It is with great sadness that we have lost members of our District 7070 Rotary family this month. Everyone in District 7070 expresses their deepest sympathies to our extended Rotary family.
Mic Jory - Past President of Toronto Eglinton Rotary
Rotarian Mike Hazell’s fond Remembrance of Mic Jory
Mic Jory was a man of many parts and a model Rotarian. My life, since its earliest beginnings, 65 years ago has been inextricably linked one way or another with Mics, which is why I appreciate the opportunity to write about Mic & me, the circle of our lives and Rotary . Now I am told 1954, the year I was born was a very momentous year for a host of reasons:
Mic & wife Bridget were married
In Oxford where Mic attended University boxed, played rugby and cricket another great amateur athlete, Medical Student, Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile,
In Toronto where Mic would raise his family and spend most of his adult life, the new Yonge St subway opened, and Rotary celebrated its 50th anniversary by opening a new 50-member, subway accessible midtown Club at Eglinton that now meets at 44 Price St. at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club 3 out of four Wednesdays a month, Mic was destined to become a long time member there, and President of both the Rotary Club & the TLTC. By happenstance the Rotary Club’s first community Service activity 65 years ago was helping to clean up Toronto after the devastation of Hurricane Hazel that hit in October 1954
In Calgary waves of immigrants were arriving daily. Western Canada represented an exciting new land of promise, great open spaces and adventure for young married couples coming from England and the Caribbean were enticed to settle there. So, shortly after Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto the Hazells hit Calgary, which coincided with the newly immigrated Jory family’s arrival. My family consisted of Dad, Robin & mother Frances both graduates of Cambridge University with baby me 6 months old in tow and soon to be brother Richard still incubating in the oven. Now birds of a feather tend to flock together. So it was inevitable Mic and his lovely & vivacious bride Bridget would find another Oxbridge couple and bond, especially as my father, like Mic, had been a great boxer, tennis and cricket player at university albeit wearing the Cambridge Blue, not Mic’s Oxford Blue. So before you could say ‘Oh Canada’ Mic & my father & my father’s great friend from Barbados, Dick Shaw were all selected to play together on the Western Canadian Cricket team and the three young families connected. My father had a large company car so he would drive Mic & Dick to different venues. The 3 amigos biggest road trip came when it was time to play the touring Eastern Canadian team. So with my 8-month pregnant mother in tow they loaded the car crossed the Rockies and travelled all the way to Vancouver Island stopping to play matches in Penticton and Stanley Park. Noteworthy I am told: The game in Stanley Park was stopped at one point as an ocean vessel was somehow obstructing the bowler’s view & fortunately my mother managed to delay delivery of my brother until 3 days after returning to Calgary, which was 3 weeks early
Now in those days when Calgary really was a one horse town. So much so Easterners used to joke and ask, what’s the difference between yogurt and Calgary? The answer of course was one has a living culture the other doesn’t. So shortly after the Cricket Tour all three families succumbed to the siren’s call of bigger cities with more culture and commercial activity and made the move east to Toronto & Montreal where they flourished, and grew bigger and immersed themselves in their respective communities.
Mic was what I would describe as the perfect team player & organizational man who enjoyed volunteering in tried and true organizations and helping to rally people to make those organizations even better always with a sense of tradition and decorum and good humor.
