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Remembering Don Voisey: A life dedicated to community service

November 2, 2023   ·   0 Comments

Unsung hero of Orangeville, Don Voisey, leaves behind legacy of community service

By Constance Scrafield

Last week, the family of Don Voisey informed the community that he died earlier this month.

So many people have said of Don Voisey, “Don was very involved with the community…with Theatre Orangeville… with Family Transition Place… There wasn’t much in Orangeville that he wasn’t involved in. He was busy on the plans for the Rotary Park. Rotary was important to Don.”

A close friend, Richard Delongte’s comments followed the theme, “Don did a lot of work [with many projects], but he kept in the background. We were great friends, and we worked together on a lot of projects.”

Mr. Voisey was “instrumental with Ribfest for so many years. We couldn’t have done it without him. I hope they will use the plans he laid out. This is Rotary’s biggest fundraiser.”

Said Mr. Delongte, “Don genuinely enjoyed being involved, enjoyed helping people – it was really for the right reasons not as self-promotion.”

All this was echoed by another close friend, Steve Cavell, “Don was very kind and gentle and self-effacing, and he quickly got things done. He shied away from recognition; just quietly wanted to contribute to the community and look after his family.

“He had a lovely sense of humour – very dry.”

Mr. Cavell also talked about how much time Don Voisey spent making Ribfest better and better. He designed each year differently; he was convinced it could always be better. It was measuring-out day on Wednesday: “You had to be able to take directions and to get the lay out done in three hours.”

Every year, Mr. Voisey did detailed drawings of the two clubs’ Christmas floats, too.

“The community will miss him more than we know,” Mr. Cavell said. “I’m pretty sure that his son and his wife both know how much he was appreciated.”

Don Voisey’s son, Brent, was kind enough to talk to the Citizen.

He began by saying, “I’m an only child. Dad took me to see some of his architectural work. He was up working at 5:30 a.m. and he was always home for dinner.”

Brent Voisey explained the family lived in several places, including in Bermuda for a few years, following his passion for designing interesting buildings (in Toronto, “Eaton Centre, Ontario Place, Skyscrapers, Headquarters, dealerships, custom homes and cottages”) and his absolute love of doing work for many communities and here in Orangeville.

He joined Rotary in the mid-1980s and found a great community in Orangeville when they moved here in 1996.

Early on in his life, Brent, by 10 years old, was a competitive figure skater. He told us his mother was one of the first women to go to university.

“I was that cloth. Never one to be still.”

As a note about his father, a lady wrote, upon first meeting Don, that she had just “met a man that could do anything.”

Brent performed and competed in Ice Dance up to the Olympics for the Canada Winter Games. His dad was always supportive of anything he did (he even learned to skate). It was while Brent was training that he stopped and went into pension and benefits as a Manulife executive.

“Now I’m into not- for- profit. It’s very interesting.”

Don Voisey’s two granddaughters were everything to him, his son informed us. Jack was someone that he helped, a super smart person, but easily distracted; he knew everything about everything. He was Mr. Voisey’s good friend.

“Dad was very sentimental,” said Brent. “My daughter made an album for him all about family. It meant a lot.”

Father and son spent 11 months together during his illness, with Brent accompanying his father to all his appointments.

Travelling in Europe at the time, Brent’s daughter offered to come back immediately, but Brent told her, “Dad would want you to stay and have a good trip.

“I got to spend a lot of time with him. Promised I would take care of mom but he was so organized. Everything is in order.”

Brent revealed he has become quite spiritual over the years and consequently does not fear death.

“The hospital told us that people often die when people leave. That evening when we left him,” Brent said, “Randomly, Jack sent me the article of his getting the Citizen of the Year [award], just as he died.” 

He has been grateful to his partner, who was like a rock during this.

“I appreciate what everyone does for me,” he said.

It is the gratitude for his life and the people in it that keeps him strong.

