Saturday 25 June 2011

Re George Rennie

George Rennie, a former Toronto and Edmonton Suns tech whiz, died in Oakville in 2008 but a former co-worker and friend in Scotland found his obit here just recently. 

Jim Biddulph (compositor/keyboard, retired), says in an email to TSF: 

Please forward this to George's family.

I hope this is the right George Rennie.  I worked with a George Rennie over 40 years ago in a company called Typesetting Services Ltd., in Hope Street,  Glasgow, Scotland. This would be the clue if I have the correct person.  

So sorry to read of his early death due to the Big C. The (TSF) obituary of Tuesday 22nd January, 2008, which I have just found on the Internet, convinces me that it is the George I knew all those years ago.  

We were young tradesmen making our way in the printing trade as Monotype keyboard operators.  George was always full of life and fun and we worked early and late shifts for a few years together.

I will always remember our last night out along with colleague Harry McCrae before George emigrated to Canada, as a sad occasion, we all got on so well together. He emigrated to Edmonton and 'The Sun' was mentioned, another clue.

On a visit back to Scotland a few years later, we met up again in Partick, Glasgow for a pint and he told me about OCR, which was being used in Canada, while we here still had barely heard of it. He was convinced this was the way forward in typesetting for quick turnaround of copy. 

After that visit, we lost contact. I was pleased to read of his being a pre-press whiz kid as he saw Canada as a land of opportunity for his talents.

A memory that stuck with me was on a late shift, he had raging toothache and we tried to alleviate his pain with a whisky  soaked cotton bud to soothe his tooth, this only worked for a short time till the whisky was finished.  After about an hour or two  of suffering he came in with a pair of pliers for someone to pull it out. However, we did manage to convince him to wait and go to a dentist the next day.

All the guys he knew back here are all retired or passed on.  We have two reunions per annum and those at our last night out who remembered George were sorry to hear of his passing.

We don't always remember everyone we have worked with, but George was a friend in the workplace and outwith the workplace.

Kind regards to family.

1 comment:

  1. Even absent all the other markers that confirm it, that somebody remembers him fondly after 40 years means it's the right George Rennie. There is probably someone out there who didn't like "the wee fat F*^$%", as he called himself, but I never met them. In the highly unlikely event I live another 40 years, I don't doubt I'll remember that bad-boy grin and the great times we had in Edmonton, Toronto and Oakville.

    Simon Wickens

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