Presidents Page January 2009

By the time this is published in January issue of The Flying Quail, we will have ushered in the New Year, although it was necessary to write it ahead of Christmas to meet the deadline.

I will start by expressing our sadness at the passing of our good friend and longstanding member Calvin TerMarsch. We all have grieved during this season and we offer our condolences to Joan and the family, Wayne & Shelley, Wendy and Phillip, Dean & Dianna and the grandchildren. Cal’s passing leaves a space in our club family that will never be filled. However, we can be happy knowing that he really enjoyed the tours that he was able to participate in this past year – the Champlain Trail Museum car show, the tour to Norway Bay in the red Buick, driving his Pontiac to Hugli’s for ice cream and finally the Colour Tour to Calabogie in October. This was Cal’s last run in his prized yellow Chieftain convertible.

Looking ahead to the New Year, our first event will be the Spaghetti Feast at the Dore Bay Country Club on the afternoon end early evening of Saturday January 24th. This has been a successful supper for a few years – serving up a hot and spicy specialty of DBCC chef Bruce Plummer. The Antique Car Tunes can likely have a jam session too with some of the regulars at Dore Bay. We will get a headcount at the meeting.

Speaking of meeting (and food) our January meeting will be held starting 7:00 p.m. Wednesday the 7th at the Shady Nook Hall. We discussed making this a pot luck affair with snacks for after the meeting also taking advantage of their coffee urn and to patronize the bar. At this meeting, we will need make a change to the bylaws to properly address the new “honorary member” status for our folks who have reached the age of 80 with suitable tenure in the club, as already bestowed on Ernie and Diane Murdoch.

I wish also to express our thanks to Barclay O’Reilly for graciously agreeing to cancel the Christmas dinner we had planned at Merrybells. He was also a good friend of Cal and was the first to recognize the need to forego the event in light of Cal’s passing.

To conclude, there have been chats over the past month and I am pleased to say that your executive is prepared to carry on through the second year of our mandate. We are committed to managing for another successful year of tours and shows and camaraderie with our vintage vehicles. We trust that you too are looking forward to an exciting 2009.

Dave Lemkay

Tribute to Calvin TerMarsch

Cal, as he was affectionately known to most was a member of the ACCP for over 40 years. Over time, he was president and longstanding treasurer of our club. As well, Cal was our wise counsel on all matters – serious and fun. In earlier years Cal was involved in the larger old car community with the National Association of Antique Automobile Clubs of Canada and the Craven Automobile Museum in Toronto.

Cal, Joan and the family were ardent participants in all the club functions with Wayne, Wendy and Dean all growing up in the ACCP family. The TerMarsch clan will be remembered for gracious hosting of BBQs at Lake Dore and the start-up of almost all our club tours at their Boundary Road office year after year. Shell products were always included in the cache of prizes at the Road-A-Os and other events, kindly donated for the cause. The gallery of club-related pictures and mementos in Cal’s office speaks volumes.

Old car enthusiasts in Pembroke and at a distance knew Cal for his professional approach to restoration of distinctive vehicles. Cal was an astute dealer and a friendly face at Hershey, Carlisle and Barrie over many years. In the TerMarsch garages would be found at one time or another the 1931 Ford AA Shell tanker truck, the 1931 Model A Ford Roadster, 1934 Dodge sedan, 1935 Ford model 48 sedan, 1936 Chevrolet sedan, 1967 Mustang GT, 1964 Chevelle Malibu convertible, 1965 Buick Skylark convertible and the prized 1953 Pontiac Chieftain convertible. His last trip in the yellow Pontiac was on ACCP’s Calabogie Colour Tour.

We will miss our friend Cal and in keeping with his style, will keep our club well mannered and engaged in the community as we enjoy touring in our vintage vehicles.