COLQUHOUN, Bud
James Alexander David (Bud) Colquhoun One of the Town of Englehart’s most well-known citizens and prominent community volunteers, Bud Colquhoun, passed away after a brief illness on Sunday evening July 19 at the Northview Nursing Home in Englehart. He had recently celebrated his 90th birthday. James Alexander David (Bud) Colquhoun was born May 6, 1930 at the Red Cross Outpost Hospital in Englehart. The building is now the location of the Northview Nursing Home. He is the first child of Stewart and Florence (Leggott) Colquhoun. His father, a World War I veteran, died in 1966. His mother died in 1989. He is the older brother of Shirley who was born in 1934 and died in March of 2018. His father was severely wounded on November 13, 1917 at the battle of Passchendaele. As a youngster Bud accompanied his father on annual outpatient visits to Toronto’s Christie Street Military Hospital. Bud said of his father “ ….Dad lost an eye, his nose and much of his face….He endured excruciating plastic surgery and was blind for a time. If ever anyone was a candidate for suicide it was my father, but he didn’t succumb to his misfortune nor did he complain about it. For the rest of his life he wore a large patch to cover terribly disfigured features (he called it his bandage). He was the bravest of men.” On those annual medical trips Bud recalled of his father and those trips “He would meet friends who would never leave the hospital – blind, burned, gassed, disfigured and amputees forever wheelchair bound – but they did not complain.” Known throughout his life as “Bud”, he notes, when asked about the origins of his name, he replied that he acquired it as an infant. He attended elementary school at S.S. No.1 Chamberlain Township (“known as the Krugerdorf School”, he said). His post-secondary education began in September of 1943 at Englehart High School. He recalls as a teenager in those World War II years, “….rationing of sugar, tea, meat. Englehart had a 9 p.m. curfew, people had to be home by then.” After his high school education was completed in the mid-1940s, he worked for a short time with the Department of Lands and Forest in Englehart before going to Hamilton to work in the steel industry. After that brief experience he headed back north to work for Lands and Forest in New Liskeard. From that moment on until his retirement in 1992 he was employed with Lands and Forest (which evolved into the Ministry of Natural Resources), first in New Liskeard and later Englehart and Kirkland Lake. In 1953 he married Gwen (Fisher) a union that lasted until her death December 1, 2017. The couple were involved in countless community endeavours such as their involvement with the Englehart Historical Museum. Bud and Gwen loved to travel touching down in countries including Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Yugolslavia, Morocco, England and Scotland as well as many winter sojourns in Florida and a memorable trip to Arizona. In Gwen’s obituary, written by Bud, it was stated “She was of inestimable help and support to Bud in their post-retirement auction business.” For decades he was a regular contributor to The Temiskaming Speaker as the author of the weekly Englehart Echoes column. In late 2019 he noted his work had appeared “in more than 650 consecutive columns.” Englehart Echoes not only looked at the people and events that had shaped Englehart but it would also offer commentary on contemporary issues, such as his support of the four-laning of Highway 11. He was a driving force in the restoration of the “701” The “701” was the last steam locomotive to run on the tracks of the Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) making its farewell run on June 25, 1957. It was then donated by the railway to the Town of Englehart, in trust as a lasting memorial to the romantic age of steam. Located besides the tracks across from Englehart’s Centennial Park, its condition was deteriorating badly until the Restoration Group was formed and a fundraising effort began. The 701 steam locomotive refurbishing and canopy project was concluded in 2019. The final phase of the project was the construction of a sheltering canopy over the steam locomotive. The reconstruction of the steam locomotive had been an objective of a dedicated committee of people, called the “701 Restoration Group” of which Bud played a prominent role, for more than 10 years. He also spearheaded a campaign to have Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof introduce a private members bill which would officially designate the spelling of Temiskaming to be written with an “e” as opposed to “Timiskaming”. His various community recognitions include a Certificate of Lifetime Achievement from the Ontario Heritage Trust in appreciation of his “lifetime of volunteer work to identify, preserve, protect and promote our province’s rich heritage.” An example of that type of work was his role in the early 1970s of the establishment of a monument on Highway 11, south of Earlton, in commemoration of the Great Fire of 1922. Another example of his community accolades came in 2007 as a member of the Englehart Centennial Committee as that organization received the Englehart and District Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award. Mr. Colquhoun is predeceased by his parents and his wife of 64 years. In keeping with Mr. Colquhoun’s wishes, cremation has taken place. Bud and Gwen will now be together again. There is no public service. If desired, donations may be made to one or all of the following: Ontario Heritage Trust, the Haileybury Heritage Museum, the Englehart & Area Historical Museum, TVO (properly known as The Ontario Educational Communications Authority, charitable registration number 85985 0232 RR0001), and/or the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Condolences and contributions may be left below..
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