My Family Tree
By Josh Clark
The Kennedy Name
My Great Uncle Ron
The Family Member I am going to focus on, his name is Ron Noble. He is my grandmas brother. He was born Friday September 13, 1935, In a small private hospital in the Village of Sutton.
He grew up on a 100 acre farm his father had rented. This farm was located in the hamlet of Egypt Ontario. Farming wasn't to easy for his family due to the severe depression of 1929-1933. On this farm there was no running water and only a wooden stove. They used horses because there were very few tractors at the time. In 1937 him and his family left the Egypt farm to go to another rented farm near the village of Leaskdale. When my great uncle was very young he was riding on top of a hay wagon when he fell off head first and a stubble of hay entered his right eye and blinded him for life. He has had many surgeries over the years but no luck. In 1939 he moved farms once again to another rented farm in the Marsh Hill area, still in the vicinity of uxbridge. The fall of that year the second world war began for Canada. At this farm he learned how to milk a cow and do various little jobs for his father.
on September 1, 1940 my great uncle Ron began school in a one room red brick school house that his sister Helen had been attending. This school house had grades 1-8. he walked to school every day no matter what. It was christmas and his father was cutting wood for there fire and he missed and came down on his 3 toes and severed them. My great uncle learned this when he got home from school. Being the oldest boy he felt the responsibility to be the man of the house. He fed, watered, and cleaned the animals twice a day. Through it all he never missed a day of school. In 1945 he moved another time to a farm his father had purchased. He was traveling from the rented farm to the purchased farm when the passenger door opened and he fell out. The car was going around 40 mph. His arm and face were badly scraped and filled with gravel, no broken bones though luckily. In 1946 they purchased another farm near Victoria Corners. The school they attended had 12 students which included 5 from his family. The same year they moved farms again and went to a new school, he was 12 years of age and in grade 7. In 1948 the school board hired a new teacher, there were seven kids in the class to be prepared for high school. All seven of the kids had failed that year. The next year he was in the same class as his little brother and sister and they all passed that year, meaning he was going to be in the same high school class with them. He said this caused him great shame and made him feel quite stupid at the time. The following year he passed his exams to get into grade 11 but he did not go he want to work for uncle Mel Kennedy on his farm. Uncle Mel and aunt Amy pushed him to continue school but he did not. That fall he got a job at fittings limited in Oshawa. Fittings Limited was a horrid place to work the workers swore and complained so after 7 nights he quit. They said if he quit now they weren't going to pay him for the next 2 weeks but he quit anyway. He was surprised when they called him and asked when he was going to pick up his check.
After Fitting he got a job at a small woodworking shop in Uxbridge. The pay was low and the shop was dusty and very cold. He left that job and went to work at the Bank of Commerce.
February 1953 he began employment at CIBC. He started in Uxbridge and transferred to Bradford as a teller.
July 1956 he left the bank to work for a small insurance brokerage in Uxbridge. He learned to arrange insurance on homes, cars, cottages and farms. He purchased this brokerage February 1962. May 1958 he married his first wife named Barbara Irwin, they had a daughter named Cheryl. Sadly they divorced in 1975. Being apart of insurance had changed him as a person. He was in contact with CEO's paying as much as $140,000 a year for insurance. He dealt personally with farmers and the smaller business owners. He had a court judge call him from his chambers during a trial to verify some policy wordings. While managing a staff of 12 ladies and one salesman he tried to commit to the community as well. He was vice president and president of the local Lions Club, Secretary of the ice skating club, He was also on the church board, and the President of the Cemetery board for 15 years.
Following the sale of his business 10 years ago (which they kept the name) he felt he wanted to do something more so he bought two broodmares that were formally standardbred racehorses. He had these horses breed and trained the horse to race. He says its one of the most exiting things one can do. His horse was horse of the year at the small track it raced at but after 5 years of stress he gave up.
He has traveled to many places over the years such as Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Israel, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, England, Hawaii, Porto Rico, Jamaica, Bermuda, Barbados, Hong Kong, Singapore, Czech Republic, Russia, Romania, and Poland. Most of these places he would like to visit again.
He would like to conclude by stating that many of these many Country's he felt most comfortable in Ireland. There customs were close to the same of Canada's. He is still living up in Canada today, I am proud to have such a successful man as my relative.
In the words of My great Uncle Ron "Blessings to all who read this"