Bob Burgess, who became vice-president and co-owner of Newmarket’s Burgess Wholesale — established by his father in 1946 as an egg-grading station— passed away in Ottawa at 87
The former co-owner of a well-known and longtime Newmarket business, Robert William Burgess, will be remembered for his charming and gregarious personality, and his love for his family and community, and passion for standardbred horse racing.
Bob, who started as a salesman and became vice-president and co-owner of Burgess Wholesale — established by his father in 1946 as an egg-grading station in Market Square — passed away at Forest Valley Terrace in Ottawa on July 21. He was 87 years old.
In the early days, Richard said his father worked with his father at the egg-grading station before becoming a salesman in the late ’60s with Burgess Wholesale, which had expanded in the 1950s and relocated to Davis Drive, and continued to grow.
“I think that was the job he liked the best because he was out there talking to people,” Richard said.
He worked there until he retired in 1986, when he joined the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation board.
“Everyone that knew Bob said that above all he was a true gentleman.”
Bob developed a passion for harness racing when he was young, but it started with racing pigeons.
“He went from racing pigeons to racing horses and he still had five horses actually when he died,” said Richard. “He had a lot of horses, all standardbreds with the driver in the back and a little bike, rather than thoroughbreds with jockeys.”
His father enjoyed going to the training barn, bringing coffee and doughnuts, checking on the baby horses, and conversing with people in the backstretch during the races. His horses, including Noble Intent, A Fine Balance, and Coldspot, won many regular and stakes races at tracks in both Ontario and the U.S., but the highlight came in 1996 when Kawartha An Worthy won both the Ontario Jockey Club’s Trotting Mare of the Year and an O’Brien Award for Older Trotting Mare of the Year from the Canadian Trotting Association.
“I made up a playlist on Youtube of all the standardbred races that had been running the night before and a bunch of other horse races, as well, and set that up on my computer beside his bed so he could listen,” said son Richard, who is named after his grandfather. “That was when he died.”
“I think listening to the races relaxed him and he stopped fighting,” said Richard. “I thought that was the best way for him to go.. listening to races.”
Richard remembers his father as a patient man who would never get angry, and who put his family first.
He recalls when the family went skating at Fairy Lake and his father fell and broke his ankle.
“He drove us back (home) in his skates,” he said. “We didn’t know, of course, until he went to the hospital.”
Richard said his mother, Donna, passed away in 2012 and his sister, Gail, passed away in 2010. They didn’t know how his father would handle being on his own.
“My mother did a lot of the organization, paying the bills, but he managed quite well on his own,” said Burgess. “We would visit a couple of times a year.”
His father married his Newmarket High School sweetheart Donna Ball in March 1959. The family spent summers camping in McKellar, at Armstrong Lake and Lake Manitouwabing.
“We would go camping,” said Richard. “We bought a second-hand tent, a second-hand kerosene lantern, and a second-hand Coleman stove. My dad built a car-top carrier for it all. We would go all sorts of places, particularly up in McKellar, up by Parry Sound, where my mum’s family came from. We would go up there for a couple of weeks in the summer.”
The family also vacationed in Prince Edward Island, as well as Florida, New York City, and Washington, he added.
His father had a series of strokes for two-and-a-half years leading up to his passing. He was in palliative care at Forest Valley.
Burgess is survived by his two sons, Richard and Mark, and six grandchildren, Russell, Justin, Ben, Sam, Emma, and Sara, and two great-grandchildren, Fiona and Alice. The family will hold a celebration of life at Roadhouse and Rose Funeral Home at 157 Main St. S. on Aug. 25.