McGarvey authored The Old Brewery Bay: A Leacockian Tale, which details the process of opening the site to the public in July 1958.
In 2011, he told The Packet & Times: “Besides journalism, the theme of my life has definitely been heritage. I wanted to honour the past and leave something for future generations.”
McGarvey had an incredible capacity to build bridges across politics and issues, Addis said.
Taking people who were diverse in opinion and connecting them over a common cause is one of McGarvey’s legacies in Orillia, Addis said.
“Fundamentally, he was a good listener. I think this speaks to some of his broadcasting experiences where he let people tell their own story,” he said. “In the course of listening to their stories, he was always able to find a way through (or find) some kind of common ground for people.”
McGarvey was the first to welcome Addis to the museum when he arrived in 2001 to take on the role of museum program co-ordinator.
“He’s always been extremely helpful and generous with his time in support of my work here at the Leacock Museum. In that sense, he’ll be greatly missed,” Addis said.
Through McGarvey, the museum staff have formed a connection with the entire McGarvey family, Addis said.
Along with Will, McGarvey fathered sons Peter and Doug. He also has eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
“Certainly, our heart goes out to the entire family,” Addis said. “I like to think the museum has friends in the McGarvey family and that is a legacy of Pete’s work as well.”
The museum’s Mariposa Butterfly Garden was dedicated to McGarvey by the Orillia Canada Day Committee in July 2008.
That was “to honour Pete’s commitment, not just to the Leacock Museum, but to the community,” Addis said. “That stands as a lasting reminder here at the museum.”
In 1957, McGarvey was named Orillia’s Citizen of the Year for his efforts to save Leacock’s summer home and, in 1999, Orillia city council named him director emeritus of the Stephen Leacock Museum.
As a radio journalist, McGarvey attended the first Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour awards dinner in 1947.
“He was a big supporter of that,” said Mike Hill, president of the Stephen Leacock Associates. “He was such a booster through the years. It was really close to his heart, I believe.”
Although he was more of a jazz music guy, McGarvey helped establish the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1961.
“He … saw the benefit to Orillia,” Hill said. “He was really such a good citizen at heart. He helped bring that festival about even though it wasn’t his type of music.”
McGarvey was inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame in 2005.
“That was our way of thanking him for getting this festival up and running,” said Hill, the festival’s artistic director.
While co-founder Ruth Jones-McVeigh was the brains behind the plan, McGarvey became the festival’s voice, Hill said.
“Ruth had the ideas and her husband had the money — he backed it financially — and Pete was basically the spokesperson,” Hill said.
McGarvey was one of the first people Jones-McVeigh contacted when she started planning Mariposa, she said.
“… Because we knew him from the radio station,” she said. “He was very enthusiastic from the get go. Not everybody was. We gathered a number of enthusiastic people and he was certainly a mover and shaker.”
As the “voice in Orillia” at the time, McGarvey “helped to turn people on to the whole idea,” Jones-McVeigh said.
McGarvey, on Orillia council at the time, was also instrumental in kicking the festival out of the town, Hill said.
“I don’t know if many people know that,” he said.
In the festival’s third year, 25,000 people showed up to take part. It was more people than the population of Orillia at the time.
Riots broke out.
“Pete, as one of the aldermen at the time, he said we can’t have Mariposa any longer,” Hill said. “All was forgiven when we came back to Orillia.”
A few years ago, Hill visited McGarvey at his Orillia home.
“He is a very organized man. He had all his files, all his interviews through the years and he actually had some of he original minutes from the Mariposa Folk Festival meeting, the original meetings,” Hill said.
On June 4, 2011, McGarvey was presented by Lakehead University with an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Mayor Angelo Orsi also declared the day Pete McGarvey Day in Orillia.
“In 1945, I didn’t have the means to go to university,” McGarvey said at the time. “It is a great honour. I’m floored by it, really, because I haven’t got a college or university degree of any kind.”
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.
— With files from QMI Agency
sara.ross@sunmedia.ca