Barry’s Bay – This coming weekend residents of Barry’s Bay with gather at their waterfront to celebrate the opening of a redeveloped children’s park. It will be named for Mervin Olsheski.

Many who knew Mervin only as a scrawny kid growing up in Barry’s Bay in the 1960s may wonder why? What possibly could he have done to merit such an honour?

The answer to that question was heard loud and clear a little over a week ago when 130 of his closest family and friends met at his pioneer farm in the Wilno Hills to celebrate his wild and curious life.

He was born on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day, 1958 and so was named Mervin Wilfred Valentine Olsheski, one of eight children. His siblings included Donald, Edgar, Gail, Connie, Wayne, Cynthia and Michelle. To have known any of those Olsheski children in the 1960s is to now know something of how brains, hard work and raw determination can sometimes triumph over adversity and disadvantage, if not sheer improbability.

Mervin Olsheski died in the Ukraine on June 22nd of this year, but how he got there, what he was doing there, and how he was returned to Canada is a complicated story only his wife, Wanda, a local school teacher, and his two children, Joseph and Kasia, know with any certainty.

Suffice it to say, Mr. Olsheski had a very successful business career and was worth millions. But if you were one of those close friends, neighbours or relatives fortunate to be invited to his celebration of life in the Wilno Hills a week ago Saturday, nothing about his business success really made that much difference. Nor did the story of how he ended up in the Ukraine at one of his business enterprises.

Instead, to his family and friends, Mr. Olsheski simply swore like a sailor and refused to value his financial status as anything worthy of what he really valued – family and having a roaring good time with anyone who was his friend or might become one.

Just ask Robert Howe, the Master of Ceremonies for that event in the Wilno Hills. As Mr. Olsheski’s lawyer, he set up his business enterprise in 1981 when he graduated with a Civil Engineering degree and wanted to establish Merol Constructors Incorporated, a company now well-known across Canada.  

“This is a celebration of Mervin’s life,” began Mr. Howe, as he attempted to kick-start the formal part of the commemorative event, before being interrupted by resounding applause, hoots, hollers, whistles, cat calls, and the occasional bit of distant swearing. This was to be no ordinary celebration about no ordinary life.

“I don’t think any of you need any help in remembering Mervin,” Mr. Howe continued, with a smile. “He crammed at least 100 years of living into his 66 years. No doubt about it; he lived a very full – maybe over-filled – life. And nobody, and I mean nobody, who was in Mervin’s presence for five minutes or more could ever forget him.”

Mr. Howe, a lawyer well known in Barry’s Bay for his meticulous, intellectual, and reserved demeanor, couldn’t help but then wax eloquent, not so much about his client, but about his very close friend.

At first, he simply noted Mr. Olsheski’s work ethic — always busy at something, usually more than one thing. While still in his teens and attending high school, Mr. Olsheski started a trucking business, hauling gravel and plowing snow. But once he launched Merol Constructors at the age of 23, he won a government contract to put up a series of beacons along the Dew Line in the far north.

He then built 25 CMHC houses in Renfrew County and in 1987 he created another corporation, Merol Power, to rehabilitate an old dam on the Mississippi River at Appleton near Carleton Place where he established a hydro-electric power generation plant. He literally lived on the job site until the work was completed, and then he sold it and took some of the proceeds to Poland where he completed three more similar dam projects under the name Merol Power Polska.

He also bought and refurbished an office tower in downtown Warsaw, and then with a partner established a Swish Commercial Cleaning Products business, also based in Poland.

“He succeeded in these ventures only by reason of his personal blood, sweat and tears expended over his entire adult and pre-adult life,” said Mr. Howe, who went on to describe Mr. Olsheski’s unique business acumen. “He was able to distinguish between what would likely work from what probably wouldn’t. He had no failures in business that I know of.”

 Mr. Howe also noted something more curious about his friend.

“Despite working as hard and as steadily as he did, Mervin was always reading, listening, analyzing, questioning, studying and utilizing his innate instincts. As well as endeavouring to anticipate the future, Mervin would look back. He knew we can learn from history and can apply what we have learned to the present and to the future. He was proud of his heritage and knew the history of what is now but was not always Poland.

