PAST PRESIDENT :  GORD  MICHENER

Gord Michener, our  Past President, is a lawyer, who graduated from the University of Toronto Law School in 1966.

Although, he has been a member of our club since the early /80’s. There was a hiatus of 9 years when he moved to the Yukon to be the Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice.

His undergraduate degree was in Maths and Physics, so he has always been attracted to Science, but he became interested in field nature in the /70’s. On one of his first walks with Bill Cattley, to everyone’s horror, he picked a Yellow Lady’s Slipper.  He realized that he had to learn more, and once he got started he couldn’t stop. He wanted to know about edible wild plants, and it was evident that the current literature was inaccurate, or even wrong. At that time he met Tony Reznicek and Rick Bobette, members of the Brereton Field Naturalists’ in Barrie, and realized that they were light years ahead of everyone else, (and still are). He finds that belonging to a naturalists’ club connects him with a group of like-minded people, who can learn about nature and promote its values.

He is now interested in all the floral taxa, related to the local ecosystem, as well as amateur astronomy and cosmology. He is involved in a citizens’ advisory committee on the proper management of public lands in Muskoka and Parry Sound District. He has been on the Board of the Wye Marsh. He is currently spearheading the newly formed Astronomy Club: http://www.orilliastars.ca/

He is married to Sandra, who has become a United Church minister. They have 4 daughters and 6 grandchildren.