Leonard Orr

Just 4 months shy of his 93rd birthday Leonard Orr has departed this world after a brief illness. Most people found it hard to believe he was in his 90’s – he had been very healthy and active. He would often hop in his car and think nothing of driving to Nova Scotia or Toronto to visit family. He left us as he lived his life – peacefully, with dignity and on his own terms. He left us having “no regrets except leaving behind those he loved”.

Len was the eldest child of Clara Wilhemina Barkhouse (1901 – 1964) and James Clifford Orr (1902 – 1984) and big brother to Aurdon Clifford (1925-1988), Laurie Keith, Raleigh James (1930-2004), Victor Leroy, Gwendolyn Madeline (1930-2015) and Joyce Pearl (1939-2000).

Len was born in West Apple River, Nova Scotia growing up there as well as in Port Greville. He and his siblings attended a one-room schoolhouse. After graduating from the West Apple River School completing the ninth grade, he and his brother Aurd went to live with their Aunt Alice Barkhouse and Uncle Don Benjamin in Kentville. Len graduated from the tenth grade there. He was planning to return home then to work in logging with his father but his Uncle Bill Cameron and Aunt Hilda Orr invited him to live with them to complete the 11th grade in Pubnico. From there he went to Teacher’s College, earning a certification in industrial arts. He attended Acadia University and Dalhousie University ultimately earning his undergraduate degree from Acadia. During this time he taught at Windsor Academy in Windsor, Nova Scotia. Windsor turned out to be a great choice – that is where he met his future bride Hazel Louie Selina Allen, a registered nursing student at the Payzant Memorial Hospital.

Len and Hazel were married at the Windsor United Church on 23 August 1953. From there they set out on a great adventure driving cross-country to Cluny, Alberta where Len had a job teaching on the Blackfoot Reservation and Hazel was the head nurse at Bassano Hospital as well as a surgical nurse. Len had secured a teaching position in Calgary to begin the following year but Hazel had had her fill of life with frozen pipes, erratic to non-existent indoor plumbing and unpaved roads. They left Alberta and drove back to Ste. Croix, Nova Scotia and lived for the summer on the farm Hazel grew up on while Len completed his last history course to earn his degree from Acadia. A teaching position was offered to Len at Chambly County High School for that fall and they moved to the Montreal south shore suburb of Saint Lambert, Quebec in 1954. They had 4 children between 1956 and 1962; Heather, Cheryl, Glenn and Kevin. Len taught biology, technical drawing, and industrial arts at CCHS before being asked to become the vice-principal at Lemoyne d’Iberville High School in Longueil, Quebec. He then became the principal at Saint Stephens Elementary School in Chambly, Quebec for 2 years before transitioning back to Lemoyne as principal for 9 years. He completed his “official “career with the South Shore Protestant Regional School Board as the Assistant to the Director of Education serving for another 9 years. After retiring, he returned to where it all began and a job he loved - teaching a technology course he developed in woodworking and drafting at CCHS for 2 years.

He loved working with his hands and spent many hours building in his basement workshop of the home he lived in for almost 60 years, as well as in others’ homes. He replaced many a roof, much to Hazel’s chagrin who kept saying he wasn’t going to get any younger doing that; help build homes and built a cabin cruiser in his backyard. Later with the addition of grandchildren to his life he built treehouses with trapdoors and very involved skateboard ramps. Both the treehouse and skateboard ramp projects involved transporting one’s own tools to St Louis, Missouri to do the best job possible. He was a true craftsman who built furniture and beautiful inlaid items such as boxes and lamps, among other pieces.

His career in education brought him in contact with thousands of students many of whom fondly remember his tough love approach being very successful in creating independence in learning while knowing you always had a supporter in him as long as you did your best. He expected much from his students, but no less than he did from himself. A huge joy for him in later years was attending the Chambly County and Lemoyne d’Iberville High School reunions and meeting the adult versions of the teenagers he had worked with so many years ago.

He had a passion for cars, for craftsmanship, for curling, for hockey, for working with your hands, for education, for pets, for children, for his beloved home province of Nova Scotia, for his friends and neighbours and most of all, for his family. A variety of extended family members were given a home with Len & Hazel over the years as well as a few students who needed assistance. He may have been a taskmaster when it came to growth and maturity but he had a very large heart for those who needed help. He cared for Hazel, his wife of 57 years, in her final stages of dementia at home until he absolutely couldn’t do it himself, and even then had to be convinced to place her in a wonderful care facility. There, he visited her every day for four years until her death in July of 2010.

He leaves behind his children: Heather (D. Douglas Miller), Cheryl (Andrzej Kepinski), Glenn and Kevin; “adopted” daughter Sandra Allen (Herman Beaulac); his grandchildren Caroline and Brendan Miller, Stefan and Sophie Kepinski; his brothers Laurie (Catherine) and Vic (Ruth); his sisters and brothers-in-law Marilyn Orr, Lillian Orr, Lloyd Allen, Lillian and Bill Cochrane, Della Umlah and many, many nieces and nephews and their families.

Final arrangements have been entrusted to Collins Clark MacGillvary White Funeral Home at 307 Riverside Drive, Saint Lambert, Quebec. Visitation will be held at 9:30 a.m. and services at 11 a.m., February 6, 2016 at Collins Clarke MacGillvary White. Interment of his and Hazel’s ashes will take place in Nova Scotia at a later date.