April 13th is my Dad’s 85th birthday.
For many of you who know my Father, John W. Hethrington has been synonymous with Simcoe and Grey County gardening, skiing and politics for 80 years, with a few gaps in Toronto, Sherbrooke and Montreal. (His column featuring tips from a master gardener appears in Collingwoodtoday.ca monthly).
John grew up on his grandfather Dr. Albert E. Webster’s farm on the Clarksburg 10th line with his family during the Second World War while his father, Lt. Col. Dr. Hagar Hethrington, was serving in Canada’s Army Medical Corps in England.
He learned to love gardening while working with his mother Edith on the Webster family farm. John and his sisters, Ruth and Anne went to the local Thornbury Public School.
John grew up learning to ski on the slopes of Blue Mountain in the 1950’s racing for the Toronto Ski Club with George and Helen Weider. There were less than 100 junior ski racers in Southern Ontario at the time. In high school he coached the TSC Junior team and was awarded the prestigious Julian Sale Trophy by the TSC. As a member of the UofT ski team, he competed in the 1956 Canadian National Alpine Ski Championships held at Blue Mountain and in the ski jumping Championships at Midland in front of 5,000 people.
That year also saw John and the boys of the University of Toronto Ski Team win the National Intercollegiate Ski Championship at St- Sauveur, Quebec. As national champions, they were invited to compete in the NCAA Championships at Dartmouth College against most of the US 1956 Olympic team returning from Cortina in Italy.
John enjoyed a very successful business and entrepreneurial career but he never lost his passion for skiing. After a decade living and skiing in Quebec, the family returned to Ontario in 1972 just after Jozo Weider’s tragic death. George Weider asked John to join the Board of Directors of Blue Mountain Resorts. His weekday job was VP Marketing at Benson and Hedges Tobacco.
When Benson and Hedges in the US launched the B&H Pro Ski Classic, John immediately put Blue Mountain on the circuit and added Montreal the following year. At the very first event at Vail, Colorado, it was John Hethrington who met with World Cup and Olympic gold medalist Jean-Claude Killy, After He won the first Pro Race, John signed him to a contract that brought him to race over the jumps at Blue Mountain against the best ski racers in the world.
The equally famous Spider Sabitch, his girlfriend Claudine Longer and other luminaries at the race were entertained at the Hethrington Chalet. Later that winter, the family was to be in Aspen the weekend of his tragic death.
John’s innovative thinking resulted in a decade-long Blue Mountain advertising campaign based on the slogan, "Get a Better Run for your Money." He introduced the Blue Mountain market research program, interviewing skiers in the lodges to find out what they most liked and most disliked about the resort. As a solution to complaints about long lift lines, he came up with the ‘Get Moving Boards’ to spread people across the mountain. It was less expensive than a new lift, for which there was no new capital at the time.
John also participated in the Southern Ontario Adult Racing League for 40 years, first for the TSC and then as co-manager of the Georgian Peaks team. When the League was abandoned by Alpine Ontario, John arranged for liability insurance which kept it operating. In appreciation, they have created the Hethrington Cup, given annually to the regular season champions.
John’s second passion is gardening.
After the war, the family returned to Toronto where they lived on Elm Avenue near St. Clair and Yonge St. The house had an additional nine-tenth of an acre adjacent to the property. This became the setting for Glen Elm Farms. John raised bees and helped his parents tend the large inner-city vegetable garden. One year, the family won Best Honey at the Canadian National Exhibition held at the old CNE grounds.
John set up his first gardening and landscaping company in the 1950’s. When John finished university, he sold the business to his foreman who successfully carried on the business for 40 years. John received his Master Gardener qualifications from the University of Guelph and was elected President of the Master Gardeners of Ontario.
He is now Master Gardener Emeritus with the Simcoe County group and spends part of everyday planning or working in one of the 68 gardens he has spread over his two-acre property.
John and Carol Hethrington have raised money for charities over the years by welcoming local residents to their home to enjoy guided tours of their gardens. John has grown and donated hundreds of tomato plants to the St George’s, the Anglican Parish of the Blue Mountains’ Annual Plant Sale. Before the pandemic, he partnered in this endeavour with a class of Grade Four students at the Georgian Bay Secondary School In Meaford.
Under John’s guidance, the children spent the spring learning as they grew hundreds of tomato plants for the church fundraiser. John’s love for children is also reflected in the long support he and Carol have provided the ‘Kids in the Meaford Hall’ theatre troop.
His last passion is, of course, politics.
His first campaign involvement was delivering box lunches to Tory scrutineers in the 1945 provincial election in the riding of Toronto Rosedale at the age of 9.
At Western, John was president of the student Tory party. He was then elected as Ontario Vice President of the national Young Progressive Conservative Party. We have a picture of him being congratulated by John Diefenbaker at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa. He followed that up with eight decades of active political participation including working on many national and provincial leadership and election campaigns. John has served in virtually every role from coffee runner to campaign manager over the years.
In thanks to his service to his country, John W. Hethrington had the honour of being formally introduced to Queen Elizabeth 2 a few years ago. Upon introduction John caught his toe on the red carpet and stumbled face-first toward our diminutive monarch’s décolletage. Fortunately, John used his well-honed ski racing skills to regain his balance and make the gate before there was an international incident. John bowed gracefully before his monarch and said “enchante.”
On behalf of my mother Carol-Jean, brother Andrew and sister Janet and all of our extended family and friends, I invite you all to toast my father John W. Hethrington, a true son of Simcoe and Grey County, who turned 85 on April 13.
