Peter Cross:
CLASS OF 1965
John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute Class of 1965
Guelph, ON
Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute Class of 1967
Guelph, ON
Bishop Macdonell High SchoolClass of 1966
Guelph, ON
Centennial High SchoolClass of 1966
Guelph, ON
King George Junior High SchoolClass of 1960
Guelph, ON
Peter's Story
Life
My Spouse (Isabel)
We met through volunteer work with refugees and immigrants. I first became involved with refugees when we assisted a Vietnamese family to re-settle in 1979. Their's has been a terrific success story with all 3 daughters university grads and dad fully and well employed since he found work within about a month of arrival. It was a very rewarding experience.
In 1988 I again became heavily involved in assisting Central American refugees to re-settle. It was a significant time and energy commitment. Again it was very rewarding. A side benefit is that I have learned to speak Spanish, not exactly fluently, but enough to communicate and read and understand books.
My Philosophy
In the late sixties I was introduced to Quakerism. In stark contrast to my prior political instincts, Quakers reject knee jerk reactions, preferring to consider and deliberate before reacting. Quakers are pacifists, which again conflicts with my base personality, but I have learned over time that their wisdom seems to have been much better than the wisdom of most of our politicians over the years. While I do have difficulties with their complete rejection of war for any reason, looking at the wars of the world over the last 40 years, most of them have been senseless and many profit or politics motivated, in my opinion. As one Quaker once expressed it, "I would rather give up my life and avoid taking someone else's than go to war and die trying to kill someone".
My Kids
I have two sons by my first wife. Dan, the eldest, plays jazz guitar and is a webmaster, maintaining a web page on guitar for about.com/music/guitar. He has also written a book on guitar.
Tim, the second, graduated from Queens in environmental biology. He recently switched careers and starting in 2008 became full time employed in teaching.
My other three are step-kids - all born in El Salvador. They came to Canada in 1988. The youngest was 3 at the time.
Our first granddaughter arrived on December 23, 2005, a Christmas gift from Monica, Isabel's eldest, fol...Expand for more
lowed 13 months later by our second granddaughter (from Isabel's youngest-Vicky), and finally by our third granddaughter in September, 2007 when my side finally got in on the act, with the birth of Claire to Dan and Heather. (Slow learners are the Crosses!) See my photo with the 3 grands the first time they were all together.
My Job
After leaving Guelph, I moved to Hamilton and articled as a chartered accountant. At that time it was an apprenticeship type program and I could learn an occupation while earning enough to survive, starting at the princely sum of $100 monthly, not very much even in those days.
After several attempts (you might remember me as being persistent, if not too bright), I received my "CA". I continued working for the same firm until 1981 when the firm I was with merged with a multi-national. After a couple of years I decided that the politics of a multi-natinal firm wasn't my cup of tea, and hung up my own shingle. That gave me lots of flexibility to do my volunteer things, but I tended to do too much for free. I shared space with another older CA for the first 5 years and subsequently we became partners. Another 5 years and my partner passed away. After a year on my own, with 3 good employees, I joined a local firm in Hamilton as a partner and have been here ever since.
All three employees have since gone out on their own and it gives me great satisfaction that all are successful in their work.
The discipline of having to meet certain productivity levels was good for me. The firm is a progressive firm and as a consequence we are constantly pushing one another to keep up to date with industry re-education and experience.
Classmates Experience
I have been a member since about 2002. While somteimes it seems there is not much activity, over the years I have contacted quite a number of friends from high school days. It amazes me the bits of trivia I remember about some people I knew only slightly.
It gives me a good deal of pleasure to hear from anyone I knew back in those days - including YOU!
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