By CECILIA NASMITH NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY
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| Baltimore resident Gord Sherwin has published a biography with some of the details of his life: the specifics behind the broad strokes known to the community, such as his war service and how he started his successful transport business. |
Now, with the publication of his biography, A Life Well Travelled, you can learn some of the details.
Displaying a copy in his Baltimore home this week, he relates how his children -- Diana, Elizabeth and Jay -- had long urged him to set down in writing some of the stories they loved. Then, when his friend Angus Read published his own biography, Don't Tell Me It Can't Be Done, Jay decided his father should do the same.
The same author was commissioned: Gary May.
"There are some minor factual errors in the book, but they are not important really. I went through the drafts, and you always miss something," Sherwin said. "I think he did a great job. We would go through sessions three or four hours at a time. How he made sense of all that I don't know."
Nevertheless, the life of Gordon Keith Sherwin is set out in 10 chapters, from The Yorkshire Sherwins (Chapter One) to Making Sense Of It All (Chapter Ten), followed by a mini-family album and Sherwin family tree.
Sherwin's father had only one skill: farming. Unfortunately, those hard Depression years were a grim struggle to hold on to the farm and not go on relief.
Marion Deviney was a Vernonville girl who fell in love with the young man who worked occasionally on her father's farm. She went on to become a teacher, while Gord finished Grade 12 in time to join the air force and do his part in the Second World War. That included an ill-timed parachute jump that landed him behind enemy lines. Fortunately, a sympathetic French family hid him from the Germans.
Once Gord came home, his bride-to-be urged him to continue his education. He dragged his feet, not wanting to be the oldest guy in a Grade 13 classroom. Fortunately, he stumbled into the trucking business while talking to a man who had one, wanted to get rid of it and priced it attractively.
The cover of the book shows the brand-new 1946 Ford truck he bought for the business from Arthur E. Smith's dealership (where the Mr. Sub shop now stands in downtown Cobourg). It was two days before his wedding, and he managed to buy tires for it in time for a friend to carry on the business while the new Mr. and Mrs. Sherwin enjoyed their honeymoon.
The couple would pursue a number of interests over the years -- especially gardening and writing for Marion, and serving on the board of education and racing horses for Gord. He was president of the Ontario Harness Horsemen's Association for five years and a one-time member of the Ontario Racing Commission.
His business would take many forms over the 52 years he ran it.
He couldn't wait to get out of livestock transport, not relishing the challenge of roping mean sows or watching tearful farmers saying goodbye to animals they'd come to see as pets.
Milk transport was far more enjoyable, especially when the cumbersome 110-lb. milk cans were replaced by tanker trucks. In time, he'd service some 250 producers in four counties.
Following a career as geologist with Shell Minerals, his son Jay took over the business. Long before that, however, it was established enough for him and his wife to take the exotic two-and three-week vacations they loved. They would land on every continent except Antarctica and Australia, get close-up looks at animals that ranged from camels to rhinoceroses, and see points of interest that ranged from Machu Picchu to Masada. They would even hit Argentina and Uganda in the 1970s during the heavily armed heyday of (respectively) Juan Peron and Idi Amin.
In the late 1980s, through Sherwin's membership in the Rotary Club of Cobourg, they would meet Murray Dryden, father of Ken and founder of Sleeping Children Around The World. The Sherwins began travelling with a purpose, to distribute some 20,000 of these sleeping kits to children in Asian and South American countries. They would continue until Marion's health began to fail.
They were recognized -- with a 1996 Paul Harris Fellowship from the Rotary Club for Marion and a 2001 YMCA Peace Medal for both of them.
"These personal stories are interesting to people who know who you are, but maybe not to people further removed," he demurred.
However, like many biographies, it's more than just personal. Along with the story of a loving couple, it offers a glimpse into other times -- when dating meant dances at the old Cobourg Pavilion, when first-class travel was affordable, when cheese factories dotted Northumberland in almost every small community.
May is very pleased Sherwin has left a recorded legacy.
"Everyone has an interesting life in some way, but I found Gord's particularly interesting because of creating his own company and his war-time experiences," he said.
"It's called A Life Well Travelled, a play on the theme of his creation of the transport company and also the work he and Marion did. They did a lot of international travelling, and a lot of it was for charitable organizations, so it was a play on that."
May said that a copy has been placed in the Cobourg Public Library, which has a special local-history room.
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