Doc Yantha shares a good laugh with brother and best friend, Tony during one of their golf getaways. Photo courtesy of Marie (Chippior) Finnerty.

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Pembroke – If you didn’t know Sylvester ‘Doc’ Yantha, you might have thought about crossing the street to avoid running into the burly, strapping man from the Barry’s Bay Dairy.

In fact, some even joked he was a member of the Polish mafia. However, looks are often misleading and behind this giant of a man was a soft-hearted, hardworking individual who loved nothing more than to engage in conversation and enjoy back-and-forth banter with people.

Mr. Yantha passed away last Thursday morning, March 13, at the age of 79 in Pembroke Regional Hospital. One of three brothers who owned and operated the Barry’s Bay Dairy, he was well known across the Valley, from Algonquin Park to Renfrew and Eganville to Stonecliffe via Pembroke as he delivered dairy products and ice to stores in many communities for 50 years.

“He was a great guy,” said older brother Tony. “He and I were best of friends. We did a lot of things together: travelling, golfing. We seemed to click in on the same page.”

Doc left Barry’s Bay as a young man about 1960 and worked in the grocery store business in Richmond Hill and Brampton, eventually working his way up to a managerial position for Food City. When he was transferred to St. John in 1972 to open the company’s first store in New Brunswick he decided after two years to move back to Barry’s Bay where he became a partner with brothers, Tony and Ed. When he went to work in Toronto, he lived with his only sister, Deanee, for one year.

“I charged him $10 a week for room and board and plus I starched and washed all his white shirts and he was 30 weeks behind in his rent so I gave him an ultimatum: either you shape up or ship out,” she laughed. “So the next day he paid me all the back payments.”

She said her brother had a great sense of humour and made the world a happier place to live.

“I will be forever grateful for that,” she said.

Anyone who visited the Dairy, which also included a restaurant, might see Doc on the loading docks doing the bull work: loading and unloading trucks with dairy products and ice and then hitting the road for places like Palmer Rapids and Quadeville, Maynooth and Lake St. Peter, Killaloe and Eganville, Renfrew and Pembroke.

“Doc had a great rapport with all of his customers,” Tony remarked. “When you are reaching out and going to all these stores for years and you could make people laugh, they remain friends with you.”

The youngest of the three, Tony said Doc will be very much missed. “In my eyes, he was a legend,” he said, proven by the many people who have reached out to the family to express their condolences. “He was an ambassador for Renfrew County. Everyone knew him.”

Doc Yantha worked extremely hard. He was not afraid of physical work. On the other hand, he also played hard and loved his weekly Thursday afternoon golf game or his week away with the boys in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

“We just had a good time and one of our sidekicks was Mervin Olsheski, our first cousin but also a very good friend. (Mr. Olsheski passed away suddenly last June in Europe.)”

Brother Ed said Doc was never one to sit around. While he loved to engage in conversation while working, all the talking was done while he moved product.

“He was all about the Dairy,” Ed said. “That was his life. He was a one-of-a-kind character. He lived life to the fullest.”

Ed said he was passionate about his golf game. “He never made any records, but when he was on the golf course, he was very serious,” he recalled. “He couldn’t wait for Thursdays.”

Doc’s wife, Cathy, said the family often joked about Doc and his flyers and his constant search for a food deal. “But he also loved giving a good deal,” she said.

“He was so generous and never, ever hesitated in helping someone out. He was so charitable; giving to others before himself, whether that was his children, an employee or the church.”

Even if he had eight more hours of work to go in a 16-hour summer workday, when he knew friends and neighbours had arrived at the cottage, he was first to greet them with their favourite ice cream treats and then head back on the road.

“They looked forward to this every year for several decades,” Cathy shared.

The couple’s three children: Cassandra, Kati and Grant, agreed without question they always knew he was very proud of them and the adults they have become.

“We have all done exceptionally well in our careers and the lives we have built and he was a key factor in all of that,” Cassandra said on behalf of her siblings.

“The girls at the Dairy used to joke that if he was stressed about something, they would ask about one of us and he would instantly smile and then talk about what we were up to in our lives.

“There are so many beautiful, kind and funny stories being shared with us and I just love it,” she added. “The other day someone said ‘we can guarantee Doc’s spirit will live on, because Cassandra, you are Doc 2.0′ and I laughed so hard through my tears. It is the greatest compliment to receive.”

Although Doc spent the last 50 years working at the dairy in Barry’s Bay, he and Cathy lived in Laurentian Valley Township.

Visitation will be held this Friday at the Heubner Funeral Home in Barry’s Bay. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday in St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church.