Alexander William Ashenhurst (1940 - 2012)

Born 31 Oct 1940 in Toronto, ON, Canada

Ancestors

Died 21 Jan 2012 at age 71 in Georgetown, ON, Canada

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Biography

Alexander William Ashenhurst was born in 1940 to Dr. Alexander Ashenhurst and Lois Brown, in what became a family of four children (Marcella (1936-1981), Sandra (1938-2009), Al, and later, his "little brudda" Jim (1947-). They lived at 232 High Park Avenue in Toronto.

In his youth, All attended Upper Canada College and Humberside Collegiate. He graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1964, where he was part of the varsity swim team which set a Canadian record in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. During this time he spent happy Summers as waterfront director at Camp Pinecrest.

He started his career as an intern at St. Michael's hospital and assisted a doctor in Port credit. In 1967 he married Judith Butler and moved to Georgetown, where he took over the family practice of Dr. Claude Williams. For the next 38 years, he served the community from his office at 115 Main St. (now Lily Thai Cuisine) and later the professional services building at 102 Mill St. He was also a member of Georgetown District Memorial Hospital where for decades he worked in the emergency ward, delivering countless babies, mending broken bones, and preparing the hospital for the inevitable Friday night rush of patrons from the Hollywood Tavern and O'Tooles.

Al and Judy bought the Mill House at 580 Main St. Glen Williams in 1970 and Al did all of the wiring and plumbing, all the while working full time and welcoming James (1973) and Andrew (1975) into his life. Al and Judy separated in 1980, but Al continued to be an enormous part of the boys' lives, taking them on fishing trips up North, skiing and shouldering his share of driving them to hockey practices and other activities. During this time, he was joined with Lorraine Symmes, with whom he bought the house on the 8th line in 1985, and whom brought balance and much laughter into his life.

After the boys went to college in the mid 90's, Judy and Al mended fences. Judy and her new husband Peter were instrumental in organizing the yearly Ashenhurst family picnic at his residence on the 8th line. Judy organized the food with help from Janet Schenk, Pete provided logistics and army tents in the event of rain, and Al provided the activities including tractor rides, rockets, and other child-pleasing stunts that were enjoyed by two generations of nieces and nephews. The family also welcomed the addition of his daughters-in-law, Janet and Veronica.

After 39 years of caring for his patients, Al retired from private practice in 2006. He continued to apply his medical skills to serve the community, assisting with surgeries at area hospitals. He greatly loved this work and his new colleagues, and found the technical details of surgery fascinating. In addition, he also served as unofficial handyman for St. Alban's Church and several of his friends in the community.

Unfortunately, in September 2010 he suffered a bulging disk, which precluded him from standing for long periods of time required for performing surgical assists. He was the first to admit that he was a "bad retiree". Cut off from his work, his health declined. In his last few months, he was comforted and cared for by Janet Schenk and her husband John. On the night of January 21, 2012 a fire broke out in his home and he died of smoke inhalation. He wouldn't have wanted people to feel sad for his however; he lived a full life and died without regrets.

Marriage

Marriage Notice

Georgetown Herald (Georgetown, ON), 5 Oct 1967, p. 8

Lives Lived

Father, brother, family physician, sportsman. Born Oct. 31, 1940, in Toronto, died Jan. 20, 2012, in Georgetown, Ont., in a house fire, aged 71.

Alex’s father was a physician, and Alex followed in his footsteps. He always described himself as a simple, old-time country doctor, but at his funeral he was remembered as “a renaissance man.”

Alex started his schooling as a day student at Upper Canada College, but switched to Humberside Collegiate for his secondary education. He loved the public system, especially the fact he could relate to the teachers his sisters had spoken about.

He became an ardent swimmer, which led to summer employment as a swimming director at Camp Pine Crest in Muskoka, a role he maintained while attending medical school.

Always planning ahead, Alex befriended a nurse while he was interning in Toronto, and suggested she apply as the camp’s nurse, setting up a readymade date for the summer. As it turned out, they broke up before camp started. (She still came to camp, though, and ended up marrying the out-trip director.)

Alex graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto, and at 24 was lauched into healing, specifically family practice. Initially he worked in Port Credit, but after a few months settled in Georgetown, Ont. It was a growing community, and he also was well aware that his ancestors had originally settled in the area.

He retired from his family practice in 2006, and became a full-time surgical assistant in Etobicoke, Brampton and Georgetown, replacing hips, knees and shoulders.

Alex’s first house in Glen Williams had an idyllic location on the Credit River. It was old, and needed new plumbing, electrical wiring and floors.While running a full medical practice, Alex managed to plumb the entire house and install a low-voltage relay system, all during his lunch hours, evenings and weekends. He also refinished and reinstalled the original pine boards.

