Obituary for Neil Arthur Paolini (Paolini)
Neil Arthur Paolini
June 4, 1924 – March 6,2021
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of our father in the early hours of March 6, 2021, quietly and peacefully in his sleep, at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre, Toronto.
Born Nello Leonardo Paolini, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the youngest of 6 children to Valentino and Caterina (nee Tazzini), who emigrated from Arezzo, Italy in 1908 and 1912, respectively. Historical note being that Caterina and her first 3 children were bumped passage on the Titanic, deferring to an English family. Married to his wife Patricia (nee Ryan - deceased) for 68 years; father to Douglas (Elvira), David (Sue; Joanne – deceased), Gregory (Sabrina), and Andrew; grandfather to Erica, Alexandra, Michael, Laura, Sarah, Daniel, Christopher, Patrick, and Mark; great grandfather to Violet, Lily, and Luke. Uncle, great uncle and friend to many more.
He attended L’Ecole Catholique St. Ignace for elementary school, as his parents firmly believed in the value of being fluent in more than one language. This was followed by Sault Collegiate Institute for high school. Upon completing his Senior Matriculation, he went to work for Algoma Steel Co. for 3 years before taking leave to join the Royal Canadian Navy, as part of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves. Returning from the war, he attended a year-long math and science refresher program for veterans in North Bay, Ontario where he earned 1st Class Honours. He recounted the story of finishing his final Algebra and Calculus examination well before the end of the allotted time. Upon handing in the paper, the exam supervisor urged him to go back and to try harder and not to give up. He laughed and said, “that was the easiest test I’ve every taken!”. He scored a perfect 100% on the exam. He then attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1948 for his Preliminary Engineering year. In 1949, dad transferred to Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) Engineering, Civil Faculty. He graduated in 1952 with an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. While at Queen’s he was awarded the Martin Wolf Scholarship in 1951.
Our dad was very athletic growing up and excelled in basketball, baseball, wrestling and track and field, at the school and community levels. His greatest success came in basketball where, among numerous teams, he played for the Soo Algos (sponsored by Algoma Steel). In 1948 the team won the Ontario Intermediate Championship as well as the Canadian Intermediate Championship, defeating a much publicized Montreal YMHA team in the finals. He went on to play basketball at McMaster University, where he spent a year after World War II, and also at Queen’s University while completing his Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1952. He continued to play basketball in men’s leagues well into his 40’s until a broken thumb and knee surgery forced him to choose discretion as the better part of valour and he retired from competition.
Dad’s military service began when he did his initial training in Esquimalt, B.C., after traveling across the country by rail in 1942. He was assigned to the HMCS Kapuskasing, in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), and then sailed to Halifax, N.S., to join in the Battle of the Atlantic. The “Kap” was an Algerine-class minesweeper, that escorted passenger and cargo ships that had come from Europe by meeting them half-way across the Atlantic, a point where they had been escorted to by the Royal Navy, then onto New York, Boston or Halifax. His pay was $3.23 per day. He was a valued member of the crew and often took on duties above his Able Seaman rank. He was well liked on deck and below, especially by the French Canadian contingent, as he was bilingual. He spent a few months after the war ended on an RCN frigate as the Navy wanted him to stay on, but he didn’t take the bait. With the European campaign ending in May of 1945, the military offered any volunteers willing to participate in the Pacific campaign early repatriation, and a visit home before shipping out from the west coast. Both Neil and his brother Paul (tank communications operator) took the offer. Before the brothers got west, the Japanese had surrendered. The story goes that the Japanese heard the Paolini boys were on their way and saw no hope…regardless of the A-bombs dropped by the USA!
There have been many stories recounted of our dad’s service days. Notably, while on harbour watch, he saved the life of a naval officer and his ‘lady companion’ who had both slipped in the dark and ended up in Halifax harbour late one night. Dad jumped in, in full uniform to pull them both out, one at a time. The date was January 3, 1944, and it was cold. For dad’s efforts, the officer passed on personal thanks, an offer for dad to join his crew, and a bottle of rum. Dad stayed where he was on the “Kap”, but gladly accepted the thanks and the rum! On another night, in the warm waters of the Atlantic off of Bermuda, the entire crew held their breath and watched with fright as two silver torpedoes sped directly at the “Kap”, the ship unable to change course quickly enough to avert disaster. Dad told us he felt it was all over, and just before impact, the torpedoes veered away, as they were two dolphins playing “chicken” with the ship. Relief! The best, according to dad, was getting into bar fights in Halifax and New York and Boston, with USN and Royal Navy crews. “We were neutrals and joined the side that we thought would win that particular fight, so we could keep our places in the bar!”
