The reality is that life’s highway also includes winding curves, detours, dead-ends, minor accidents and even tragic fatalities.

I was fortunate to be able to cruise along for the first twenty years of my life, until I drove head on into a tragic fatality. The sudden death of my mother sent me off on the back roads, which were full of detours and dead-ends. I spent several years hoping I would find the open road again.

It was the love I found when I had my own family, a beautiful wife and two daughters, that put me back on the freeway. For eleven years there was hardly a bump or a pothole in the smooth blacktop.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, our route became more perilous. Unimaginable obstructions were found in our path, until around one particular blind curve, we lost our dear wife and mother.

Once again there were years of detours and dead ends. Nevertheless, with faith, hope, and a passion to find that highway to happiness again, my daughters and I found an angel that guided us in the right direction.

The lesson learned is that life’s excursion contains miles and miles of untraveled road. Whatever lies around the next bend, be prepared to hit either the brakes, or the accelerator.

Good luck, and safe driving.
* * *
by James McCreath

“Time, like money, can easily slip away… leaving one to wonder, which of the two was really the most important.”
—Ralph McCreath.

He was, for the most part, simply known as “Ralph.”

It was a name that stood out… just like the man himself.

Ralph McCreath (click to enlarge)

His presence was felt the moment he walked into a room. He had a way about him that made people take notice.

Ralph Scott McCreath was born in April of 1919, and grew up in north Toronto. While he never had a problem with academics, it was athletics that he excelled in.

Football and hockey were his initial loves, and at North Toronto Collegiate in the 1930’s he was both a powerful running back and multi-talented skater. His skating prowess was so exceptional that opposing defensemen would slide into his skates to slow him down.

One day, his coach brought a wooden bench out onto the ice and told Ralph the only way he could get around his checkers was to leap over them. So Ralph leaped and leaped and leaped, and sooner than later traded his hockey skates for figure skates.

As with everything he pursued, Ralph immersed himself in the art and science of figure skating whole-heartedly. In 1935 he joined the Toronto Skating Club and set about perfecting several different disciplines: men’s singles, mixed pairs, dance and “fours,” where two couples would skate in unison. In his first season of figure skating, he and his partner won the Canadian Junior pairs championship.

Ralph, along with many of his peers, would hitchhike to Lake Placid New York each summer, where the only artificial ice surface in the north-east existed. The long hours and hard work paid off in spades.

Teaming up with the talented and beautiful Veronica Clarke, the pair won the gold medal at the 1936 Canadian championships. Ralph also garnered a silver medal in the fours.

1937 saw Ralph and Veronica repeat as pairs champions, as well as capturing a gold medal in the “tenstep” dance competition, and a silver in the waltz category.

The couple then set out for Boston to compete in the bi- annual North American Figure Skating championships. They were successful in winning the pairs gold medal, and Ralph placed third in the men’s division.
In 1938 Ralph and Veronica retained their Canadian pairs title, and placed first in the new “fourteen step” dance grouping. Ralph continued his amazing streak by acquiring a gold in the fours competition, and placing second to perennial favourite Montgomery Wilson in the men’s challenge.

The following year, Ralph skated in the Canadian pairs competition with another lady, Norah McCarthy, winning the gold medal. He again placed second to Montgomery Wilson in the men’s bracket.

The North American championships were held in Toronto in 1939, and on this occasion Ralph competed with Montgomery Wilson and the Caley sisters, Hazel and Dorothy, and kept the “fours” gold medal in Canada.

Ralph and Norah placed second in the pairs, and Ralph again won the silver, after Montgomery Wilson, in the men’s table.

1940 was the year that Ralph won his first Canadian men’s title. He and Norah also successfully held on to their pairs championship.

The world of figure skating was not immune from events that swirled around the globe in those days. Ralph and several of his fellow Canadian skaters had been selected to compete on the Olympic team heading to the 1940 winter games in Japan. The problem was the Japanese were waging an oppressive war in several Asian countries, and many nations in the international community were threatening to boycott the games. In the end, Japan canceled their plans to be the host, saying it would be too distracting to their military effort.
The Olympics were then relocated to Helsinki, Finland, but the tragic events that took place in Europe during the fall of 1939 forced their cancellation completely.

With his golden opportunity to compete in the Olympics put on hold, 20 year-old Ralph continued his studies at the University of Toronto, with an eye on heading to law school after he secured his Bachelor of Arts degree. Little did he know that six terrible years would pass before this goal could be achieved.

With Canada at war as of September 1939, so many things changed for this generation of young Canadians. Gone were the care-free days that had marked their ascent into adulthood. Family, friends, and neighbours were signing up and heading off to a very uncertain future. Everyone was expected to do his or her duty, and many young women joined to nursing corps to lend a helping hand.

In October 1940 Ralph enlisted in the 48th. Highlanders of Canada. There was time, however, before he shipped out, to add a few more medals to his trophy case.

