MONTAGUE LEIGH COLLYER

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MONTAGUE LEIGH COLLYER December 21, 1914 - May 17, 2005 In the 91st year of his remarkable life, Montague Leigh Collyer passed away quietly on May 17, 2005 at Concordia Place Personal Care Home. Leigh is dearly missed by his beloved wife Vera of 68 years, sons, Raymond (Sharon) and Terry (Francine), and daughter-in-law Bonnie (Ronald). Also mourning Grandpa's passing are his four grandchildren, Cynthia and Leigh Jr. (Raymond and Sharon) and Kimberley and Darren (Terry and Francine); and his eight great-grandchildren. Leigh was predeceased by his eldest son Glenn in 1953 and his youngest son Ronald in 2003. Born in Winnipeg, the only child of Charles and Caroline Collyer, and raised entirely on the West Kildonan prairie , it soon became evident that young Montague possessed the qualities of an achiever. Beginning at an early age and for many years to follow, Leigh would be responsible for his own newspaper route. It was a long and demanding route that required Leigh to deliver papers to many out-of-the-way homes that stretched across the sometimes hostile prairie. Leigh also had a physical presence when he participated in many of the sports played on the prairie, but it was golf that he was particularly good at, a skill that he initially acquired by practicing on a rudimentary nine-hole course roughed out of the prairie by his father Charles. By his teenage years Leigh was already playing tournament level golf. And he was an excellent student and avid reader too; by the tender age of 16 he had already graduated from high school and enrolled in St. John's College. But Leigh was also restless by nature. He would leave St. John's College in his junior year, choosing instead to ride, in the accompaniment of many other depression-era hobos , the freight trains bound for Saskatchewan, Alberta and the west coast. It was during this difficult period, while working in the lumber camps of British Columbia or in the farmer's fields of Saskatchewan and Alberta, that Leigh would forge the key to his future success. Soon after his return to Winnipeg in 1935, Leigh embarked on a lifetime career in the overhead door business when he joined the Winnipeg branch of Richard-Wilcox Ltd. Being the talented person he was, Leigh would quickly learn the door business from the ground up. In 1937 he married his lifemate Vera Margaret Allen, it was a union that would endure nearly 70 years. Later, during the Second World War, Leigh's burgeoning career was put on hold when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and was stationed in St. John's, NF. After the war, when Leigh rejoined Richards-Wilcox, he immediately was posted (in 1946) to Calgary, AB as the company's first regional manager for that province. Throughout the next ten years it was a job at which he would excel. In 1956, Leigh resigned from Richards-Wilcox Ltd. and moved to Oakville, ON to establish Overhead Door Co. of Canada Ltd. As Plant Manager he would spend an exhaustive four years developing, implementing and operating this new manufacturing facility. In 1960 Leigh resigned his senior position with Overhead Door and returned to his hometown of Winnipeg. Here, with the unfailing support of his wife Vera, Leigh would unite with longtime friend and co-worker Mike Martyshuk to establish Winnipeg Door Limited. Leigh always worked very hard at building up his new business and was renown for spending 14 hour days at the office, yet he always found time to enjoy his summer weekends at the family cottage on Lake of the Woods. It was here at the cottage, when he was either building something or participating with his children and grandchildren in a variety of aquatic activities, that Leigh was happiest. In 1980, after more than 20 successful years in business, Winnipeg Door Limited was sold to the Wallace family of Winnipeg, and Leigh retired. Leigh of course always needed a project , and it was no different after he retired. Each summer, after spending the winter at his Phoenix residence, Leigh would return to Victoria Beach and begin to build. He would, during his retirement, build and develop two cottages at Victoria Beach: the first on Beach Crescent and the second, a smaller one, on Mike Bay. It was a work pattern that he continued to follow each year until he was 80 years old. The man was, quite simply, irrepressible, and his family will miss him terribly. The family would like to thank the staff of Concordia Hospital and Concordia Place Personal Care Home for their exceptional care and support. Flowers are gratefully declined and donations may be made to the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba. Cremation has taken place, and a memorial service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 at Glen Eden Funeral Home, 4477 Main St., West St. Paul.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on May 24, 2005