Dad was honourably discharged on December 18, 1945. He returned to his old job at Algoma Steel for three years, attending night courses until taking a job at Dominion Bridge as a junior draftsman. This allowed him to attend McMaster University, then Queen’s University en route to his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering.
His engineering career started with Dominion Bridge, in the Soo and then Toronto in 1963, and eventually to York Steel, Ontario Hydro, and finally Stelco, in Hamilton, from where he retired at age 65 in 1989. He then started his own consulting firm, ProWeld Engineering, which he continued to operate until the age of 95. Dad stamped his last set of blueprints in late January 2020, just before entering the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre in February 2020.
Dad was an expert in his field of welding and structural steel. He produced and gave many papers throughout his close to 70 years as an active member of his chosen field. He traveled nationally and internationally as an expert witness and a guest lecturer showing and passing on his knowledge on welding and structural steel. Throughout his over 65 years as an engineer, he was a member of a number of different professional organizations; the Canadian Welding Society, the Canadian Standards Association, the Canadian Standards Council, the International Institute of Welding, the Canadian Welding Development Institute, the Welding Institute of Canada, the American Welding Society, and the Northern College of Applied Arts & Technology, to name a few. In 2013, he was honoured by the CWS with a lifetime achievement award. On route to the ceremony, driving along the Gardiner Expressway and viewing the number of new builds along the way, he commented in intricate detail on the modern techniques being used to erect the buildings and how the skyline of the city had changed since his arrival in 1963…he was 89 years old at the time.
Although dad was extremely dedicated to his profession and worked in both his pursuit of knowledge and his passing on such to others, his real love was for his family. A loving husband for 68 years to our mother Patricia whom he loved from the day he met her until her passing in 2019 at the age of 93 and beyond. Providing for a family of 4 growing boys meant working tirelessly, going back to the office many nights and often on Saturdays. When grandchildren started appearing on the scene, dad really took notice and loved spending time on hot summer days around the family pool with the grand kids and enjoyed Sunday dinners that brought his sons and their families back to the homestead throughout the years. As the grandchildren started having children of their own, dad’s great grandchildren, he continued to relish his time with the new babies who lit him up every time he saw them. To him, family was, is, everything.
Our father spent the last 13 months of his life in the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre in Toronto. There, he received the best of care from a professional, dedicated and warm team of doctors, nurses, therapists, and support staff. The first month of his time there was the best as many visits by his immediate family members would lead us all to the Johnny Bower Pub where dad sipped ginger ale, snacked on “cheezees” and bought a round of beers for his guests, every time. His failing heart and kidney condition forced him to take nourishment at meal times in a pureed form, or what he called, “mush”. Changes to his diet and lack of mobility were both really tough for a man who loved his food and had been so independent for the first 95+ years of his life. With the beginning of Covid and the inherent restrictions, we as brothers (4) were forced to be satisfied with one-person, outdoor visits at social distance with masks on, once per week for 45 minutes, weather permitting. That meant that each of us could visit once per month for 45 minutes. Eventually, the restrictions were more stringent and only two of us could be designated to physically go and see our father inside the Centre. That too, soon became, no in-person visits at all. There were, thankfully, virtual visits from our dad using his iPad to FaceTime us during the week. These visits were usually animated and often included a joke or two as we caught up with what was going on in the Centre and in our lives “on the outside!”. Days before he passed on, he called virtually. These calls were short, where he appeared very tired and “sleepy”. When the inevitable was close, the Veterans’ Centre gave us sons the option of coming in individually and seeing him, one last time. We were each scheduled to see him during the first weekend of March. The one and only visit with our dad came on the Friday afternoon before he passed on. As always, he was upbeat, although tired, and joked, but mainly listened to the family updates. His hands were soft and warm and he squeezed every so often to let it be known that he appreciated the visit. Staying “with it” to the very end, he asked that the nurses’ station be informed that he wasn’t going down to his regular physiotherapy session that afternoon as he felt he “just wasn’t up to it”. Twelve hours later, he passed away, quietly and calmly with one, last, shallow breath. He was in no pain or discomfort according to nurse who was with him at the end. Would it be that we could all write a script like that.
Our father will be missed, but he certainly led a tremendously full and fulfilling life. Thanks for sharing it with us dad. Love you.
A Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Transfiguration of Our Lord Catholic Church on Friday, December 17th at 11:00 a.m., followed by interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. There will be a celebration of life at a later date. Online condolences at newediukfuneralhome.com
June 4, 1924 – March 6,2021
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of our father in the early hours of March 6, 2021, quietly and peacefully in his sleep, at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre, Toronto.
Born Nello Leonardo Paolini, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the youngest of 6 children to Valentino and Caterina (nee Tazzini), who emigrated from Arezzo, Italy in 1908 and 1912, respectively. Historical note being that Caterina and her first 3 children were bumped passage on the Titanic, deferring to an English family. Married to his wife Patricia (nee Ryan - deceased) for 68 years; father to Douglas (Elvira), David (Sue; Joanne – deceased), Gregory (Sabrina), and Andrew; grandfather to Erica, Alexandra, Michael, Laura, Sarah, Daniel, Christopher, Patrick, and Mark; great grandfather to Violet, Lily, and Luke. Uncle, great uncle and friend to many more.
He attended L’Ecole Catholique St. Ignace for elementary school, as his parents firmly believed in the value of being fluent in more than one language. This was followed by Sault Collegiate Institute for high school. Upon completing his Senior Matriculation, he went to work for Algoma Steel Co. for 3 years before taking leave to join the Royal Canadian Navy, as part of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves. Returning from the war, he attended a year-long math and science refresher program for veterans in North Bay, Ontario where he earned 1st Class Honours. He recounted the story of finishing his final Algebra and Calculus examination well before the end of the allotted time. Upon handing in the paper, the exam supervisor urged him to go back and to try harder and not to give up. He laughed and said, “that was the easiest test I’ve every taken!”. He scored a perfect 100% on the exam. He then attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1948 for his Preliminary Engineering year. In 1949, dad transferred to Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) Engineering, Civil Faculty. He graduated in 1952 with an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. While at Queen’s he was awarded the Martin Wolf Scholarship in 1951.
Our dad was very athletic growing up and excelled in basketball, baseball, wrestling and track and field, at the school and community levels. His greatest success came in basketball where, among numerous teams, he played for the Soo Algos (sponsored by Algoma Steel). In 1948 the team won the Ontario Intermediate Championship as well as the Canadian Intermediate Championship, defeating a much publicized Montreal YMHA team in the finals. He went on to play basketball at McMaster University, where he spent a year after World War II, and also at Queen’s University while completing his Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1952. He continued to play basketball in men’s leagues well into his 40’s until a broken thumb and knee surgery forced him to choose discretion as the better part of valour and he retired from competition.
Dad’s military service began when he did his initial training in Esquimalt, B.C., after traveling across the country by rail in 1942. He was assigned to the HMCS Kapuskasing, in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), and then sailed to Halifax, N.S., to join in the Battle of the Atlantic. The “Kap” was an Algerine-class minesweeper, that escorted passenger and cargo ships that had come from Europe by meeting them half-way across the Atlantic, a point where they had been escorted to by the Royal Navy, then onto New York, Boston or Halifax. His pay was $3.23 per day. He was a valued member of the crew and often took on duties above his Able Seaman rank. He was well liked on deck and below, especially by the French Canadian contingent, as he was bilingual. He spent a few months after the war ended on an RCN frigate as the Navy wanted him to stay on, but he didn’t take the bait. With the European campaign ending in May of 1945, the military offered any volunteers willing to participate in the Pacific campaign early repatriation, and a visit home before shipping out from the west coast. Both Neil and his brother Paul (tank communications operator) took the offer. Before the brothers got west, the Japanese had surrendered. The story goes that the Japanese heard the Paolini boys were on their way and saw no hope…regardless of the A-bombs dropped by the USA!
There have been many stories recounted of our dad’s service days. Notably, while on harbour watch, he saved the life of a naval officer and his ‘lady companion’ who had both slipped in the dark and ended up in Halifax harbour late one night. Dad jumped in, in full uniform to pull them both out, one at a time. The date was January 3, 1944, and it was cold. For dad’s efforts, the officer passed on personal thanks, an offer for dad to join his crew, and a bottle of rum. Dad stayed where he was on the “Kap”, but gladly accepted the thanks and the rum! On another night, in the warm waters of the Atlantic off of Bermuda, the entire crew held their breath and watched with fright as two silver torpedoes sped directly at the “Kap”, the ship unable to change course quickly enough to avert disaster. Dad told us he felt it was all over, and just before impact, the torpedoes veered away, as they were two dolphins playing “chicken” with the ship. Relief! The best, according to dad, was getting into bar fights in Halifax and New York and Boston, with USN and Royal Navy crews. “We were neutrals and joined the side that we thought would win that particular fight, so we could keep our places in the bar!”
