Tom Lumby

by Covert Thu 08 Jul 2021, 8:00 am

Ottawa's oldest man dies

Kelly Egan
Publishing date: Jul 06, 2021

For Tom Lumby's last birthday, Grade 2 students at
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School made cards for him,
one of which read, in cutely-crooked green letters:
"Dear Mr. Lumby, Thank You for Saving Canada."

For Tom Lumby’s last birthday, Grade 2 students at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School made cards for him, one of which read, in cutely-crooked green letters: “Dear Mr. Lumby, Thank You for Saving Canada.”

You become, deservedly, a class project at age 109, a walking monument to sacrifice and survival, an enduring lesson on living well.

Lumby, Ottawa’s oldest man and possibly Canada’s oldest war veteran, died on June 19. Remarkably, he was still living at home, where he passed peacefully in his Britannia neighbourhood. A miracle, really.

“He certainly taught us how to live and, I suppose, how to die. It was an honour to call him a friend,” writes Susan Pearl, one of many supportive neighbours who encircled Lumby with meals, companionship and watchful eyes for the last 20 years.

Lumby was born in Harris, Sask., one of three children on a farm south of Saskatoon. The family spent several years in California before returning to the Prairies, where Tom married Sadie in 1939. She would become an accomplished pianist. He would go off to war.

A tank commander with the Elgin Regiment, he saw service in Holland and was among the Allies who crossed the Rhine as German forces were collapsing in 1945. After the war, he served with the so-called Allied Control Commission that ran post-war Germany, a task that had the family in Dusseldorf from 1949 until 1952.

He joined CN in Montreal in 1953 and became head of an early human resources department. He remained there until 1977, moving to Ottawa in 1984.

Though he did not have a lot of post-secondary education, he was a lifelong learner and voracious reader, often taking scads of notes as he made his way through non-fiction works in politics, geography, chemistry, even poetry.

Neighbours marvelled at his endless curiosity and optimism: buying a new computer at age 99; keeping a car in the driveway until 105; annually ordering next year’s spring seeds without any hesitation. He was also a generous donor to the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre, in 2015 leaving them stock valued at more than $160,000.

His wife, Sadie, died in 2002 after 63 years of marriage. (Not one to give up on living, he swapped out her grand piano for a pool table.) He is survived by a son, Peter.

Ottawa's oldest man dies