An Uxbridge legend leaves a true legacy
The following is this week’s “Our two cents” editorial, which we don’t normally post separately online, but Mr. Uxbridge, a.k.a. Harry Stemp, deserves the space.
Working on the obituaries page is often one of the more difficult tasks when putting the Cosmos together each week. Uxbridge isn’t huge, and more often than not, someone at the paper has had a connection to someone whose obituary we’ve been asked to run. This week was by far one of the most difficult.
Harry Stemp. Photo from Facebook
If you live in Uxbridge and don’t know the name Harry Stemp, you haven’t been here very long at all. Harry Stemp, who passed away last Friday morning, was a true Uxbridge legend. No obituary, no editorial, no book, even, could properly encapsulate all that was this larger-than-life individual who started in the newspaper business when he was 14, dropping out of school to work a linotype machine. He eventually owned a chain of newspapers with Bill Keyzers, was involved in provincial and national newspaper associations, and was the ultimate community man.
As we looked over a “special edition” newspaper that was created for Harry when he was lauded for taking the Ontario Community Newspaper Association from a near-bankruptcy position to having a very healthy bank balance, we came across a piece written by a Bob Shrier. We think it does an adequate job of beginning to describe Harry...
“Who is Harry Stemp? I don’t think many people really know. He’s a bit of a fraud, really. He’d like to have you believe that he’s just a jokester who loves to have fun. He does love to have fun, but it only indicates his zest for life.
You start talking business and you know for sure he’s astute, he’s tough but fair, a positive person who is a leader that leads by example.
He has implacable energy, and I think that somehow he talked the Almighty into putting 26 hours into his days, and left all the rest of us with the usual 24.
He’s a humanitarian, you’ll realize, when you hear from other people about what he has done for others, because you would never hear him talk about it. He never really talks about himself, unless it’s about one of his fun-loving exploits, of which there are many.
You talk one on one with him about sensitive things and you get yet another impression - he’s as soft as mush.
You have to look, listen and watch carefully over many years to see the many sides of Harry Stemp. He’s always moving, always changing his many roles, he never stays in one for very long.”
The Cosmos was fortunate enough to have Harry’s popular column Stemp’s Stew run on its pages for several years. The publisher of the Cosmos was introduced to the newspaper biz by Harry when she was still a teenager. She’s known him her entire life. Cosmos graphic designer Susan Gallé worked with Harry at the Uxbridge Times-Journal, and remembers the man as described above. Many, many people in Uxbridge are mourning the loss of a man who gave so much of himself to this town. Spring Water Days, the Kinsmen, the newspaper - Harry Stemp was, for many years, Mr. Uxbridge. Harry and his ‘cold ones’ won’t soon be forgotten.
Page 11 in this week’s paper has two great men on it - Harry Stemp and Cam Stewart. They even have a common bond - hockey. For Harry it was the Toronto Maple Leafs, for Cam, the Uxbridge Bruins.
Uxbridge won’t see the likes of a Harry Stemp for a long time. And if it does, heaven help us all! Thank you for everything, Mr. Stemp. Cheers.
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