Dad was honourably discharged on December 18, 1945. He returned to his old job at Algoma Steel for three years, attending night courses until taking a job at Dominion Bridge as a junior draftsman. This allowed him to attend McMaster University, then Queen’s University en route to his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering.
His engineering career started with Dominion Bridge, in the Soo and then Toronto in 1963, and eventually to York Steel, Ontario Hydro, and finally Stelco, in Hamilton, from where he retired at age 65 in 1989. He then started his own consulting firm, ProWeld Engineering, which he continued to operate until the age of 95. Dad stamped his last set of blueprints in late January 2020, just before entering the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre in February 2020.
Dad was an expert in his field of welding and structural steel. He produced and gave many papers throughout his close to 70 years as an active member of his chosen field. He traveled nationally and internationally as an expert witness and a guest lecturer showing and passing on his knowledge on welding and structural steel. Throughout his over 65 years as an engineer, he was a member of a number of different professional organizations; the Canadian Welding Society, the Canadian Standards Association, the Canadian Standards Council, the International Institute of Welding, the Canadian Welding Development Institute, the Welding Institute of Canada, the American Welding Society, and the Northern College of Applied Arts & Technology, to name a few. In 2013, he was honoured by the CWS with a lifetime achievement award. On route to the ceremony, driving along the Gardiner Expressway and viewing the number of new builds along the way, he commented in intricate detail on the modern techniques being used to erect the buildings and how the skyline of the city had changed since his arrival in 1963…he was 89 years old at the time.
Although dad was extremely dedicated to his profession and worked in both his pursuit of knowledge and his passing on such to others, his real love was for his family. A loving husband for 68 years to our mother Patricia whom he loved from the day he met her until her passing in 2019 at the age of 93 and beyond. Providing for a family of 4 growing boys meant working tirelessly, going back to the office many nights and often on Saturdays. When grandchildren started appearing on the scene, dad really took notice and loved spending time on hot summer days around the family pool with the grand kids and enjoyed Sunday dinners that brought his sons and their families back to the homestead throughout the years. As the grandchildren started having children of their own, dad’s great grandchildren, he continued to relish his time with the new babies who lit him up every time he saw them. To him, family was, is, everything.
Our father spent the last 13 months of his life in the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Centre in Toronto. There, he received the best of care from a professional, dedicated and warm team of doctors, nurses, therapists, and support staff. The first month of his time there was the best as many visits by his immediate family members would lead us all to the Johnny Bower Pub where dad sipped ginger ale, snacked on “cheezees” and bought a round of beers for his guests, every time. His failing heart and kidney condition forced him to take nourishment at meal times in a pureed form, or what he called, “mush”. Changes to his diet and lack of mobility were both really tough for a man who loved his food and had been so independent for the first 95+ years of his life. With the beginning of Covid and the inherent restrictions, we as brothers (4) were forced to be satisfied with one-person, outdoor visits at social distance with masks on, once per week for 45 minutes, weather permitting. That meant that each of us could visit once per month for 45 minutes. Eventually, the restrictions were more stringent and only two of us could be designated to physically go and see our father inside the Centre. That too, soon became, no in-person visits at all. There were, thankfully, virtual visits from our dad using his iPad to FaceTime us during the week. These visits were usually animated and often included a joke or two as we caught up with what was going on in the Centre and in our lives “on the outside!”. Days before he passed on, he called virtually. These calls were short, where he appeared very tired and “sleepy”. When the inevitable was close, the Veterans’ Centre gave us sons the option of coming in individually and seeing him, one last time. We were each scheduled to see him during the first weekend of March. The one and only visit with our dad came on the Friday afternoon before he passed on. As always, he was upbeat, although tired, and joked, but mainly listened to the family updates. His hands were soft and warm and he squeezed every so often to let it be known that he appreciated the visit. Staying “with it” to the very end, he asked that the nurses’ station be informed that he wasn’t going down to his regular physiotherapy session that afternoon as he felt he “just wasn’t up to it”. Twelve hours later, he passed away, quietly and calmly with one, last, shallow breath. He was in no pain or discomfort according to nurse who was with him at the end. Would it be that we could all write a script like that.
Our father will be missed, but he certainly led a tremendously full and fulfilling life. Thanks for sharing it with us dad. Love you.
A Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Transfiguration of Our Lord Catholic Church on Friday, December 17th at 11:00 a.m., followed by interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. There will be a celebration of life at a later date. Online condolences at newediukfuneralhome.com