Peter was pretty proud
of his Medal of Merit in 1993, but not nearly as proud
as having been with the movement for 50 years even
with a 3 ½ year break!
Peter was born
in London on April 24th 1944, but he spent all of
his adult life in Northern Ontario. He worked, in
various communities, for the MNR until his early retirement
in Kenora.
His father was
a Scout leader so naturally Peter and brother Glenn
joined the movement as soon as they were old enough
to be Cubs. Beavers weren't invented yet! Glenn was
a Queen's Scout and at 17 ½ Peter moved from being
a Scout with the 52nd London to an assistant leader
and set his Scouting career.
In 1966 Peter attended the Ontario Forest Technical
College where he met Norm Milne. He and Norm applied
for a job with the MNR in Kenora. Both were accepted
and thus became lifelong friends. With another MNR
colleague, Gerry Drysdale, they formed the first Cub
Pack in Norman (part of Kenora now).
In 1975, Peter moved to Ignace where he ran the Cub
Pack for 11 years. The highlight of the Scout year
was the spring Cuboree along with their famous Kangaroo
Court. On Sunday, the Cubs became the jury, Peter
was usually the prosecutor and all leaders were brought
before this court on some creative charge, to be consistently
found guilty. The punishments were a great hit with
the boys!
Olean Jones, who ran a Cub pack in Cochenour in the
70's , had an opportunity to bring her pack to the
Ignace Cuboree. Having been found guilty of sewing
some sleeping bags shut, she took her punishment and
tucked that great idea away. The following year, when
she moved back to Kenora, the Kenora Cuboree held
a Kangaroo Court and has every year since. The kids
are still the jury and still find all leaders guilty
and Peter was still the plotter and prosecutor, with
his buddy, Rodger Faults, as the nasty judge.
From 1986 to 1990 Peter ran the Cub Pack in Cochenour.
When he was transferred to Kenora 1991, he joined
the Service Team for one year to learn the ropes before
he took over as District Commissioner for the next
7 years. He missed working directly with the kids
and so went back to being Akela with 3rd Kenora from
1999 to 2004. By his side all these years was Baloo,
Robert Shaw. Peter was Akela to all 4 of the Shaw
children. This fall, because of having to travel back
and forth to London for treatment for lung cancer
and in true Jungle Book style, the Old Wolf passed
Akela's reins to Shane Mason and took on the role
of Commissioner once more.
