3058 COLONEL PETER W. HUNTER, (RMC ’53) CD PAST COMMANDING OFFICER AND FORMER HONORARY COLONEL THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S HORSE GUARDS FORMER COLONEL COMMANDANT ROYAL CANADIAN ARMOURED CORPS On Wednesday July 2, 2008, at the age of 77. Loving husband to Wanda. Dear father to Geoffrey (Marie-José) and Elizabeth Dixon (Neil), the mother of his children, Mrs. Judith Kilborn. Grandchildren Claire Hunter, Jenny, Allan, and Greg Dixon. Step-father to Malia McLaughlin, Christine Villareal (Raphael), and Nancy McLaughlin, and step-grandchildren Sarah, Breanna and C.J. Villareal. Peter is sur vived by his aunt Bernice Hunter, and his numerous cousins. Col Hunter had a distinguished record of ser vice in the military, corporate and volunteer sectors. He attended the University of Toronto Schools and Royal Military College (#3058). Colonel Hunter joined the Governor General’s Horse Guards in 1952, and commanded the Regiment from 1965 to 1967. During the next 23 years he was a member and later Chairman of the Regimental Board of Trustees. He was Honorary Lieutenant Colonel from 1992 to 2001, and Honorary Colonel from 2002 to 2004. Col Hunter was the 12th Colonel Commandant of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps and served in this position from 2005 to 2007. He was a founder and co-chair of Reserves 2000, an organization of individuals concerned about the future of the Canadian Forces Reser ve. His business career spanned 18 years, first at Signum Communications Inc. and then at McConnell Advertising, where he was Chair, President and CEO. He founded Pramcom Communications and from 1989 to 1992 he was Vice President, Corporate Affairs for Citibank Canada. In 1992 he became President of the Zoological Society of Metropolitan Toronto. Subsequently he served as Chairman of the Advertising Review Board of Ontario. His community services included, a Member of the Board of Humber Regional Hospital (formerly York Finch General Hospital) for twenty years and then Chairman of the Board. He was Chair of the Great Lakes Division of the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires; Director of Big Brothers of Toronto; Chair of the Liver Foundation, Past VP of the Empire Club, and President of the University of Toronto Schools Alumni Association. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and Chairman of the Long Range Planning Committee. Corporate directorships have included CJRT-FM, Institute of Canadian Advertising, American Marketing Association (Vice-Chairman), Canadian Broadcast Executives Society and many others. Awards include the Canadian Forces Decoration and Clasp; the Canadian Centennial Medal, the Canada 125 Medal, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the Commissionaires Distinguished Service Medal, and the Commissionaires Long Ser vice Medal. His motivation, dedication, and gentle personality will be remembered. Colonel Peter will be sorely missed by all those whose lives he touched. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Govenor General Horse Guards’ Foundation, 1048 Glenhair Street, Cobourg, Ontario, K9A 5B8, would be appreciated by the family. Condolences and memories may be forwarded through www.humphreymiles.com
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War hero became politician, businessman
2375 Norman Buchanan (RMC ’34)
By MIKE MULLEN – TELEGRAPH-J0URNAL
Published Friday July 4th, 2008
ST. STEPHEN – Of all his many accomplishments, say family members, decorated Second World War hero, politician, businessman and gifted athlete Norman Bruce Buchanan was most proud of having been able to serve his country.
During the Second World War, Norman Bruce Buchanan received the Military Cross with two bars from King George VI.
Yet, says his daughter Gale MacDonald, the old soldier tended to be “very modest” about the distinguished military honours – essentially three Military Crosses – bestowed on him for service on the field of battle between 1939 and 1945.
“The explanation he gave me (for being so modest) was he had the gift of life, he got to come back after the war, and many of the others he served with did not,” said MacDonald, a lawyer.
Buchanan died of a stroke at the Charlotte County Hospital in St. Stephen last Friday. He was 92.
He had suffered from congestive heart failure and Parkinson’s disease in recent years.
Buchanan, who retired from the Canadian army as a lieutenant-colonel with the Carleton-York Regiment, personally received the Military Cross with two bars (Africa, Italy, France) from King George VI in London’s Trafalgar Square.
He had contracted malaria while serving with Britain’s Royal Horse Regiment in Africa, broke his back when his jeep blew up in Italy and had been shot by snipers on the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day landings.
Later, he served as MLA for Charlotte County and minister of Lands and Mines in the Progressive Conservative government of Hugh John Flemming (1952-60), as mayor of St. Stephen (1965-66) and owned and operated Buchanan Bros. Furniture Store on Water Street until he retired in 1982.
Buchanan also left his mark on the sporting world.
As a pitcher with the Maritime champion St. Stephen St. Croix of 1936, he and his teammates were inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1971. And Buchanan and his business partner, the late Norm Donald MacLeod, “invented Fiberglas hockey sticks” at St. Stephen Woodworking, recalled his son, Bruce, a retired forest products company owner.
Born in St. Stephen on Sept. 16, 1915, Buchanan was a son of the late Walter B. and Leola A. (Macwha) Buchanan.
Besides his war bride wife of 64 years, Janetta C. (Wilson), his survivors include two daughters, Janice Buchanan and Gale MacDonald, both of Fredericton; one son, Bruce, of Langley, B.C.; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
He was predeceased by his parents, one son, John; one daughter, Pamela Lawson; two sisters and one brother.
Buchanan met his future wife during military training exercises on a dairy farm in Irvine, Ayreshire, near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1940. They married on March 27, 1944, and, in 1946, she came to Canada on the Queen Mary with their first-born, daughter Janice.
He was a graduate of St. Stephen High School and the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont.
His hobbies included reading, curling, fishing, hunting, walking and dancing, especially with his wife Netta, who chose the hymn Lord of the Dance for his funeral because some of their happiest moments were spent on the dance floor.
Buchanan’s direct, sometimes abrupt, military manner carried over into his post-war life.
“As children growing up, he didn’t suffer any misbehaviour,” said MacDonald. “He had very high expectations for all of us.”
One of his favourite sayings, she recalled, was: “Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better, and your better best.”
Buchanan loved serving his constituents, she said, but had little patience for the slow wheels of bureaucracy.
She recalled how her indignant father introduced legislation that allowed blind people to take their seeing eye dogs to all public places in New Brunswick after learning a blind constituent was denied permission to take his seeing eye dog on a bus.
Buchanan’s deep faith, she said, was his rudder when he lost two of his children to cancer.
“All in God’s time,” he would say.
“He was all about hope,” said MacDonald. “He had a tremendous insight and intellect about people and goodness, and our life to come.”
When she consulted her father in hospital about his funeral eulogy, he told her, “Be sincere and don’t fuss.”
She didn’t. Instead, as he wished, she focused on her mother. “(Dad) dearly wanted to thank my mother for being absolutely courageous and determined in looking after him,” she said. “I had to say those things and not be mushy.”