceedings

paul madore, john roeterink, terry wood, jeff and katie switzer, sue roeterink, craig sandiland, richard greenwood, catherine byrtus, david wiley and darcey byrtus. and in on the leather couch, susan wood

steve zuber, karen moxley, tom keogh, nick garito, pete avis, scott allward, dan eustace, bob coulter, esmeralda martin, dave alder (yvonne madore)

guy killaby and al stephenson

Attendees

mike and janette deibel

dan eustace with tom lawson

bob and cynthia fehr (with manja mackley)

marc and jacqueline fraser

dwight davies and marc (jacqueline fraser)

steve gasser and marc (Jacqueline fraser)

jean claude and guylaine gagnon (with anna main)

muriel gimblett

bob and christine hills

christine and manja

jim kightley and jaime

claire mathieu with ed and susan king

andy and anna main

ken and carole mackenzie

Wayne and janet murray

walt and leslie natynczyk (with jeff switzer)

lutz sukstorf and debbie patterson (our “Official” photographer)

steve zuber

Mingling

bob hills, nancy turnbull, and janet murray and on the right, john carr and lai-fung (yvonne madore)

chris willmes, doug fawcett, les mosher on the left. john and nancy turbull; ross lambert and tom keogh (leaning against the couch); guy simard and don mcleod near the door (yvonne madore)

in the center, carole mackenzie chatting with Bernie and sharon boland

the utpms with al stephenson - shirley ann george, art george, marie wall, al john britten, steve and Cécile kelly, and randy rogers (yvonne madore)

lutz’s wife deb patterson who volunteered to photograph the reunion weekend and did an amazing job

photographers taking photos of phoographers, in this case Paul madore

Brigitte Veilleux, mike diebel and wayne murray

cathy doull, nick garito, rick doull and susan garito

mark bowen and dan eustace (yvonne madore)

darcy byrtus, walt and leslie natynczyk (yvonne madore)

the utpm contingent - in back tom wall and larry richardson; front: marie wall, don mcleod and shirley ann george

the mains, jim kightley and jaime moore and jena cluade and guylaine gagnon

rich with walt and leslie natynczyk

ray mackley and steve gasser looking at the “survivor photo” - the morning after graduation photo

les mosher, chwylms, dwight davies and bobby north

doug and gail fawcett and gary and micheline bruce

ulrich jaggi, scotty mills, guy killaby and pete barber

ross lambert, dave alder and terry wood

andy main, glenn long, mark sellars and gary bruce

larry richardson, randy rogers, maral tarvizian and richard groves

catherine byrtus, laurel and randy rogers, and john and nancy turnbull

terry leversedgee with jean claude gagnon and ulrich jaggi, gary bruce and john roeterink in the background

dan and esmeralda martin with bruce nelms on left and jacques gagne on right

pete barber with lutz sukstorf

mike mathieu with craig sandiland and gary banks on the right

walt natynczyk and tom lawson, with chuck donohue on the right and janet murray

walt and tom again, with chuck donohue and janet murray on the left and kevin mccarthy, wayne murray, randy rogers and gary banks on the right (yvonne madore)

bobby and karen north chatting with tom lawson, who was with bobby in their 2 sqn recruit flight

the gazebo - terry honour, joanne lambert; rick and anne cope; jacqueline fraser; nick and susan garito; and ross lambert ( or at least part of him). On the left in the background, tom keogh

the guys from 4 sqn k flight - with the best turnout of any recruit flight again - back - sandy davidson, mark sellars, chuck attwood, tom keogh, and craig wood. front - glenn long, ken mackenzie, les mosher and bernie boland

The Buffet

scott allward and dan eustace

todd moxley, ulrich jaggi, sharon touesnard, roger touesnard, mike deibel, monika greewood and catherine byrtus

richard groves and maral Tavrizian with paul and yvonne madore

tom keogh and sheri long

wayne and janet murray; guy killaby, chuck and martha donohue, and mark bowen

john and sue roeterink with jean claude and guylaine gagnon.

al stewart, barry kelin and susan macisaac, al and zan moens. in behind, bill and judi panter standing .

rich and terry leversedge chatting with melissa mcdonald the ssm mess manager. she and her staff did an awesome job. we were very happy with the way everything turned out.

Group Photo!!