Harold McCann. Husband, father and businessman.

"March 15th is the anniversary of our father’s birthday. Harold McCann, husband to Mary and father to Jean, Barbara and Jerome, was born in Ellice Township as the fifth child in a large family that had seven boys and four girls. In January of 1972 our father was diagnosed with leukemia. Following diagnosis he valiantly fought to lead a normal life but eventually passed away in late November of 1972. 2022 will therefore mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

At a relatively young age our father and mother started their own family business, Harold T. McCann Construction Limited. They worked hard to establish and develop this business. Our father managed the day to day operations and our mother worked in the office taking orders and doing all of the necessary bookkeeping. Their construction business was involved in aggregate (ie: sand and gravel) sales as well as truck, float, crawler dozer and rubber tired loader rentals.

In the latter years of business our father was very fortunate to work with three key employees: Arnold Balfour (known to many as “Muff” since in his early employment days with MTO he complained just once too often about a particular truck with a loud Muffler), Gord Elgie and Ron Stewart. With their dedication and commitment, especially in the last year of our father’s life, we now consider Muff, Gord and Ron to be our extended-family members.

In that last year, when our father was quite ill, they played an important role in the completion of five major projects: site preparation work for the Walter Tkaczuk Hockey School; site preparation work for construction of the Stratford Fairgrounds Community Centre; St. Marys site preparation work for Dresden Industries factory addition; demolition with site preparation work for the 1972 addition to Stratford Central Secondary School; and installation of roads in the rear section of Stratford’s Avondale Cemetery.

Our father never really had time for hobbies or sports. He did however enjoy watching the Toronto Maple Leafs so Wednesday’s and Saturday’s were always “Hockey Night in Canada” evenings in our home. It’s hard to believe that our father witnessed the most recent, and last time, the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967. Although he was quite ill at the time he also got to see and cheer on Team Canada in their win over Russia in the 1972 Summit Hockey Series. With this win over the Russians we like to think that Dad got to see what is arguably the best hockey ever played. Our father once commented that with all of the area construction projects that he worked on he didn’t need to be remembered with a cemetery monument. Well Dad we did purchase for you a cemetery stone but that hasn’t stopped us from remembering you when we see the many construction projects that you worked on in Stratford and vicinity."

Harold McCann lovingly remembered by your children Jean, Barbara, Jerome and their families.