Young, Harry Philip – crossed the threshold peacefully, at his country home in Cavan, on Saturday December 26th 2020, where he was loved and cared for by his family and precious caregivers.
Harry of Aurora, On and Bonita Springs, Fl, formerly of Thornhill, Nobleton, and Toronto was 91 years of age.
Beloved and treasured husband of Shirley (nee Jones) for 57 years. Loving, cherished father of Karen and David Young, beloved friend and father- in- law of Andrew Bennett and adoring, proud Hubba of Olivia Rose Young Brodhurst and Ashley Belle Young Brodhurst. Loved brother and cousin of his remaining family and all the dear friends in the GTA, USA and Leeds, UK.
President and co-founder of Tape Specialties Limited with his life partner and wife Shirley, since its humble inception in 1972 and successfully operated with the dedication and help of many valuable sales people and employees in the office and factory. The company was sold with the highest integrity in 2004. T.S.L. was highly respected for creating Shatterstop safety mirror backing but more impressively, the notorious Painters Mate Green and Painters Mate Delicate masking tapes with long-time friend and chemist Peter Haug. Painters Mate products were created with the world’s first water based adhesive and were sought after by lay painters, professionals and decorative painters around the globe. Towards the end of Harry’s industrious career he began a small plumbing distribution company, Plumbco Trading, as an act of service to a former friend, which dissolved five years later. Harry worked as a Sales Manager for Canadian Technical Tape and Ray-O-Vac Battery, and was an accomplished steam fitter working in tight and challenging places, such as replacing corroded parts within the bilge of ships returning from war. Harry’s deep love of music, big band and jazz in particular, was evident throughout his long and eloquently lived life.
As a teenager he would D.J. the dances at the YMCA and Palais Royale with his beloved older brother. Music and dancing were some of my parents most treasured activities and he enjoyed good music and wine with family and friends through the years. Young Harry, at six year’s old, sold Wilsons Ginger Ale and Coke Cola, which he kept cool in the upstairs bathtub with ice, along with his dear mother’s home-made butter tarts, to the factories along the eastern Toronto waterfront in a red wagon borrowed from his newspaper route. At a very young age, Harry had the foresight to discern and then fulfill needs in his community with his innate natural abilities, a pioneering sharp mind, common sense and a strong ethic of hard work. Today we call this an entrepreneurial spirit. Dad always told us if you do something, do it to the best of your ability or don’t do it at all. In my mother, dad found a creative, kindred and generous spirit to share and help realize his visions.
A founding member and two-time President of Meadowbrook Golf & Country Club, in Stouffville, On and long-time member of Palmira Golf & Country Club in Bonita Beach, FL,
Harry loved the sport of golf as it was truly, a gentleman’s game. Many precious and memorable times spent with family, dear friends and business relationships involved golf; both on and off the course. The relaxation, enjoyment and comradery flowed gently through Harry’s veins. In his younger years Harry was the President of the Progress Club where he met some of his closest lifetime friends. Harry was a visionary man of many successes. A generous philanthropist with his wife Shirley, together they gave of their hearts, time and resources over many years striving to help bring support and awareness to the stigma of Mental Health donating to SSO, CAMH, Sunnybrook, North York and St. Josephh’s and founding the Drive to Survive Charity Golf Tournament in 1998 at Nobleton Lakes. Through their former foundation, Harry and Shirley gave to many vital and necessary charities in the GTA and still to this day give what they can to help others.
He was fortunate to travel many parts of the world through business and pleasure with Shirley, family and dear friends; Harry loved travel. He spoke about going on a river cruise until quite recently and of going to his home in Florida. On our families last great adventure, we journeyed to England where we celebrated dad’s 90th birthday, with cherished cousins. On an epitaph dedicated to a man in a parish church outside the estate we were renting in Over Compton, I read a dedication which spoke to my heart about my dad. In respect to the late Mr. Nicholas Bingham, I offer them to you today, in honor of Harry Young. “A man who through the course of a long and laborious life went about doing good, he comforted the poor, by his conduct he gave lessons to the rich, in the practice of living life he was exemplary and sincere; his integrity and uprightness gained him the first of all characters, that of an HONEST MAN.”
Harry held the many adversities and successes of his long life with a calm strength born of quiet acceptance of the vagaries and the rainbow of the human experience. He lived his life with a lightness and easy humor, yet Harry was a deeply loyal, compassionate man who walked softly through life with quiet impeccability, an equanimous disposition in service to others, even in his last moments.
On a deeply personal note I feel called to share: although my beloved dad passed away peacefully of late-stage Lewy Body Disease, his remarkable neurologist at Sunnybrook, Dr. Sandra Black explained to me in 2017 that dad had ‘the trinity’: dementia, Parkinson’s and small vascular disease and this may be a blessing. We, his closest family and caregivers observed the progression of this devastating disease of the brain as it slowly stole and rearranged all we held precious of the memories of dad’s life with us. It is understandable that I (we) felt powerless and barely able to bear witness to the suffering of my dad, the man each of us have loved for all the time we have known him. Yet through the ravaging of his body and mind, I know I have been gifted with clear eyes to truly see; a pure heart to truly sense; and a strong mind, to truly discern that the deeper my beloved dad fell asleep to most of the practical aspects of his personal expression and life as we all knew it, what revealed itself to me (us) in the stillness, and what remained present, until the last breath my father exhaled, was his noblility, his kindness, as a gentle man and protector whose radiance shone brightly in the present, the here and now, as a testament and gift for us. My beloved father was a quiet teacher who taught by action not words.
With all our gratitude, we acknowledge the love and devotion of three very special angels, they are a part of our family and hearts now and our beloved mother, who devoted herself to our father in sickness and in health with the highest of herself in grace and love.
In keeping with Harry’s wishes, cremation will take place January 5th, 2021. My dear brother David recounted to me days ago a conversation he and dad had years earlier where dad expressed his wishes for his passing. “He had a good life. He was lucky to have family and friends. He wished not that we cry when he passes but that we celebrate with nice food and good wine.” With this, we invite you all, his family and friends, to hold in your heart a future day, possibly August 12, 2021, when we will gather together to hug, laugh and toast good wine in tribute and celebration of the life of Harry Philip Young, a most remarkable man, my dad.
Arrangements are under the care and direction of Ashburnham Funeral Home, Peterborough, On.
In lieu of condolence’s, in keeping with dad’s philosophy of the glass is always half full, we invite you to share your fond memories online with us all or to keep them alive in your hearts, where we will always remember Harry Philip Young.
“May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sunshine warm upon your face.
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
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Saturday December 26th 2020
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Harry Young Saturday December 26th 2020..
Décès pour la Ville:Peterborough, Province: Ontario