I was born sometime in the first half of the last century in England to parents who were searching for a secure and permanent home following their wartime displacement from their native Poland. Eventually, they immigrated to Canada with their 3 children. Our first home was in northern Quebec for a few years, and then, when my father accepted an engineering job at Atlas Steels, we moved to Foss Road in Fenwick. In fact, to the very house that I live in today.
So, my background is a very familiar Canadian story: family immigration from political instability or economic inopportunity, followed by total commitment to achieving success through hard work, honesty, persistence, intelligence, and independence. These values and principles, and the success they engendered, not only contributed to the surviving and thriving of individual families, but also to the development of their communities and their country.
Pelham and Canada has done well for my family and me, as it has for so many of us who have come from elsewhere to this wonderful place, and it's no wonder that we become among its most patriotic fans and supporters.
Some personal accomplishments include:
- Educated locally in Welland, Fenwick, Fonthill, and St. Catharines. If meaningful learning is the result of experience (meaning mostly experiments and mistakes), then I received a terrific education, but also managed to get a degree, graduating with a BA from Brock in 1973.
- paid for my education by working my way through school, and paid back all student and private borrowing necessary to complete my schooling. happily married for 42 years and counting to Wieske.
- the parent of 2 healthy and productive children, and the grandparent of 5.
- a long, continuous, progressively successful career in Human Resources Management in Canadian industry made possible through constant learning and self-development.
- personal home ownership for over 40 years, and purchased the family home on Foss Road in 2003 from my parents.
- retired from working for other people at age 54, and commenced self-employment in semi-retirement based on investment in Pelham.
- learned to play the clarinet and saxophone as an adult well enough to play in a number of local bands.
- and, in case anyone is interested, never arrested, never bankrupt, never unemployed in the course of my career, never fired for cause, never sued.
Following my career in industry, I returned to Pelham, not only because this is home, but because our town is in the middle of one of the loveliest parts of the world. We choose not to rely on annuities or passive investment for our retirement, but to make a living through active and direct involvement in our investment in the multi-residential development on our property on Foss Road which provides clean, secure, economical rental housing.
I am a member of the Committee of Adjustment of the Town of Pelham since January of 2007, which has given me both a far more complete perspective of the town, and a taste for public service.
