An adventurer throughout his life, Richard set off on his latest trip on September 5, 2021 at a time and place of his choosing. On this final journey he was surrounded by the love of his extended family and the embrace of Jennifer, his wife, and the paw of Buster, his beloved dog.
Born in Romania at the beginning of the Second World War he lived through battles and bombings. Eventually, at the approach of the Russian Army, he and his grandparents took what few possessions they could fit into a covered wagon pulled by oxen and made their way into West Germany. He always regretted being forced to leave his one toy, a wooden truck, and spoke of that till the end of his life. He did save the day by toddling to the wagon with the bag of salt that had been left on the ground behind them.
For the next years he lived in Brunsbuttel on a farm with his grandparents while Klara, his mother, worked on the ferry boats. He was a rapscallion youth, skipping school and playing around unexploded ordinance with his gang. He did finish school by seventeen with a respectable standing and rather than be drafted looked farther afield to Canada and Australia. Canada accepted the family first and in 1957 he arrived in Montreal. Moving to Toronto, he got a job at the Park Plaza washing pots and saved enough to move to Bermuda where he learned to speak with a British accent and, when not working as a bartender, developed his enduring love of the sea and of diving.
Next came the journey to San Francisco to take up hard hat diving, enabling him to explore San Francisco Bay from the bottom up. With this skill under his belt he came back to Canada and for a summer worked raising waterlogged logs from the bottom of a river and floating them to a sawmill.One summer was enough and he returned to hotel work. His hard work, strong ethics and pleasant personality eventually lead to the General Manager ship of several hotels.
His passion for hotels and pressing desire for self-employment impelled him to found Global Hospitality Search Consultants supplying staff to hotels and resorts around the world. The company eventually morphed into one of the first internet recruitment sites from which he eventually retired.
Retirement allowed him time to indulge his wide ranging interests. The opportunity for learning had finally arrived and he delved into everything from astronomy to art to classical music to mathematics. His passions were endless – he played a mean game of chess, regularly bested native
English speakers at Scrabble and was a demon at any card game. The Saturday morning soccer games from England were never missed. He learned to fly gliders, to kayak and canoe and to explore Ontario by bicycle. He built stone walls and paths in the gardens. His paintings were an outlet for his creative side. His eclectic tastes in reading ranged from the lurid to heavy tomes of history and politics.
Above all he loved to travel. We sailed all but two of the Seven Seas, explored the deserts of Africa and the jungles of South America; saw tigers in India ,the Great Migration in Tanzania and penguins in the Falkland Islands; sailed the Yangtze and the Nile; sailed around the Horn and through the Panama Canal; followed Darwin to the Galapagos; viewed burial practices in Egypt and Indonesia and palaces in Russia and Cambodia; rode donkeys and elephants and fell off camels. His abiding love was Machu Picchu for the magic he felt there.
My husband was a true gentleman – kind, loving, courageous, witty, generous, intelligent, and loyal – the list could go on. Above all he always saw the best in everyone. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Bon Voyage, my love.
Jen
A celebration of his life will be held at home on Thanksgiving Sunday from 2 till 5.Rather than flowers a contribution to the Milton District Hospital or the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated.
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Sunday September 5th 2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Richard Mirosolin Sunday September 5th 2021..
Décès pour la Ville:Milton, Province: Ontario