For Mic family was everything and certainly formed the foundation of his life. Bridget and the children were his corner stones. With his solid family foundation in place and his service above self ‘must do’ attitude Mic advanced rapidly professionally as an accountant, first with P&G, then with Warner Lambert. Beyond work Mic threw himself into four great organizations that became the pillars of his life giving him great stability and life balance and effectively providing him with four grand extended families that enriched his life: Mic was a generous, thoughtful and deeply spiritual & socially conscious man, his first pillar was his church and ShareLife family; also a compassionate fellow the second pillar was his CNIB family; a rather eclectic person with broad interests and skills the third was his Rotary family with its myriad of committees, community and international service work projects; always the energetic enthusiastic athlete the fourth pillar was the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, where the Jory’s have indelibly shaped the Lawn Family and literally Mic wrote the first part of its history called ‘A Love of tennis’ The first 100 years of the Toronto Lawn. Teaming with wife Bridget, Mic invented, wrote and helped produced the first Foot Faults performances, a bi-annual cabaret and satirical look at the Club ( think Faulty Towers meets Monty Python, meets Gilbert & Sullivan)which continues to entertain new generations of Lawn members and Bridget, now 92 years of age, continues to produce
Because of my physical absence from the Toronto area for many years Mic & my lives diverged for some time, but in 1994, 40 years after first meeting Mic I began working three days a week in Toronto, while my family was living and based in Lakefield our lives once again intersected. Mic learned of my new work situation welcomed me and invited me to become part of the Toronto Eglinton Rotary family, then shortly thereafter he sponsored me into the Lawn, after which I had to undergo the rigors of the Bridget Jory proposed members screening interview. Yes, I somehow passed.
At the Lawn and Rotary Mic was the perfect role model for me. His word was his bond. Always a gentleman sporting his classic bow tie he impeccably practiced the principles of the Rotary 4 Way test. Which means in thought, word and deed, he always sought the truth, fairness, mutual benefit for all involved and to build goodwill and friendships. He was the perfect servant based leader. He was never boastful, worked with calm determination always for the betterment of those around him
For example, with what I like to call that Mic twinkle in his eye, sporting pipe & bow tie, he with his wing man Tibor Grigor, another pipe smoker, fused the TLTC & Rotary worlds perfectly by first bringing Rotary meetings to the Lawn, then cherry picking some of the best members from the tennis Club to join Rotary. Because of this for a brief period of time he and Tibor held the Club record for enticing the most recruits to Rotary including the likes of me, Bill Martin, Francis Zarb, Maurice O’Flynn, Chris Brown, David Gallagher; that is until Dr. Doug Robertson came along. Dr. Doug was a GP & when conducting medicals would put on that infamous rubber glove…then during the most delicate part of the manual prostate exam he would pop the question with perfect timing “so this Wednesday at noon would you like to come to a Rotary meeting with me at the Toronto Lawn?” Most of course really felt the pressure to accept his rather pointed invitation and many became members, in great deference to the finger
On the fellowship front Mic made sure Rotary sports day did not consist of golf alone followed by Ed Foxes sumptuous BBQ’s and insisted we add the annual tennis tournament to compliment the golf. He was the perennial winner of the tournament until his hips gave out and I came along, but even after that with bad hips he played on with a special joie de vie and frequently if you were under 50 you would catch a mischievous Mic eye twinkle just before he hit you his perfectly unreachable drop shot, which kept him competitive well past his prime. And yes the rumors are true I learned my drop shot from Mic.
Now, at the Toronto Lawn at precisely 2 pm each Weds, there is what is lovingly called the Gentlemen’s Round Robin. But It really looks like something right off the nature channel as this herd of really old creaky bull moose , mostly former captains of industry migrate to the pavilion courts, then try desperately to play for two hours before retiring to the watering hole. The completive spirit still burns bright as they like to knock heads, but the body parts are on the brink of failing or have been removed or replaced altogether. One Wednesday, post play at the watering hole several of them were lamenting the fact that while the club’s A,B & C players all had impressive awards to play for during the Club championship there was nothing for the D’s field, where they grazed, and so being decisive types they agreed then & there to go out and buy the club’s biggest and brightest cup for the D men’s competition, yes, people ‘size does count!” at least for them . Now, Mic who had a great sense of humor and superb turn of phrase was the first ever winner of this huge status symbol, all the very old Bull Moose lusted after. At the Awards Banquet during his acceptance speech Mic brought the house down, when he said “ladies & and gentlemen, with all this stiff competition, (pointing to his Table of men’s D cronies), in all my life I never thought it would be me to be the first to get my hands on the revered ‘D Cup’. To this day the award is known as Mic’s Revered D Cup
In the Rotary Club Mic was a tireless worker. He manned the front desk, served as treasurer, president, historian long term board & foundation member. He initiated and for years championed a special funding program that enabled numerous First Nations students to attend medically related life science programs at Ryerson using the club’s McClure funds.
