Sadly, one of our long time members, Jim Greenacre, recently passed away after a short illness at age 92. Jim was one of us who joined the WCA in its very early years, and I can remember our first outing with the club was a run down the Credit River organized by him. That was back around 1977. After the trip, Jim took the time to phone Rita and I to thank us for joining him, and to encourage us to continue to get out on club trips. That was the kind of guy Jim was. Subsequent years found us often on lakes and rivers with him, and later I joined him on the Outings Committee, where he was active for many years. When we organized our first introductory whitewater courses, Jim was onboard, and continued to be an instructor on this very popular course well up into his 70's.
A very active outdoorsman in all seasons, he travelled the Nahanni, Thelon, Quebec and Labrador Rivers, and Ontario waterways from the Great Lakes to James Bay. In his mid-60's he participated in a Northern Ontario snowshoe trip across James Bay, keeping up with companions two decades his junior. That trip ended up as an article in "Canadian Geographic." Jim was everyone's ideal travelling mate. He was helpful, patient, congenial, and always pulled his weight. If your chatter got to him, he just turned down his hearing aid and tuned you out.
One of my favourite memories of Jim was a whitewater course on the French River where he was a co-instructor. There was another group at Blue Chute, where we were working the river. Jim fished out a soggy swimmer from this class, and started to explain that he needed extreme lean to the inside of the turn in crossing such a strong eddy line. The other members of his group started laughing all of a sudden- the septagenarian who they thought didn't know which end of the paddle to put in the water was demonstrating for their hot-shot young instructor.
I last had the pleasure of paddling with Jim some 9 or 10 years ago. That would make Jim in his early 80's. We were pulling our at the end of the Moira one April afternoon. We were beat, and suggested the we all hit Tim's in Belleville. Jim gave his regrets. He had to hurry home to change. He was booked for an evening of one of his favourite off-water activities- ballroom dancing.
Those of us who knew Jim came to regard him as a paddling inspiration, continuing to canoe up until he was 90. When I talked to him a few months ago, he was still getting out for his daily hour walks, and dancing up a storm, though he confessed he had to chase up younger gals of late since finding ladies in his own age group who could kick up their heels with him was becoming difficult.
We'll miss you, Jim.
Bill Ness