[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 60-03, July - September, 2006 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

Bill McBride

1926—2006

By John Ford

Born on old St. Patrick’s Square in downtown Toronto, Bill was the second oldest of eleven. Brother Jack, an ex-East Yorker, is one of five siblings who survive him. After service in the Canadian army in W.W.II,  Bill settled into the graphic arts industry and produced Photostats and signs right up to the turn of the century.

He passed away on his 80th birthday, July 30. Bill and Ada had three children, Dennis, Jane and Ron who passed away recently. An East Yorker since 1969 and an original Harmony Ranch member, Bill and Ada recently moved to Whitby. He eventually entered an extended care facility where his wit and storehouse of limericks made him the prize patient.

Of his four grandchildren, two are members of the Toronto Police Force, so keep your eyes peeled. There are two great-great grandsons as well, one born the day after his passing.

Bill edited the East York Rag for nine years, was an International C.O.T.S. faculty member and a perennial entertainer at both C.O.T.S. weekend and the nearby Fern Cottage for some thirty years.

Bill was a founding and continuing member of the Top Heavy Trio and The Whistlers, both of which brought down the house on many a Barbershop show. His Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald mime skit with Rolly Ariss was a piece of show biz that you could never forget, Rolly playing a Nelson Eddy who was a foot shorter than Bill’s Jeanette.

Of the many entertaining wits in the Ontario District, Bill McBride was as original as any of them, and the limericks and anecdotes will live forever in our memories.  

A hale fellow well met.     k