Saying goodbye to Bill Saunderson

William John Saunderson wasn’t quite a teenager when his family moved north from Toronto to Maple in 1945, and didn’t he just love to play baseball. He loved it so much that when his family decided to move back to Toronto, Saunderson refused to go with them. He’d made a commitment to his baseball team to finish the season. So, he stayed in Maple, lived with his grandparents, and only after his team had won the championship did he rejoin the rest of his family in the provincial capital.

“What an act of defiance that was by an 11-year-old,” said his son, Brian Saunderson, in a heartfelt eulogy at his father’s funeral last Friday. “It was about persistence. It was about loyalty to his community. It was about finishing the job. That defined Bill Saunderson.”

That baseball championship crest was at Saunderson’s bedside when he died on February 24, at age 92. Family and friends filled Toronto’s Cathedral Church of St. James to say goodbye to one of the truly good guys of Canadian and Ontario politics.

Bill Saunderson seemed destined for public life as soon as he was born on June 28, 1933. He was named after his grandfather, who was an alderman in Toronto from 1907 to 1912. After the younger Saunderson graduated from the University of Toronto, he eventually made his way into the investment business and did extremely well.

“He never stopped giving his time, expertise, and money,” Brian said […] This is an excerpt. Read the full article at TVO.org.