July 16, 1924 – September 21, 2021.
On September 21, 2021, our beloved Uncle, William (Bill) Martinek passed away in his 97th year. Predeceased by his parents Albert and Mary Martinek and his brother Joe (Brenda). He is survived by his Nephews Denis (Snezhana), Peter (Suzy) and Paul (Melissa).
Bill was born in Czechoslovakia close to Plzen and survived many harrowing experiences during the war years. In the early 1950’s as the communists completed the takeover of Czechoslovakia Bill discovered a unique opportunity to escape the country and together with his parents and brother masterminded their eventual emigration to Canada.
In Canada the family embraced their freedom and started on a path to rebuild their lives. Starting out as Lumberjacks in Quebec Bill and Joe soon realized how cold Canada was, Bill decided to sell his watch and buy bus tickets to Toronto, and this was where their lives re started. The Family all worked hard together, from selling adding machines throughout North America to buying & restoring buildings, success was soon achieved. In the late 1950’s they discovered Blue Mountain, Collingwood and being avid skiers, they fell in love with the area. Bill started to buy land around the base of the mountain and the family worked to eventually build Tyrolean Village in the 1970’s. It was the first large scale accommodation provider at Blue Mountain.
Tyrolean Village was an iconic place to stay in the 1970’s and 80’s and most people who have visited Blue Mountain have probably stayed at “Tyrolean” during the heydays of the Resort. The business went through many difficult times during the recession in the 1980’s but is still operated today by his nephews, although on a smaller scale.
Ever the eternal optimist and avid adventurer, always full of interesting ideas, Bill tried his hand at many ventures and travelled all over the world. His relentless energy took him to many places: South America, Mexico, China, India, South Korea, Russia and eventually brought him back home to the Czech Republic where he retired in the mid 1990’s to a well-deserved more relaxed life.
Bill never met a problem that he did not try to solve and always had an interesting story to tell about his life’s many adventures. Although he experienced tremendous ups and downs in his life, his uniqueness was in his ever strong will to overcome adversity and his perseverance. Bill always tried to find a silver lining in anything life would throw at him. He was married twice to Amy Brough (Toronto) and Hana Havlicek (Toronto & Blue Mountain) but had no children of his own.
In the last years despite COVID and health complications, Bill kept a positive attitude and still had a zest for life. Even in his last days, he would still say that his goal was to live to a 100… sadly he was 3 years short.
Our family would like to thank the amazing doctors at Vojenska Nemocnice (Soldier’s hospital) in Prague who helped Bill to enjoy a few extra years and the caring staff at Agata Seniors House who took such good care of him. Special words of gratitude to Zuzana Pavlovska, a good friend who helped look after him in his last years, especially during the COVID times and replenished his sweet tooth with many cakes, coffee and desserts, that gave him the will to keep fighting and helped him to stay in constant touch with his family and friends.
He certainly was one of a kind, being the eldest son, he was a pillar to his family, a visionary, an eternal optimist, a traveller and adventurer.
With your passing, a whole era of our family’s history is now gone.
Rest in peace Uncle Bill.