6 | NEWS
THE OBSERVER | THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017
HALL OF FAME: Selection into the hall came as a surprise to a very humble Abner Martin FROM | 3
“A seminal moment in my musical life happened when I was still in elementary school. We were taken to a concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. They actually visited the area and it was at the old Queen Street Auditorium. This would have been, I think, in 1947,” he shared. “From that moment on, I wanted to be a conductor, whether I had the ability or not. They had a fairly demonstrative conductor and I was mesmerized, not only by his conducting, but by the playing of the musicians as well.” His last concert with the Menno Singers was in 1979, and it was then he decided to try a completely different career. He went back to his agricultural roots, working with cattle. “Even though I had taken a long route away from agriculture, I was still fascinated by particularly genetics and cattle breeding and so on. I figured, half way through life, if I don’t get into it now, then I probably never will, so I took the plunge,” he said. “That was another one of my obsessions since childhood. I was fascinated by genetics and pedigrees, at a very early age. I am not sure what it was, or what was behind that, but
Abner Martin, far left in the middle row, with the Menno Singers in the 1960s. The conductor founded the singing group when he left high school in 1955. Music has been a part of Martin’s life for as long as he can remember. Here, he is listening to some tunes as a child. [SUBMITTED]
I remember my dad telling a visitor sometime that I knew more about the background of every cow in the herd than he did. You know the expression, you can take the boy out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy.” Martin and his family managed to bring home many awards for their work in cattle breeding, and have been recognized internationally for their high quality animals. “We had bred an animal that was junior champion at the Royal Winter Fair and we bred some show winners in other places as well, like in Ohio, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Manitoba and other places around the world. A lot of our cattle went all over the world, actually,” he explained. Martin joins inductees Harry Greenan, Helen Koepke and Margaret Dickson, Margot Page, Lloyd Schmidt, Donald Allan Snyder, Kelly VanderBeek and the Waterloo 4-H Association in the class of 2017 at the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame, located at the Waterloo Region Museum. The ceremony takes place on Apr. 30 at 2 p.m. For more information about Martin and the other eight inductees, visit www. waterlooregionmuseum. com.
CHIEF: As the longstanding deputy chief, his transition was pretty much another day on the job FROM | COVER
He can’t fail to mention the five district chiefs and five district deputy chiefs at each of the stations that make the fire department possible. In his new role he hopes to continue in the direction the fire department’s heading with more training certification. “We have to continue to train and add to the training that we have. Health and safety is a big thing for me. I have a health and safety background, that’s important for us. And we have future growth happening within the township, so that could add to the
demands of the fire department,” Martin said. They’re also planning to start building a new fire station in Breslau within the next month. And they’ve got to keep on their 20-year truck replacement schedule. “We’re waiting on one truck for Conestogo and also ordering another new one for Breslau because of the large growth happening in Breslau, along with the airport, so we’re looking at an elevated water stream for an aerial device for Breslau. We’re working on that for this year. The fire station’s supposed to be done by early 2018. We’d like to have our truck in there for
that opening,” Martin said. Along with their restructuring they’re looking to make someone a full-time Community Emergency Management Coordinator. Martin served as the CEMC in his previous role, but the department decided to make it a full-time position. They’re legally required to have a CEMC. Martin hasn’t had too much on his plate as of yet. The last big fire in the township was on Aspen Crescent in January, and a small house fire in St. Jacobs in February. “We haven’t had a whole lot of fires lately,” he said knocking on his wooden desk for good luck.
Dale Martin is the new chief of the Woolwich Fire Department. He’s been a volunteer firefighter since 1978 and takes over from Rick Pedersen, who was the township’s fire chief for a decade. [WHITNEY NEILSON / THE OBSERVER]
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