The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday January 19, 2008 - 3 DesRoches at home at Appleby College By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER IN HIS ELEMENT: Michael DesRoches began attending Appleby College at age seven. He later taught there and still works there in his retirement. To DesRoches at 63, Appleby feels like home. ppleby College is home to Michael DesRoches. After all, at age 63, DesRoches is still there -- a place he's been since he was only seven. "I didn't want to be one of those pathetic losers who goes from Appleby to university and back to Appleby. So here I am, one of those pathetic losers," he smiles. But don't be misled, asked how he feels about what is essentially "home," he beams, "Tremendous. If I didn't feel good about it, I wouldn't still be here." And he is. Half a dozen years after officially retiring, DesRoches is still found in the corridors of the Lakeshore Road private school as its archivist. Admitting there are times he's "ticked off" at it, "as you feel with any member of your family," it's tough, likely impossible, to separate the two. "It is so much a part of who or what I am. It's ingrained in the fibre of my being. I don't think I could get rid of it, even if I wanted to," he said. DesRoches attended Appleby as a youth. He then taught there for 30 years. He married Midge Dewar, who grew up living at Appleby -- before girls were admitted as students -- as her father was assistant headmaster. Sitting in Appleby's chapel, DesRoches recounts he was confirmed there, then married there. He and Midge's children, Will and Christie, were baptized there. Midge's father's memorial was held there, as were his parents' funerals. As you walk through the chapel's front doors, small stained glass windows invite you through the foyer and into the main area of the church where large stained-glass windows serve as both a monument to Appleby personalities and influences past and a gallery of Canadian stained-glass artists. Those small windows are also memorials to both DesRoches' parents, Helen and Joe DesRoches, and Midge's father, D.M. Skin Dewar. While steeped in the tradition of Appleby, which was established in 1911, and having had a lifelong association with it, DesRoches admits he's not the offspring of any captain of industry or affluent socialite, whose offspring are often consumers at the reputed private school. DesRoches was born in Hamilton, the only child of Helen, a registered nurse who worked in Mississauga, and Joe, a proofreader at a Toronto publisher. He lived his early years in Cooksville and began attending Queen Elizabeth Public A School there, but when DesRoches, a "voracious reader" began Grade 2 and had read everything in the classroom by October, it was suggested his parents investigate a private school where he could find more of a challenge. His parents did just that and in January 1952, at age seven, DesRoches began attending Appleby. He began boarding at the school since his parents didn't own a car and didn't want him taking the Lakeshore Gray Coach bus. "My parents were very, very far from being wealthy," said DesRoches, noting he was well aware the Appleby headmaster of the time, John Bell, was not charging the DesRoches' full tuition for their son's attendance. "In effect, I was on a bursary before there was a formal bursary program," said DesRoches, noting that today, tuition for a senior student who is boarding is approximately $45,000 annually -- and Appleby doles out some $1.4 million in financial assistance a year. Appleby College is an international private school (Grades 7-12) whose tuition is among, if not the, most expensive in the world. It will soon celebrate its centennial as it was founded in 1911 by John Guest, former headmaster of the Preparatory School at Upper Canada College. While DesRoches said Appleby teachers earn on par with teachers at the Halton public school board, both his children, who both attended Appleby, also attended on bursaries. His son Will, 28, is a supervisor with Oakville Transit and lives in Glen Abbey. His daughter, Christie, 24, is finishing her Masters in genetics. "My wife and I find amusement in that. We wonder where she got her math gene," said DesRoches, noting that but for a few "and's, the's and but's" in his daughter's thesis, he doesn't understand one word of what it means. DesRoches, once old enough, commuted to school instead of boarding, becoming a day boy, but moved back into residence when his mom's father, who owned Grimsby's The Village Inn, passed away and his parents moved temporarily to Grimsby while the estate was settled. Later, DesRoches became a day boy again, taking up residence again in his senior year, as is required. More an academic than a jock -- you will search in vain for his name on a record board, said DesRoches, who won a variety of academic prizes including the Headmaster's Award for English Literature and the A. H. Campbell Memorial Gold Medal for English Essay. See Old page 4 · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service Authorized Vinylbilt Dealer www.shuttersetc.ca Shop at Home Service FREE