BELOVED SON
of Arthur French and Grace (Morris) born March 11th, 1924 in Toronto. He was about 3 years old
when his parents came to Muskoka in a covered wagon. His parents had bought the house and
property on Stephenson Rd 1 East. You could say that Bert brought technology to his Dad's farm
- or at least he motorized it! He owned his first car - a model T - at age 14.
BELOVED BROTHER
One of 5 children, Bert was a wonderful big brother to his baby sister, Dorothy (Dot) McGill,
and to Marion Garrow of Sudbury, Elmer of Florida, and was predeceased by Arthur of Vancouver BC.
BELOVED HUSBAND
of Mildred Annie Clarissa Stevenson, his wife of 64 years, his constant companion, the mother
of his children and his co-pilot.
On May 24th, 1945, Bert met a grown-up Milly Stevenson. He had seen her at the front of the
one-room schoolhouse, and co-incidentally she was born in the house where Bert was raised.
At 19, Bert thought she was breathtaking, and he was determined to marry her. On their first
date, they stopped at Indian Landing in Port Sydney. They were married on August 10th of that
same year, and were happily married for the rest of his life - and moved back into that house
on Stephenson Rd 1 East!
BELOVED FATHER
to seven children: Bertram Bernard, Lawrence Arthur Samuel, Marilyn (Mair) Mildred, Faye
Annette, Helen Denelda, Daniel James, and Dorothy (Dorrie) Rebecca. His children all felt
that they were his favorite because he had a very special relationship with each of them.
When his children were growing up, the Saturday night entertainment was going for a drive
and letting the kids pick the next turn until we ended up somewhere deep in the forest on a
dead end road, then coming home to have homemade fudge and tell his life stories from the
rocking chair.
BELOVED GRANDFATHER AND GREAT GRANDFATHER
Bert must have read the passage that says "Go forth and multiply" because family functions
complete with grandchildren and great grandchildren were a crowded, happy time which brought
him such pleasure. He loved his grandchildren - even let a certain granddaughter put barrettes
all through his hair! - and would let them climb all over him, he'd read to them - the same book
six times, he'd listen to them prattle, and chuckle at how cute they were.
BELOVED SERVANT
of the Lord. On March 11th, 1955, Bert accepted Jesus Christ as his personal saviour while
reading Isaiah chapter 53, verse 5. His trust in God enriched his life from that day onward.
He loved to tell the story of how he was saved. His practice was to read the Bible with his
wife and family at least once every day of his life since he was saved. As a willing servant
of the Lord, he held Sunday School classes in his little silver trailer while building the Trans
Canada highway. He helped in the gathering of Christians at the Deer Lake Gospel Hall. His
back seat was rarely empty on the way to the Hall.
WORKER AND BUILDER
Life on the farm was all Bert ever wanted, but he spent a few years in a variety of jobs such as
logging, machine operating, building construction and highway construction. As long as a motor
was involved, he was happy. He loved to talk about his road building experiences with Storms
Construction, the "DHO", and Sealy & Arnill. He also talks about his years at Corning Glass as
a stores manager. When his son Larry graduated from Kemptville Agricultural College in 1970,
they became partners. The initial intent was to earn enough money through construction jobs to
start farming together. Instead, Bert French & Son Limited, and French's Fine Homes with their
fleet of green and white trucks became ..........................
The last few years have been spent "running the roads" in his SportTrac for the company - doing
banking (and saying hi to the ladies at the bank), picking up permits (and saying hi to the
ladies in the building departments), delivering plans, picking up material, anything that
LeeAnn asked. He was always amazed at how many nice people there are out there - always so
helpful to him!
CAR GUY or - more accurately - FORD MAN
Bert was a "Ford Man" - he made a couple mistakes over the years (notably a VolksWagon bus that
he thought would be good for picking up kids for Sunday School) but the rest of his 104 vehicles
showed that he loved Henry Ford and all his inventions. The company trade mark colour is
actually Ford's "Carribean Turquoise" from a 1964 Meteor station wagon. On the occasion of his
75th birthday, instead of a letter from the prime minister of Canada, he received a letter from
the President of Ford Motor Canada. (Thanks Dorrie.) With Uncle Dick, he restored 1929
Model AA flat bed Ford pick up truck. You'll often see it in the Christmas parade with a sign
that says: Every house was built by some man, but God is the builder of all things. He also
has a 1930 Model A roadster pick up that has been restored with lots of help from Bert Jr.
and Tyrone Yakes. He got such pleasure from these "working" days.
THE TRAVELING MAN
Another big part of Bert's life has been vacations with Milly. They know most of the trails in
Algonquin Park, and loved all the Provincial Parks. They had a camper that they towed behind
the pick up. It took them a lot of places, including trips to the eastern states with Aunt
Helen and Uncle Dick, a visit to Dearborn, Michigan - the home of Henry Ford! - and lots of
nature sites and museums. They never stopped learning, and never stopped enjoying their travels
together. It may not classify as ‘travel' but they also enjoyed their trips through the farm
on the golf car, with Milly lopping branches as they went along, to keep the trails clear.
His other pastime was feeding the birds. They kept a full row of bird feeders in front of
their big picture window so they could watch the chickadees, the mourning doves, the finches,
woodpeckers and a host of uskoka's birds. At Dean's Hardware, they were always ready when they
saw his truck arrive - time to load the week's groceries for them - in nyger seed!
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