With broken hearts we share the news of Wayne's journey Home on Tuesday February 15, 2022, following a very brief illness.
Born in North Bay to parents Earle and Jeannette (Desaulnier) June 13, 1951. Wayne was raised in Chapleau and enjoyed all the perks of growing up in the 50's in a small town in Northern Ontario. It was a time when you knew everyone and everyone knew you and what you were up to, which sometimes if you knew Wayne was not always a good thing.
As a child he enjoyed playing road hockey with the neighbourhood kids in the winter and baseball in the summer with all his chums. Then as a teen he played Junior B hockey with the Chapleau Huskies and again lots of the same friends, Baseball came back into his life a little later when he played with the gang from the Home Hardware team, I am not sure if baseball was a important to him as the gathering following the games, he also loved the game of Curling and once again the gathering afterwards was most important. Wayne was a people person and held onto friendships made as a child until the day he passed.
Following high school Wayne attended Georgian College in Barrie in the Land Survey program. The training there kept him employed over the next 47 years minus a couple of years where he changed careers but surveying always called him back. As a Surveyor or Draftsman over the years he was employed by a number of Government Ministries as well as private survey firms in Toronto, Barrie and finally in Thunder Bay, he retired from J.D Barnes.
Taking an early retirement Wayne was able to be more involved with volunteering around the city. Most important to him was his involvement with the Knights of Columbus. He held many different executive positions within the Order and through the years making so many wonderful friends, that were so important to him.
He was a man of strong opinions and an even stronger Faith. Wayne was known for his size of course, then for his wonderful smile and his strong belly laugh, his snow white hair and beard his Santa look, and the typical Irish way of telling you the long version of any story. The ladies all like the hugs he gave out so freely, I was forever cleaning makeup off his suits where short ladies would lean into his hugs.
Wayne was proud of his sons and loved them dearly but nothing moved his heart more than his precious Grandchildren.
If you stood still for more than a minute or two he would get his phone out and show you his latest Molly and Donovan pictures. They will miss knowing this wonderful Papa.
Its hard to put a man's life into a few paragraphs on paper. To sum up I would have to say he loved the work he did the great opportunity to work in the outdoors, enjoyed every minute of being a Knight and all the friends that came with that, he loved his growing family, was a man of Faith and his Parish family was very important to him.
We will miss him dearly but will remember him fondly and with a smile.
Wayne was pre-deceased by his parents Earle and Jeannette and an infant brother, along with his In-laws Ed and Janet McCarthy.
Wayne is survived by Janet his wife of 46 years, Sean (Terri-Lynn), Matthew (Trisha) and Grandchildren Molly and Donovan.
Brothers in law Jack McCarthy (Tena), Bruce McCarthy (Diana) nephew Ryan McCarthy, niece Shannon McCarthy and their families. Numerous relatives from the Desaulnier branch of the family, as well as those he considered family in Sheenboro and his brother by another mother childhood friend Doug. Also very important to his heart is his McCarthy Cousins and families who accepted Wayne as one of their own.
Keep the Faith