“He supported the creation of the Wilno Heritage Park,” added Mr. Howe. “He also commissioned paintings of Poland and Kaszuby, and he displayed the works of local painters such as Al Burant, Michael Dombroskie and others. And he was instrumental in the transport to Poland and placement in the Canadian embassy in Warsaw of a stone from Kaszuby.”

Mr. Olsheski also took a keen interest in current and international affairs. He gained first-hand information through his extensive travels in the Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. In the late 1990s, he took part in two Canadian trade missions to Poland, and he hobnobbed with Russian oligarchs at Vladimir Putin’s hunting lodge.

“At least two months before it happened,” said Mr. Howe, “Mervin predicted to me and to his associates in Poland the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia.”

Locally, Mr. Olsheski also served two terms on the former Sherwood, Jones and Burns Township council. But like all good friends, Mr. Howe could see Mr. Olsheski for the complicated man he was.

“He was not a humble man, but he was modest,” he said. “He knew he was smarter than most, and he knew he was usually right in his conclusions and opinions. He did not suffer fools lightly. 

“On the other hand, if he was confident that they were competent, he trusted his professional advisors, be they doctors, lawyers, accountants, and he was usually prepared to act on their advice, even when it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. And when persuaded he was wrong, he would admit it and apologize.”

So, it was no great surprise to hear at his celebration of life from Mr. Olsheski’s many other close friends, including Gerald Tracey, the Publisher of The Eganville Leader, Tony Yantha, a cousin and retired co-owner of the Barry’s Bay Dairy, and Mike Papania, a neighbour and long time friend. They all agreed Mr. Olsheski may have acquired significant wealth and did not flaunt it, but that’s not what attracted them.

It was Mervin Olsheski’s joie du vivre, his insatiable excitement at being alive, his ability to turn every business venture into an adventure, and his exceptional ability to tell hilarious stories about himself and his life; in a phrase, it was his chaos of living larger than life that attracted one and all. It was said by many of him that he would pull no punches and would continue to swear like a trooper should he ever meet the Pope or the Queen, but that he’d still have them laughing in less than five minutes.

“He always remembered his humble roots,” said Mr. Howe. “Mervin was generous to a fault but he did not seek recognition for his generosity. For instance, he provided accommodation in Poland for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.”

According to Mr. Howe, Mr. Olsheski was also a keen hunter, played hockey as a youngster, was an accomplished down-hill skier. He was even a decent enough golfer, so long as there was money on the line.

“Whatever Mervin did, he gave 100 per cent or more,” said Mr. Howe. “And he was prepared to take calculated but not reckless risks.”

It doesn’t take a rational person long to understand the special place Mr. Olsheski still holds in the hearts of his closest friends who seem infinite in number. Take Mr. Howe’s spouse, Lynn, who was Mervin’s smoking buddy and a close friend of Wanda Olsheski, Mervin’s wife.

“You couldn’t really flatter or compliment Mervin,” Lynn said at his celebration of life. “He wouldn’t take it, so on his 65th birthday, I didn’t buy him a gift, but I did write him this poem; the best present I could give him was to tell him how I felt about him from the heart.”

It’s a simple poem not meant for publication, she said: “Mervin is the name, dams are his game, swears like a sailor, could use a good tailor, puts on no airs, treats everyone fair. Don’t do him wrong, his memory is long. Quite down to earth, despite what he’s worth. His knowledge of history, to me is a mystery. As a friend, he’s the best, but I wish he would rest, ’cause who would tell stories, if he went to his glory.”

Sadly, for his family, close friends and relatives who knew and loved him well, this past June Mr. Olsheski did go to his glory. And yet, that won’t be the end of him. There will be the waterfront park in Barry’s Bay commemorating him. Moreover, there are an infinite number of wild and crazy stories about his wonderful, chaotic life.

Just ask his wife, his kids, his friends or relatives. They know the full measure of this extraordinary, self-made man and who’s worth far more than most of us will ever know.