Heather Young Chambers
Tom and Heather Chambers
Reading everyone’s stories has inspired me to write too.
I graduated from McGill University (Macdonald College campus) 1968 with a B.Sc. (H.Ec.) and did a one year Dietetic Internship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. I worked as a Dietitian at North Western General Hospital in Toronto for one year. I met Tom while in Toronto and we were married in August of 1970. We moved to North Bay where Tom had accepted a teaching position in History and Political Science at Cambrian College (which later became Canadore College). I was lucky to find a vacancy at the psychiatric hospital where I worked for two years until our first son was born. I resigned my position and became a stay at home Mom. We have three sons, David (36), Chris (32), & Rob (29).
David, Fern, Tom, Maria, Rob, our Grandson William, Heather, An, & Chris
I spent my life as a volunteer. I have been very involved in our local Anglican church. Over the years I “wore many hats” like running the church school program, heading many committees and now am a Lay reader which is like a lay minister. I also have been an active member and held most executive positions in the Canadian Federation of University Women North Bay Club and have met many friends through this organization. We live 15 minutes from the cross country ski club so our family has done a lot of skiing. This year Tom & I switched to snowshoeing which we can do from the end of our street. I also play bridge a few times a week, belong to a gourmet group and a book club and always I do my one hour walk every morning. Life is great living in a small community. I must say it took a few years of adjustment when we first came but North Bay has been a wonderful place to raise a family. We are only 3 ½ hours from Toronto and have always had family south that we visited.
With Tom’s long summer vacation we went on great holidays. We took the boys to many of the US states and a couple of trips to England and Scotland. Since Tom’s retirement in 2000 we have enjoyed the flexibility of traveling at different times of the year. We have had some fantastic trips to England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Greece, Hawaii and looking forward to Spain—Mallorca—this May.
Our oldest son, David, graduated with a degree in English from Nipissing University and a Multi media diploma from Canadore College. He works in Virginia just outside of Washington for a company that is developing software that will help a company trace their carbon prints. He is married to Fern and they have one son William who is 8 years old. They just moved south last summer from Mississauga so it is a bit of a trek, but we were down visiting in November.
Our middle son, Chris, graduated with a history degree from Brock University and did his teaching degree at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is an elementary school teacher living in Parry Sound, ON, which is about a two hour drive from us. He and his fiancée, An (who teaches math and science at the high school), are being married this summer and we look forward to their wedding and having the whole family together.
Our youngest son, Rob, is married to Maria Soler and they live in Toronto. Rob did a Business Administration degree from Laurier University and works for Proctor and Gamble in their marketing department for Tide (we have lots of laundry discussions!!!). Maria is in marketing for Coke so they are a busy young couple.
Tom keeps busy writing and over the years has published many articles and book reviews. He published a politics text for community college students titled "Politics for Canadians" and co-authors an ongoing book called "Personal Finance for Canadians".
Lyn Deadman and I have kept in touch over the years. She always comes north in the summer and winter for a visit. I also saw Chris Rudinsky Casselman at our 40th Macdonald College reunion in the fall of 2008.
Heather Chambers