Gary George Edwards passed away earlier this month. He had developed multiple complications from injuries sustained in a fall earlier in the month, and he contracted COVID while in hospital. Sadly, Gary’s condition worsened, and he succumbed at age 84 on July 26, 2024.
Gary was the co-founder of the Acton meet with Dave Steckley, and became known for his distinctive call to order when it was announcement time. He was busy in the background, producing the Acton souvenir magnets for the meet’s first decade, and he co-designed what became known to many as the “John Powers Poster” which debuted in 2008, featuring a run of Ontario passenger plates. Gary volunteered to bring past collector and non-driver Mike Crouch to the Ontario meets for a number of years. When I commissioned the Acton-Grimsby anniversary souvenir plates a couple of years ago, Gary received plate number 4 in recognition of his past volunteer service in Acton. As an interesting note, Gary once told me that he and the late Wayne Plunkett—also a longtime Ontario plate collector— were in a class together as boys at Weston Collegiate.
Gary Edwards and John Powers unveil the famous poster in Grimsby, 2008. (photo: Dave Steckley)
Gary often spent his time working the registration table in Acton. He seemed to bring traders some of the time, but not always. At the second installment of Acton, in 2004, I found, in his trade box, the mate to the 1991 Ontario plate in my passenger run, with the then-nascent letter combination LOL, which I still have. He insisted I take it for free! The following year, Gary did me a huge favour by trading his brand-new moped plate to me in exchange for a run-of-the-mill passenger plate and a bit of cash. I knew then that I’d never find a nicer moped plate, and I still have it.
Goings-on during the Acton announcements, 2018. (L-R: John Powers, Eric Vettoretti, Jon Upton, Dave Steckley, Gary Edwards. (photo: Dave Grant)
Dave Steckley has contributed some notes about the years in which he knew and collaborated with Gary, and at this time, I will pass the keyboard to Dave.
I first met Gary in Toledo, Ohio, at the 1995 ALPCA Convention. He was a relatively new member (#6304) of ALPCA then. Gary also attended a few other conventions; Peoria IL 1996, Niagara Falls NY 2002, and Erie PA 2009. As he grew older, he focused on Ontario plates and signs, so he limited his meet engagements to the local events of Acton and Grimsby.
Gary and I had several plate hunting travels over the years. Once, we went to Chuck Sakryd and Cyndi McCabe’s meet in Elyria, Ohio. Then, we made a couple of trips to Sault Ste. Marie in the late 1990s to meet and buy plates from Ernie Wilson. Gary loved Ernie’s basement full of plates. We traded stories, bought plates and treated Ernie to dinner. Gary always remembered how Ernie would say, “My best plates are safely tucked under my bed.”
After Ernie’s passing in 2002, a third trip to the Sault saw us arrive at our hotel at 3 AM for four hours of sleep before a 12-hour day with Ernie’s nephew, Billy Taylor, to buy some plates from Ernie’s estate. Gary pulled the plates he knew I’d be after while leaving me time to focus on ticking off my ‘want list’. We spent the whole Sunday with Billy, returning home on a holiday Monday after visiting Ernie’s gravesite on our way.
Gary knew people, and he knew how to find plates. He helped me add both the 1984 Royal Tour and Papal plates to my collection, and he had connections with the Cambridge issuing office, which explains how a bunch of 1971 plates numbered 1001 through about 1020 entered into the hobby.
In 2002, at the Niagara Falls ALPCA Convention, Gary had been talking to Manny Jacob and Paul Cafarella, and Gary urged that we start an Ontario plate meet with me arranging a suitable locale, namely the Acton Arena and Community Hall. This led to our first meet in 2003 where for many years the meet ‘announcements’ would be called to order with Gary’s booming baritone: “Hear ye, hear ye!”
Gary not only helped make Acton happen; he also designed and arranged the long-running series of plate magnets we sold for a loonie at Acton (until they became too expensive to make at a low cost). Gary was also influential in the design and production of two plate posters (the brainchild of the late John Powers).
I think Gary’s greatest achievement for the plate community was when he used his connection to an HR staffer in the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. He got them to do an extended run of their MTO 100 anniversary plate and mini-sign, which allowed for him to issue a ‘snap’ surprise announcement at the 2016 Grimsby plate meet: We had a MTO 100 plate at cost, for each person who wanted one. The proceeds provided about $1750 back to the Haiti earthquake fundraiser, which the MTO was supporting from employees who bought a plate and sign package. One of these MTO 100 plates was the final collected item in the collection of the late Bob Cornelius, who passed away shortly after receiving it.
Gary loved meeting people and promoting plate collecting in Ontario. The growth of Grimsby and Acton are testament to his friendly nature and way with people. He loved learning who you were, where you were from, and what you did for a living.
Gary is interviewed by Toronto Star reporter Katie Daubs in Acton, 2013.
He was a natural ‘marketer’ which is interesting for someone who was a CIBC banker for years. Gary then worked for Rawlinson Movers. He once helped the NWT Commissioner of Transportation move, and Gary managed to get boxes of NWT plates from him as a ‘thank-you’. Gary wasn’t just a plate collector; he also loved Ontario road signs, particularly the King’s Highway signs with the crown, and the oddballs seen only in the isolated parts of the province. He got to know the folks at MTO that dealt with signs and depot storage, and was able to source many signs that way.
Part of Gary's Ontario highway sign collection before downsizing in 2022. (photo: Dave Steckley)
Whether you collected plates or not, you were a ‘someone’ when Gary was getting to know you. You most likely knew a lot more about plates and signs after the conversation, than you did at the start. Gary would also remind you to be a regular attendee at one or both of Ontario’s plate meets.
We will miss his annual presence with wife Shirley at our Acton meet check in desk where he dutifully welcomed attendees, made change, and sold magnets and posters for the cause of the Halton (Acton) Tag Club. -- David Steckley
Gary at the registration table with his wife Shirley, and Dave Steckley's wife Evelyn Hurt. Acton 2024. (photo: Dave Steckley)
Gary has quieted the room for Dave to proceed with the Acton meet announcements in the old shuffleboard room, in 2008.
Gary's done it again so Dave can be heard, this time in on the Acton curling pad, which seems to be under renovation in this 2015 image.
Dave and Gary raffle a 1977 consular plate as a door prize. Acton, 2024.
Gary delivers some Acton news in 2010,
with Jon Upton and Bill Thoman listening in. (photo: Dave Steckley)
Gary talks plates with Jim Becksted in Grimsby, 2011.
Gary works the registration table with Paul Cafarella in Acton, 2018. Paul was also a co-host of Acton, prior to his move to British Columbia. This was Paul's "farewell" Acton meet.
Gary browsing for plates, Grimsby 2013.
Gary presents Ross McTavish with a certificate of appreciation for attending Acton in 2010.
Gary and Dave, on the now-renovated Acton curling pad in 2022.
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