He told us his grandmother raised him to appreciate women, hence his move to the not-for-profit.

David Nairn told us stories of Theatre Orangeville with Don Voisey.

“For many years. I called him Mahatma. He was a truly great soul, a quiet and gentle guiding force for a lot of my time at TOV and truly a mentor for me personally. He was years on the Board; co-chaired Victorian Christmas. It was exactly the kind of event that he defined – elegant, classy, well managed, an apparently seamless event.”

For one to be called a gentleman is unusual nowadays, as Mr. Nairn observed. Mr. Voisey was an island of calm to really bring people down to earth. His real strength, his great gift, was as a great builder of teams. He really valued people.

Mr. Nairn observed, “He was a man of honour; if he said I will do that, I knew it would happen. Always very profound about Rotary.”

The dream factory, Mr. Nairn calls it, is the CLD building just inside East Garafaxa, which also houses the theatre’s rehearsal hall, workshop, office and storage. That was really Doc Gillies, Don Voisey and David Childs who led the charge.

“They brought their super powers to bear,” he confirmed. “Don was a major player; he was a huge resource. Once they got on board with it, it was going to happen.”

When other plans were afoot, Don was the focal for bringing it in and below budget. During the construction of the Amphitheatre on Island Lake, he told us, “Don exemplified the best of how Orangeville works. The community is inter-connected.”

Laughing, Mr. Nairn reminisced, “I used to love going to the French Press [where the friends regularly enjoyed coffee and conversation for some years]. We’d have a project and I needed to go to Doc and Don. We sat in a corner. Doc was always the big picture. Doc finished enthusing, and he looked at Don: ‘Alright, Don, how are we going to do it?'”

A story from our favourite storyteller:

“My favourite story: 20 years ago, Leisa worked on cruise ships, the New York to Bermuda run. I had an opportunity to join her. On this trip, the ship docked at Hamilton, Bermuda, right up to the street, and there was a huge festival going on.

“We stepped on the road. Down the high street comes this man – a bright jacket and pink shorts– pink socks, and his briefcase. He had left the Board to live in Bermuda for a few years – it was Don!

“He saw Leisa! There was Don, looking like the Prime Minister of Bermuda – pink shorts, pink knee-high socks. He told us he had the shorts and socks in all colours! Bermuda style.”

Sighing, “He will be greatly missed.” Adding, “One of Don’s concerns was the next generation, where the next generation would come from.”

Norah Kennedy, Executive Director at Family Transition Place (FTP), has memories, too, of Don Voisey’s tremendous contributions to the emergency shelter for those fleeing domestic violence.

She mentioned that Debbie Lahey, the facilities manager, worked closely with Don. At a point when fairly extensive renovations and a new lift were to begin, Doc. Gillies “brought Don to us as an advisor,” she related. “Don just walked in with his extremely calm, gentlemanly manner and he just made us feel relaxed. He worked through with us, translated architecture language without [condescension] and just made us feel confident. He helped with searches for housing and organized a huge donation of furniture, which we badly needed.”

Debbie Lahey laughed to remember, “I loved the huge smile and twinkle in his eye when he drove his little sports car. Always generous to a fault – he made people’s lives better. The world is sadder place for his loss.”

Not long ago, Ms. Kennedy happened to see Don at the hospital, and he was there waiting for a treatment. She sat to talk to him for a while, but he brushed away from his illness, only wanting to know about FTP.

“His gift,” she said, “he was able to make you feel [like] whatever you were talking about was the most important thing at the moment.”

A Celebration of Life for Don Voisey is arranged at Dodds and McNair on Sunday, November 12, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

A final father-and-son moment might be the best way to end.

Brent Voisey described it, “The last time I was with him, he had his eyes open and his mind was clear. Then, he was looking up as though wondering, and I went over to look at him. When our eyes locked, his face lit up with genuine joy, and that was a gift.

“I will always take that moment with me.”

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