The best mayor Kingston never had
Russell (Bud) Gormley earned praise for his work during '76 Olympics
BY IAN ELLIOT WHIG-STANDARD STAFF WRITER June 18 2008The year 1976 might have been the only time in history that Kingston had two mayors.
While George Speal oversaw City Hall in that Olympic year, Russell (Bud) Gormley was the benevolent ruler of the Olympic Village and the sailing venue at the new Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, clipboard habitually under one arm and railroad engineer's hat on his head.
Gormley died last week at age 72 and will be buried today, but the sailor, volunteer, bartender and raconteur is still remembered as the best mayor Kingston ever had who never got elected.
"He was mayor of the village and I was mayor of the city and he got so many accolades for his work back then that it was unbelievable," Speal said yesterday.
"Bud was a people person and not only did he have to deal with people, but he had to deal with people from all over the world and he did a fantastic job - he was showered with praise for what he did during the Olympics."
Gormley's worn train cap, since bronzed, was one of the items on display at the Robert Reid and Sons funeral home on Johnson Street yesterday afternoon as family and friends gathered to pay tribute to him. The hat sat next to a framed menu of the lunch he ate with the Queen at that time. Gormley, who died after a long illness, would have been pleased at the turnout.
"He was a sailor," said his wife, Marsha, whom he married in 1972 and immediately talked into buying a boat, a sloop, which the couple kept for four years. Gormley crewed on the boat after getting into sailing.
"He convinced me we should buy a boat instead of a house after we got married," she said.
"That lasted about four years, then I convinced him that it might be nice to have a downpayment for a house instead if we sold the boat."
Born in Montreal, Gormley moved to Kingston when he was just three and never left.
He got involved in sailing while young -his wife called him a river rat from an early age -and later moved into more formal sailing, but more for the people he met than the boats.
"My dad was a sailor and he was always puttering around on one boat or another," she said.
"But Bud never cared too much for the puttering -he never liked that as much as the socializing aspect of sailing."
Gormley spent a quarter of a century as a teacher and principal in area schools. He was also a partner in several bars and restaurants around Kingston, including the Toucan, where he would often work an afternoon shift pulling pints for customers who came in to pass the day with him. "He had quite a following," remembered Bruce Clark, another one of the Toucan owners.
"They'd come in because they knew he'd be working behind the bar and they'd be there if he was."
He and Marsha never had children but sponsored a number of youngsters in Third World countries through World Vision. Gormley's annual trips to the Dominican Republic were legendary.
That island nation has produced more than its share of ballplayers despite children having little equipment. Gormley would solicit old uniforms, baseballs, bases and bats from local clubs and fly literally hundreds of pounds of gear each year to distribute to youth leagues there.
He was known as "Senor Bud" to locals, and several times, league championship games were played between two teams wearing uniforms bearing the logos of Kingston businesses and teams.
"He used to take literally hundreds of pounds of equipment down there, and I don't know how he managed to get it onto the plane, but he did," remembered Clark, who several times was enlisted by Gormley to lug equipment bound for the Dominican.
Gormley was also an enthusiastic golfer and a longtime member of the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club. Not surprisingly, he was one of the main organizers of the Toucan's summer golf tournaments.
Speal noted Gormley's long history of community involvement and said his skills tended to push him into leadership roles, and often in short order.
"He didn't just have organizational expertise, he was a leader, and it seemed like any organization he got involved with, he went right to the top," Speal said.
Gormley was also commodore of the Kingston Yacht Club in 1983 and 1984. The current commodore, Rob Colwell, paid him the ultimate nautical compliment yesterday.
"Bud was a good sailor, a good friend and a good shipmate."