John H. Kerry

John Kerry was one of the first clients I had when I came to Almonte. He made it quite clear that if I worked on my own he would support me and he did. I launched my own practice on March 1, 1978, effectively assuming the remnants of the practice of the late R. A. Jamieson, QC (who pointedly had extended the same commercial promise to John when he first arrived in Almonte on October 28, 1954). At that time, John and his father-in-law, Clarence D. (“C.D.”) Colley bought the funeral home and furniture store of Ed Scott, whose original funeral home had burned in 1902 and was rebuilt in 1904 at 99 Elgin Street, where Mr. Scott had built his combined family residence/funeral home across the street from the United Church. The furniture store continues to this day at 26 Mill Street. Mr. Scott died in June of 1954 (thus having been in business for a full 50 years). Six years after buying the Ed Scott home, John and Mr. Colley bought the grand private residence of the late W. H. Stafford, Barrister &c. at 154 Elgin Street, where the funeral home continues to remain today, operated by Tubman Funeral Homes, successor to Kerry Funeral Homes and Chapels effective October 1, 2006 (making John one of the longest surviving businessmen in the area).

At the age of 78 years (in 2008),  John continues to work at the furniture store, assisting his son, Mark Kerry, one of the successor owners of the business with his brother, Glenn. John applied his hard earned profit to the acquisition of real estate, much of it residential rental property, and also another funeral home in Carleton Place. Throughout his long tenure of these properties (most of which, with the exception of the funeral homes, he still maintains to this day), he never hired a property manager, but took care of things himself with very little reference to legal counsel for things like leases, evictions or rent collections. He was not a man who liked paperwork, and he somewhere learned early in his career that if you have an unwilling customer or tenant, you’ll get nowhere, so best to be done with a bad situation if need be. On the other hand, when it came to his personal affairs, he was not a man to abide any interference, especially if it were from a faceless government organization or municipality. I wager that John’s reluctance to visit his temper on private individuals stemmed from his belief that they or their extended families might one day be in need of his goods or services, so he likely considered it more prudent to bury the hatchet. But a government (including once the Ontario Government) would have to learn to hang onto its collective hat if a fracas occurred between it and John and a battle ensued. He simply detested being pushed about and mistreated by those who appeared to hide behind the facade of bureaucracy. It was on these latter occasions when John ensnared me for legal assistance, though in fairness the dilemmas were invariably resolved amicably.

John and his late wife, Marion, had a large family, Karen, Glenn, John, Paul, Lisa and Mark. Throughout the many years of their funeral and furniture business, it was Marion, Glenn and Mark who assisted in running things. Karen pursued a career as a Registered Nurse; John took up various business interests in nearby Ottawa, as did Paul and Lisa. Since the sale of the funeral business, Glenn has largely faded from the current commercial scene. While Glenn’s wife, Jo-Anne nee Larose, contributed enormously to the maintenance of the funeral home grounds over the years, she is now primarily involved only with the Almonte Pharmacy business which was previously owned by her and Glenn and which they sold to Jean-Guy Legault many years ago (and Jean-Guy has recently arranged to sell his interest to Rexall Drugs effective November 1, 2008).

John, while very successful by any standards, is nonetheless self-deprecating. In plain terms he is a hard worker who likes quality; and he gives as he gets. His son, Glenn, harboured the same mercurial behaviour of his father, but they happily ended their years of business relations in the funeral business on what I believe was a very good note, all told.

"Harvey Boal, 41, of Brae street, Almonte, was crushed to death Wednesday when a 6,000-pound door he was helping install in a bank vault, tipped and pinned him by the stomach against a wall. An employee of Howard Davey, local building contractor, Mr. Boal died in Ottawa Civic Hospital two hours, after the accident. Carman Denny and Alex Spinks were on one side of the seven-foot door and Mr. Boal was on the other side when it I slipped off the roller and pinned the victim against the wall. Twenty men were unable to move the door. He was freed half an hour later by jacks obtained at nearby service stations. Mr. Boal was conscious while pinned against the wall. Attended by Dr. 0. Schulte, he was removed to the Rosamond Memorial Hospital by Kerry-Scott Ambulance where he was given first aid and then taken to hospital in Ottawa. OPP Constable Ross McMartin investigated the accident. Born and educated in Ramsay Township, he was a son of Stanley Boal and the late Mabel Miller. He attended Almonte Presbyterian Church. Mr. Boal served overseas with the Canadian Army during World War II. He was a member of the Almonte Legion. He is survived by his wife, the former Ellen Green whom he married in 1942. Also surviving are a son, Bill, 15; three sisters, Mrs. 0rville Abbott (Luella), of Brockville; Mrs. Clare Syme (Ione), of Ramsay township, and Mrs. Clarence McInerney (Jean) of Minden. Ont. The body is at the Kerry-Scott Funeral Home, Almonte."