Brad Whitcombe was a community and environmental champion.
On Nov. 2 Wellington County honoured the late former warden by renaming the Southern Green Legacy Nursery the Bradford Whitcombe Green Legacy Nursery and dedicating the community room at the Puslinch library in his name. Events were held at both locations.
“I would say in a nutshell stewardship really captures Brad’s approach to life,” said Whitcombe’s spouse Lise Burcher at the nursery event. “He really did believe that his role in the world was to convene all the forces and all the resources necessary … to care for his community. He was tremendously committed to that.”
Whitcombe, a former Wellington County warden and Puslinch mayor, died suddenly on Nov. 16, 2014 after an emergency surgery due to a severe bacterial infection. He was 64 years old.
On Monday family, friends and colleagues remembered Whitcombe for the numerous ways he influenced Wellington County; more specifically for his role in establishing the Green Legacy program and his passion for the county library system.
“This nursery wouldn’t be here without Brad,” said Green Legacy nursery manager Rob Johnson.
The Green Legacy program began over 10 years ago and gives elementary school students and others throughout the county the opportunity to seed, cultivate and plant trees.
“Last year we planted over 18,000 trees with over 1,500 students,” Johnson said. “Really everybody thinks ‘Oh, it’s the trees getting [planted],’ which is a great thing but (it’s) not only the trees getting [planted], it’s education.
“We have students every year coming here, learning about trees, ecosystems and the benefits, so it’s trees, education and then the community.”
Green Legacy committee chair Mark Van Patter said Whitcombe was instrumental to the development of the program.
“Some people thought that the trees should be strategically planted, that only those sites that were on water courses or windrows should get the trees,” Van Patter explained, noting Whitcombe didn’t agree.
“Brad thought that everybody should have a chance to plant trees in the county.”
Van Patter said some thought people should pay 20% of the fee for the trees so they had a stake in the plant’s survival, but Whitcombe disagreed and the trees are free.
“He thought it was more important that people were involved and not worried about it,” Van Patter said. “He had a faith in the general public that when they got these trees they weren’t going to let them die.”
Burcher said Whitcombe would have been grateful to see everyone at the ceremony.
“Although I’ll have to venture and say I think perhaps what he would rather have done is maybe put a shovel in everyone’s hand,” she said.
In 2004 the Green Legacy program set a goal to plant 150,000 trees for the county’s 150th anniversary. Now it’s the biggest municipal tree-planting program in North America with over one million trees planted.
Last month the Ontario Legislature endorsed Wellington Halton-Hills MPP Ted Arnott’s proposal to establish an Ontario Green Legacy Program to mark Ontario’s 150th anniversary and begin planting 150 million trees throughout the province in 2017.
“I think if I look up I’m sure Brad’s looking down and smiling at that, because what an accomplishment,” said Warden George Bridge. “One little idea that they had that grew into the Wellington County idea and (has) now grown … provincial. So Brad, we’ll miss you, we won’t ever forget you.”
Whitcombe also left an impression through the rejuvenation of the Wellington County library system.
“He pushed at all times for facilities that went beyond simply books on shelves,” said Dave Adsett, Wellington Advertiser publisher and master of ceremonies. “Instead, his vision was that libraries would serve as a place for the community to gather and celebrate culture, literature and arts.
“Brad always encouraged people to think bigger, think better and appreciate the world around them.”
Wellington County chief librarian Murray McCabe agreed the county library system wouldn’t be what it is today without Whitcombe.
“He believed no matter where you lived or resided in the county that you were entitled to the highest level of service … so he did work very hard for libraries and he made sure that everybody had that top notch library service,” McCabe said.
“I’ve come to learn that behind every successful library system there’s a champion, a champion that rallies both political and citizen support, and that was certainly Brad.”
Burcher said Whitcombe was “thrilled” when it was decided Puslinch would get a new library.
“The intention was … to develop a facility that really engages people, provides for social interaction and he was actually very much … an armchair architect himself,” she said.
“And he would come home at the end of meetings … and talk about very detailed experiential aspects of the space that was being designed, about how children could engage, the facilities all have fireplaces as far as I understand, places where people could curl up in a window seat with a book.”
She said Whitcombe loved library work so much he stayed on the library committee as a citizen member last year.
Puslinch Mayor Dennis Lever said Whitcombe was a key player in creating the community hub that surrounds the Puslinch library today.
“To see the real activity level you need to come out here on a Saturday morning and see how busy that parking lot is out there, how many people are in this library and in all of the other facilities that we have here,” Lever said.
Through Whitcombe’s membership on the county library board, he was influential in other municipalities as well.
Bridge said “the passion for the Carnegie libraries was really paramount in Brad’s life, which if you’ve seen the results of our Carnegie libraries in Mount Forest, Elora, Harriston just being redone and Palmerston in the process and Fergus, these things we can’t ever replace …
“Our Carnegie Libraries have (here) been a hundred years, they’re going to be another hundred years because of a vision that Brad had.”
The Bradford Whitcombe Green Legacy Nursery and the Bradford Whitcombe Community Room at the Puslinch library will serve as a reminder of Whitcombe’s contributions and influence throughout the county.