He was also a private pilot. I recall several trips to the local airport in his treasured Lotus, travelling at a greater speed in the car than in the plane.

He loved whitewater canoeing and went on several expeditions down the Dumoine River. He was a train nut, and more than half of his basement was set aside for his track setup.

I suppose the train bug was planted by our father, who would take Alex, me and our two sisters to Toronto’s railyards to watch the steam locomotives.

Alex was never one to preach on the value of education. His subtle method was to leave books on science, history and politics lying about the house. With the support of his wife, Judy, his two boys James and Andrew both graduated from university – James with a PhD in chemistry, Andrew with a law degree.

Alex believed in maintaining strong family ties, and he and Judy organized the annual Ashenhurst reunion at their Georgetown home. The celebration grew from 18 people the first year to more than 45 last summer.

Alex died in a tragic fire at home.

He possessed a remarkable intellect, and his interests were wide-ranging and informed. He will be missed. (Source: The Globe & Mail)

Article

Dr. Alex Ashenhurst has spent more than 41 years practising medicine in Halton Hills.

It was the opportunity to set broken bones, deliver babies and do just about everything else in between that attracted a young Dr. Alex Ashenhurst to town nearly 41 years ago.

And it was that variety that kept Ashenhurst thoroughly enjoying practicing as a family doctor here right up until his retirement late last year.

Many friends, family and patients got together at an open house recently celebrating the long-time family doctor's many years of service to the community.

"He served the community and his patients with caring and compassion and made many friends while doing so, " said Dr. Robert Bourns of Georgetown. "He earned the friendship and respect of his colleagues as well."

Before making the move to Georgetown in July 1966 Ashenhurst worked for a year for a doctor in Port Credit but says he didn't care for the "snotty clientele" there, so when the opportunity arose to take over Dr. Claude William's practice in Georgetown, Ashenhurst jumped at the chance to work in the small farming community.

"Coming out of school you are really keen, " says Ashenhurst, who graduated from the University of Toronto medical school in 1964. "(In Georgetown) you could do just about anything you wanted-- all the broken bones you wanted to fix and deliveries, everything. That's what I really liked."

With the move to Georgetown, Ashenhurst, a city boy, learned he actually had some roots in the area, as his great-grandfather had lived in Ashgrove and much of his family is buried in Norval.

He says one of his earliest memories of his career here was of a house call he made to the home of a patient who remembered his great-grandfather.

"He said, 'he was a miserable son of a bitch'. I'll never forget that, " says Ashenhurst with a laugh.

House calls were common when the young doctor first started in Georgetown.

"House calls on the farm were a challenge because there was always a family dog that would come running out. I would hold my bag between myself and the dog."

He says he was still doing the occasional house call up until two years ago.

Middle of the night deliveries and 80-hour workweeks were also a way of life for Ashenhurst and the other eight or so doctors in town, including Dr. Alistair McIntosh and Dr. Alan Thompson (who was his mentor), when he began his career. Ashenhurst considered the schedule a breeze, however, after logging 115 hours each week as an intern.

Many of Ashenhurst's patients have been with him right from the start.

"You get really attached to these patients, " says Ashenhurst, who says it is the people and the humour that he misses most since retiring.

"They all have a story, good stories and bad stories." And many of them saw him as a sounding board for their problems, something he never minded at all.

"My 30-second lesson in being a psychotherapist is you never give anybody advice and you ask them irritating questions they have to answer themselves."

He has many fond memories of his patients.

He remembers one well-respected but "crusty" judge who came in one day with a peculiar rash on his leg.

"I said, 'Do you play golf?'

He said, 'Yes.'

'Have you been playing recently?'

'Yes', he said.

'Had you hit a ball into the rough?'

He gave me a dirty look and said, 'Yes.'

I said, 'Sir, you have poison ivy.'"

He also remembers the husband of another patient who pulled up in an expensive car at his home one weekend while Ashenhurst was doing yard work, his mud-covered Labrador retriever by his side.

The man insisted Ashenhurst come to his home to give his wife a shot for a migraine she was suffering from.

Ashenhurst says he didn't think it was appropriate and suggested he take her to the hospital instead, which did not impress the man.

He says at that point he looked over at the man's car, and sitting in the front seat was Ashenhurst's mud-covered dog with his tongue hanging out ready to go for a ride.

"He (the man) was having a fit because my muddy dog was all over his front seat. It was poetic justice, " says Ashenhurst.

In all, Ashenhurst estimates he's delivered about 1,000 babies, some of whom are children of the babies he delivered earlier in his career earning him the title of grand-doctor.

He stopped delivering babies about seven years ago.

