County historian Steve Thorning passed away on Monday night while riding home to Elora on a train from Oakland.
He suffered a massive stroke in Utah while on riding a train home. He was taken to a hospital in Salt Lake City and then transferred to the University of Utah Medical Centre where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Thorning was a councillor and deputy-reeve of the former village of Elora, and a long-time columnist for the Wellington Advertiser. His popular reports on local history were first published in the Elora Sentinel, then the Fergus Elora News Express, and then he found larger scope considering history right across Wellington County.
Thorning had a keen interest in railroads, from their history to re-creating models of famous rail lines. He belonged to a local railway club.
He was an honorary member of the Elora and Salem Horticultural Society, and served a term as its president. He was also an avid gardener.
His interests seemed universal. He played guitar in a rock band in his early days, helped bank branches computerize in the 1980s, had a huge music collection, some of it dating to the 1930s, and he was familiar with the musicians on those old songs.
His political career spanned four terms, including deputy-reeve of Elora. He lost a bid to become the first mayor of Centre Wellington after serving on the transition board, a group of politicians charged with creating the new municipality. He was instrumental in his support of the municipal centre built in Elora in 1994 that became the headquarters for Centre Wellington Township.
He was an avid collector, and once mused that he had as many or more artifacts and historical pieces about Elora as the Wellington County Museum. He was a frequent user of the archives there, digging out nuggets of historical lore that might interest the readers of his column, Valuing Our History.
He had a wry sense of humour, too. Shortly after he was elected councillor, he complained on the village streets that the amount of graft available to local politicians was far below what he had been led to believe.
Wellington Advertiser publisher Dave Adsett was saddened to learn of the passing of not only a popular columnist, but also a friend.
When Adsett was elected Wellington County warden for 2003, he realized he would not have the time to continue his work at the Newspaper, too. He enlisted Thorning for that job.
“Sensible, trustworthy,” he said when asked to describe Thorning, adding those were “two prerequisites for standing in as editor, when I was warden in 2003.”
He also noted Thorning’s sense of humour. He was “mischievous at times.”
Adsett particularly remembers Thorning writing about “the plush yet not ostentatious offices at the Advertiser” when it was located in a house on St. Andrew Street East in downtown Fergus. “There was hardly room to stand and Steve had a few readers scratching their heads wondering about the ‘plush digs,’” Adsett said with a smile.
He said of the column that Thorning, “Brought history to life for readers and he had a tremendous following. I still hear stories from people with scrap books full of his columns that they carefully cut out and saved.”
Mary Dunlop was Elora Reeve when Thorning was first elected to village council in the early 1990s and she remembers him fondly.
“I’m just so sad,” she said upon learning of Thorning’s death. “He was a fantastic person”
Dunlop had presided over a fractious Elora council prior to Thorning’s first election, and she was immediately impressed with him.
“He amazed me with the knowledge he had … of everything.
She said he knew the village and the county equally, but also had the ability to speak about just about any topic. “I loved to listen to him,” she said.
“He made a huge contribution to the village when he got on council with his ideas. “He was a broad thinker He saw things.”
Some of those ideas seemed far fetched at first, she said, until Thorning explained his logic, and he was usually able to convince her and council.
Besides his historical knowledge, Dunlop cited Thorning’s financial abilities. He had earlier in his career been a bank branch manager and numbers did not daunt him.
Dunlop also noted Thorning was quite sociable, and she remembers “Cocktail time [at his Kertland St. home] was at five o’clock, and I remember the wide ranging discussions held at Thorning’s home when he entertained members of council.”
Advertiser editor Chris Daponte saw another side of Thorning.
“Professionally, I was proud to work alongside Steve for nearly a decade. I particularly enjoyed his regular visits to the office, during which he provided invaluable input on editorial content and local personalities.”
Daponte cited Thorning’s focus on people as a plus in his writing. “As much as Steve enjoyed relaying the ‘what’ and ‘when’ facets of history, it was obvious to anyone who read his columns that he truly enjoyed the ‘who’ side of the story.
“He had a passion for telling others’ stories and he embraced the responsibility that came with such a vital task.
Daponte lauded Thorning’s contributions to local history.
“While he was proud to live in Elora, communities throughout Wellington County and beyond owe Steve a huge debt of gratitude for his volunteer efforts and his outstanding contributions to the preservation of local history.
“He was ‘old school’ and proud of it. He was one of a kind. And he will be sorely missed by all those who knew him, as well as those who simply had the pleasure of reading his magnificent work.”
Advertiser reporter Mike Robinson remembered Thorning’s hospitality when he would invite the Newsroom to his home for lunch, and commented on the size and extent of Thorning’s archives.
“I don’t know who is going to take his place writing local history,” mused Robinson, who noted Elora has a tradition of local history writers. Thorning took the reins from Roberta Allan.
Robinson is hoping Thorning’s historical items and data will be passed on to someone who appreciates them. “I don’t know what’s going to become of his archives. A lot of local history could be lost.”
