Denis J. Arial

If Denis Joseph Arial were asked to iterate his winning characteristics my guess is he would advance - hesitatingly, if at all - a passing acquaintance with the culinary arts. As with so many people who possess commendable traits - much like those who have real money - if they've got it, they don't talk about it. Denis is a man of instinctive modesty.

In 2004 at 51 years of age Denis retired from the federal government with a comfortable pension after 33 years of employment.  He abandoned the wood-burning fireplace of the By Ward Market condominium on Bruyère Street (not far from where his late father had operated a successful plumbing trade) and opted instead for the Vermont Casting at our house in Almonte where he fine-tuned the gentlemanly hobbies of gardening and gastronomy.

He didn't however languidly retire to the country "with his book and his bottle". When necessity unexpectedly arose in my law practice in 2007 triggering a 3-month sabbatical following emergency open-heart surgery (and the contemporaneous introduction of a new legal assistant only several months prior), he cheerfully rejoined the labour force to pilot the unexpected accommodation. Two years later in 2009 when my new legal assistant suffered kidney failure, Denis willingly embraced the position of primary law clerk. During his tenure he introduced many operational features which significantly improved the business, quite apart from the extraordinary facility he displayed in adapting to the duties of a law office, Commissioner of Oaths and bookkeeper.

Denis was never served up a feast on a silver platter. Indeed one of his early principals at the federal government mistakenly threatened that his combination of French Canadian heritage and Vanier upbringing on the periphery of Waspish Rockcliffe Park all but ensured his failure. Years later as a senior manager with the Canadian Government and while attending the University of Ottawa for a liberal arts degree Denis was invited to join the Golden Key International Honour Society, a privilege afforded the top percentile of college and university students worldwide.

Denis winters on Longboat Key in Florida.