"I personally felt I was losing my edge, " says Ashenhurst, who may have inherited his desire to be a doctor from his father and namesake, also a doctor, who practised out of their home in Toronto. Both his mother and sister were nurses.

"His office was in the house. The front hall was the waiting room."

Working in the emergency department at Georgetown Hospital was one of Ashenhurst's favourite jobs.

"You never knew what would come walking through the door."

There were often drunks and victims of accidents and fights.

"Most of the fights came out of the old Hollywood (bar) in Norval. The parking lot at the Hollywood was probably one of the most dangerous places in the country."

He is proud of the fact Georgetown Hospital was one of the first to have a sexual assault kit-- assembled by the staff there.

Ashenhurst, who divorced several years ago and is the father of two adult sons, has seen many changes in the practice of medicine over his more than 40 years as a family doctor.

They include a move from doctors setting their own fractures to sending their patients directly to orthopedic surgeons, the advent of the paperless office and the introduction of Family Health Networks, something Ashenhurst avoided joining.

"It's hard to change and I've been doing things the same old way for years and years and I knew my end (as a doctor) was coming, " says Ashenhurst when asked why he chose not join a network.

The doctor shortage is another change he has witnessed.

He believes the shortage is due in part to the fact that approximately 60 per cent of the students in medical schools today are women who don't want to work full-time when they graduate and take time off for maternity leave.

He also says young doctors today don't want to work the 70 to 80-hour weeks he and his colleagues did when they started, which he doesn't blame them for.

"That was ridiculous. I think they're sensible, " he says.

While Ashenhurst is enjoying his retirement he hasn't had much time to actually relax, as since he left his practice he has been working steadily assisting the surgeon mostly on orthopedic joint replacement surgeries in Etobicoke, Brampton and Georgetown Hospitals.

"But when I go home its done. I don't have to worry about some patient's hemorrhoids or some poor young thing that's stressed out. That's great."

That leaves him the time to do other things he enjoys like minor renovations to his home, and planning trips to Alabama for some golf with friends, and camping and fishing with his brother. Source: Independent Free Press, Georgetown, by Lisa Tallyn, 2/28/2007

Marriage Clipping: http://news.halinet.on.ca/91919/page/8

Obituary

Dr. Alexander William Ashenhurst

Age 71, of Georgetown, passed away suddenly in a fire at his home on Saturday, January 21, 2012.

Alex was born October 31, 1940 in west Toronto to Dr. Alexander and Lois Ashenhurst.

He was a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and had a family practice in Georgetown for 40 years.

He was a longtime member of the Georgetown District Memorial Hospital where he served for several years as chief of medical staff.

He is survived by his sons, James (Janet) of Nashville, Tennessee and Andrew (Veronica) of Toronto; brother Jim (Barb) of Mississauga; his friend and former spouse Judith Marshall (Peter) of Georgetown; brothers- in-law Peter Joyce of Ottawa and Alex Szabo of Stoney Creek; dear cousin Rosalie; and many nieces and nephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents and sisters Marcella Joyce and Sandra MacKay-Szabo.

Funeral service will be held at the Georgetown Christian Reformed Church, 11611 Trafalgar Rd., Georgetown on Tuesday, January 31st at 2 p.m. Cremation has taken place.

The family is deeply grateful to Mrs. Janet Schenk of Georgetown for the care and compassion she provided to Alex in his later days.

We are also thankful for the kind thoughts and support of his many friends, former patients and colleagues.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Alex can be made to Georgetown Hospital Foundation. (Sources: Toronto Star and Globe & Mail, January 26, 2012)

Videos

The Brown Family

A YouTube recording of Lois (Brown) Ashenhurst discussing the Brown side of family history with her son Alec and his wife Judy. The recording was made in January 1973 at the Toronto home of Dr. Alex and Lois Ashenhurst, 232 High Park Avenue. Includes mention of Harriet Dalton, Henry Brown, Isabella Cole, Lowell Butters, May Brown, George Brown, Grace Brown, Harry W. Brown, Helen Edy, William D. Edy, and Melinda Haviland. Along with the audio is a video montage of photos and documents assembled together in 2013 by Lois' grandson G. Patrick MacKay.

Here is a link to a YouTube video from December 2009, which shows the late Dr. Alex W. Ashenhurst (1940-2012) giving a brief history of the original Esquesing line of the Ashenhurst family at Hillcrest Cemetery in Norval Ontario, on the occasion of his sister Sandra MacKay-Szabo's burial.

Sources

• WikiTree profile Ashenhurst-118 created through the import of Haviland-Descendants.ged on Feb 10, 2012 by Graeme MacKay. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Graeme and others.