Unfortunately, the last few years of Mic’s life his failing health and mobility issues excluded him from participating in so many of the things he enjoyed so much. But he held on as long as he could. I believe it was 2014, 60 years after I first met him, that he asked me if I could pick him up and drive him to his last Rotary Xmas lunch at the Rosedale Golf & Country Club. Shortly after that my wife Gail & I were thrilled to be invited by him and Bridget to celebrate Valentines together at the Tennis Club. He was impeccably dressed sporting his bow tie, quite frail but still absolutely enthralled by Bridget the love of his life for 60 + years. After that Mic became more infirm & house bound.
In 2016 he & I unexpectedly hooked up again at Bridgepoint Rehab hospital after I suffered my stroke. Mic was convalescing from a fall and staying on the floor below me. One day Bridget visited after visiting Mic and told me he was in some pain and feeling a bit sorry for himself, so I went down to see him in my wheel chair thinking I would cheer him up. Of course, typical Mic when I arrived his sole focus was on me not him. He gave me many words of encouragement: insisting, that unlike him, on the brink of 90 years old, I had many more overs ( a cricket term for a span of time) and this test I was going through would make me stronger and a better person, if I could just persevere and push through it. When I left his room I had the realization he looked a lot better. His focus on me had taken his mind away from his own situation and given him a chance to do what he loved doing helping people
Now Immediately after that conversation I went back to my room, and another great Toronto Lawn buddy, Joe Murphy appeared at my door for one of his many visits and pep talks. He told me “Hazell I come armed with 3 bits of the very best Irish medicine, absolutely guaranteed to fix you up. First bit, the very funny Mrs. Brown’s Boys Cd, the skits were so funny I almost chocked to death 2nd bit, Ilie Nastase’s auto biography, upon my comment “but Joe. Nastase was Rumanian not Irish”, Joe countered and said “Hazell just read the damned book and you will see with all his talents and antics he must have been an Irish man in Rumanian clothing. He’s just like me for goodness sake and I am prepared to adopt him for Ireland. 3rd bit was a book of inspirational Irish quotes starting with a very memorable passage by George Bernard Shaw. I thought to myself as I read this passage that it was written with Mic in mind & in hind sight, for my dear Joe, as well, because Joe unexpectedly passed a year ago: The passage reads
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.”
Mic’s splendid torch has burned as brightly as any I’ve known and continues to light others as the circle of life and his positive influence continues. It was only two Weds ago at noon here at Rotary when I learned of Mic’s passing. My mentor & sponsor was gone. As tears filled my eyes, I had the sudden uplifting realization that today was the first Rotary meeting of the new Rotary year and our brand new Rotary President, Nilam Bedi, would preside over it. I knew Mic would be smiling down on us knowing he had a direct link to Nilam’s being here, as Mic had brought me into Rotary & I in turn had brought Nilam into the Club. Then upon returning home the same day I learned much to my delight from my wife Gail that Tiffany Shui & David Mordini who I had sponsored into the TLTC, just as Mic had sponsored me, had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl Josephine who would become our newest Lawn member, effectively filling the opening Mic’s passing had just created and so, to quote a line from Simon & Garfield, ‘we continue to continue’. The circle of life completes itself. Thanks Mic for 65 years of mentorship, friendship & love, your legacy will live long in me and the thousands of others your torch has lit the path for
Please join me and raise a glass to Past President Mic & his biggest legacy of all the entire Jory family. God bless you all.
If you hear of any Rotarian who has passed away, please send your notices to our District Newsletter Editor, Dave Andrews at dave.f.andrews99@gmail.com.