Skating with a new partner, Eleanor O’Meara, Ralph again won the Canadian pairs and men’s crowns in Montreal in early 1941. Following that success, they travelled to Philadelphia where he and Eleanor won the pairs gold medal and Ralph became the men’s figure skating champion of North America.

While there is a wealth of knowledge available detailing Ralph’s figure skating accomplishments, the same cannot be said about his four years in the Canadian army. The official records reveal that he served with the 48th. Highlanders and the Royal Canadian Ordinance Corps between 1941 and 1945. He was stationed initially in England, and then saw action in North Africa and France, rising to the rank of Major.

Ralph seldom, if ever, talked about his war time experiences, and most, if not all, of the veterans that were with him are gone now.

As a curious youngster I would often ask him questions about his time in the army. He would always talk about the wonderful people he had met, and the amazing places he had seen, but there as a different look in his eyes when he spoke of these things. He would try to change the subject as quickly as possible. I am sure he must have felt that after living through those hellish times, some memories are best left untold.

There were, however, hundreds of snap-shot photos of his days in the military that I discovered after he had passed.

These included pictures of his proud parents standing beside Ralph in his first uniform. He came from a very close-knit family that included two sisters, June and Louise, and a younger brother Ross, who also served in Canadian army overseas. You can see the look of admiration in their eyes as their famous brother was about to do his duty for his country.

For those left behind, there also must have been a terrible sense the fear and anguish in their hearts, knowing that there was a chance that they would never see their loved-ones again. The day they made it home safely would certainly have been the happiest day of their lives.

I did find out, on one occasion when I was about ten years old, that Ralph was very well respected by the soldiers he served with. We were working in our garage together on a go-cart racer that he was building for me. A taxi pulled into our driveway, and the cabbie got out and addressed Ralph.

“Are you Major McCreath?” the man asked.

When the response was affirmative, the man exclaimed,

“I was a machine-gunner in your Company…and you were the best officer we ever had!”
After Ralph returned from overseas in 1946, he enrolled in university and graduated from Osgoode law school in 1949. His career in international corporate law lasted over four decades, and he was awarded the designation of “Queen’s Counsel” in 1960.

Also in 1946, just to prove he could do it, he laced on his skates for one more competition, and won the Canadian men’s figure skating championship again.

A year or so before the war, Ralph met the love of his life through his best friend, Allen Roberts. “Ali,” as he was known, was a high school buddy, who was dating a beautiful blonde girl named Frances Robertson of Havergal College. “Fran’s” best friend at school was a brown haired dish named Myrtle. The four became best friends for life, with Ali marrying Fran in 1943 and Ralph marrying Myrtle in 1946.

Over the next fourteen years Ralph and Myrtle had four children, three boys, then finally a beautiful little girl. When Myrtle passed away suddenly in 1968, Ralph bravely soldiered-on as widower, raising his kids with strong, never-ending guidance and an abundance of love and affection.

Shortly after he retired from competitive skating, he was awarded the position of international figure skating Judge for Canada, and subsequently officiated in four Olympic Games and ten World Championships.

Ralph was extremely active in fund raising for his beloved sport. He was an executive on the CFSA, founding member of the Olympic Trust of Canada, a Trustee of the Olympic Endowment Fund, and on several occasions, team leader and manager of Canada’s national figure skating teams. In recognition of his skill and dedication, Ralph was inducted in the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in January 1995.

Aside from all his accomplishments, Ralph loved to have fun. He and Ali formed a musical trio with good friend Dave Shirriff, Ralph on the piano and gut-bucket, (bass) Ali on the guitar, and Dave on the snare drum. The boys were very good musicians, and played for fun at all sorts of events and parties.

nd yes, there were parties, many great, wonderful parties! I have never seen a group of people so full of life and merriment as were my parents and their friends. I am sure that after living through the Great Depression and then the Second World War, life in the 1950’s and 1960’s must have seemed like paradise to them.

Ralph remarried to a lovely lady, Anna, after many years of being alone, and it was a blessing that we were all thankful for. They travelled the world together, enjoyed each-other’s company immensely, and she was with him until his final breath.

Ralph McCreath was the person that influenced me more than anyone in my life. He was an amazing father, never having to give you more than a “look,” to let you know you were out of line. We would be loath to upset him, or let him down, because we respected him so much. He was also my mentor and friend.

When he left us in May of 1997, it was like a bright light had gone out in the lives of everyone who knew him. He was irreplaceable…there would only ever be one “Ralph.”

One of the items I came across amongst his personal possessions was a hand written note, in his unmistakable bold script, bearing the quotation at the beginning of this memoir.

So Dad, there is no wondering in my mind which of the two, time or money, are really the most important.
I would have given all the money I ever had to be able to spend more time with you.

James McCreath, November 2008