Esther A. Cornell

Other Events:

• Name: Esther A. Hagey
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-81658

Esther married Menno Hagey 8 Aug 1888, Lynden, Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada. Menno (son of Peter B. Hagey and Elizabeth Boehmer) was born 27 Sep 1863, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 20 Jan 1946; was buried , Hamilton Cemetery, Hamilton, Wentworth Co., Ontario. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Gerry Hagey
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-81661
• Honoured: 1968; K-W Citizen of the year
• Honoured: 1986; Order of Canada
• Website: 2007; wikipedia
• Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region: Bef 2012, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Gerald Hagey
It is difficult to know where the University of Waterloo would be if Gerald Hagey had not failed his final year at high school in Hamilton in the early 1920s. Hagey's father told him he had a choice '96 get to work or complete his high school studies at Waterloo College.

Hagey enrolled in the tiny Waterloo College in 1923, at a time when it was just beginning to offer university courses. He not only got his high school diploma there, but went on to complete a university degree before taking a job in 1928 as a sales clerk with B.F. Goodrich in Kitchener.

Hagey worked at B.F. Goodrich for many years rising to the position of national advertising director by the 1950s, but then his mind began to wander back to education. He became involved with the board of Waterloo College and in 1953 was invited to become its president.

Hagey had a dream in the mid-1950s '96 a radical vision '96 that would eventually transform Waterloo and change the nature of post-secondary education in Canada. Hagey wanted science and engineering students to be able to work in industry while they were completing their university degrees.

The idea first began to percolate while he was manager of advertising and public relations at Goodrich. His American counterparts were pre-testing commercial advertisements through door-to-door surveys. The Canadian office couldn't afford the programme, so Hagey pondered whether university students would be able to do the work.

"It would produce revenue for the students who did it. It would produce revenue for the college. And it was of benefit to the advertiser, on the basis that I had developed it," Hagey recalled much later in an interview. .....

https://www.wpl.ca/sites/default/files/waterloo_150/hagey_gerald.pdf

Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Hagey

Joseph — Eleanor Ford Forsyth. Eleanor was born 17 Aug 1907, Hamilton, Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada; died 18 Dec 1998, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Joseph — Minota Margaret "Minnie" Weichel. Minota (daughter of Mayor William George "Billy" Weichel, MP and Jessie Rose Kinsman) was born 13 Jun 1904, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 13 Sep 1965, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Mount Hope Cemetery, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-133105

Other Events:

• Name: Jack Hagey
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-101508

Notes:

JOHN (JACK) HAGEY

Jack Hagey was born into a family of achievers, people well used to the public limelight. How difficult then for this reserved and unassuming man to create a life that would become both deeply influenced by them, yet separate. He needed to find his own path. Jack's father, J. Gerald Hagey, was founding president of the University of Waterloo, a visionary who developed the country's first co-op university program.

Jack's mother, Minota, was also an influential community member and there is a university residence named in her honour. Her father, William Weichel, was a member of provincial Parliament. 'In his own quiet way, he was quite the opposite of his father,' said Jack's wife, Barbara, of her unfailingly private husband. Jack was also honest, a kind man who preferred the relative obscurity of his accountancy practice to public life.

Sister Anne Rektor, a Catholic nun, met Jack by happenstance in a parking lot one day when he was there with a mutual acquaintance. The two were introduced and there was an immediate rapport. As he worked his way through two years of cancer, Sister Anne helped him cope, though he wasn't Catholic. She laughs as she recalls how she referred to herself as 'Jack's nun.'

'He had a faith that was simple, singular and adherent,' she said. 'He lived his life so quietly.' She also remembered his humility, how he never boasted about his family background. Jack, the youngest of two boys, completed an undergraduate degree at Waterloo College, now part of Wilfrid Laurier University. He initially thought about a high school teaching career, but daughter Laura recalled that her father feared his small stature and boyish looks would make it difficult to gain the student's respect.

He instead joined an accounting firm and completed his certified accountancy program, eventually entering a partnership. A man who preferred routine, Jack was a creature of habit and a logical thinker. He was also a man who thrived on work. 'He worked until he was 72, until he was diagnosed (with cancer),' said Laura.
His devotion to the job paid off in professional and financial success, but Jack never desired the fancy cars or homes.

Everything about him was modest. He just wanted to do well enough to care for his family, to leave them a healthy legacy. Laura describes her father as a people person, someone who liked to please others and would never offend. She didn't see him angry, never heard him swear.

Jack and Barbara met on a blind date and though they hit it off, it would be a few years before Barbara completed her nursing training and returned from one year of working in Western Canada. They eventually grew serious and five years after first meeting, married Sept. 9, 1960, having two daughters, Laura and Margie.

'As a dad, we had a lot of fun together,' said Laura, a self-confessed tomboy who rode with her dad on his motorcycle, fished in ponds and convinced him to buy her boy's skates after her mother signed her up for figure skating.

He was also an incurable 'gadget guy,' always looking forward to the next Canadian National Exhibition where he'd get the latest doodad. Laura said he'd play around with it then it would be relegated to a closet somewhere while he eagerly anticipated the next gadget.

Jack also enjoyed the racetrack, Woodbine and Elmira, and he liked the casino, though he wasn't much of a gambler. Perhaps it was the excitement he was drawn to, something he avoided in his daily life.
Laura said her dad wasn't the overtly emotional type.

'He was really a down-to-earth kind of man' but there was never any question he loved his family.
Diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2005, doctors predicted he had one year but Jack managed to steal a second year through sheer determination and alternative remedies. He was practical, but also open minded.

Sister Anne concluded her friend Jack was unique, someone who appreciated the 'tiniest little kindness' anyone did for him.

Jack Hagey leaves behind his wife Barbara, daughters Laura and Margie and three grandchildren.


The Record Newpaper, May 17, 2007