Patrick Gough, 1926-2012 My dad, Patrick Gough, died in August. I wrote this Lives Lived about him in yesterday's Globe and Mail.
Patrick Gough
Geography professor, baseball lover, birdwatcher, hitchhiker, inventor of world’s most infamous expletive, grandfather. Born June 20, 1926, in Toronto. Died in Guelph, August 2, 2012, of a stroke, age 86.
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Patrick Gough stayed on daylight savings time all year, preferring not to change the clocks in the fall. “Why lose all that sunlight?” he’d say. He also loved espousing on his theory that everything affects everything. When he was 12, he was walking home from school one day when he was struck for the first time with the dreaded realization that one day he’d die. Struggling to make this inevitability more agreeable (he was an atheist) he realized that perhaps part of a person can go on after death. “If you’re always nice to people, that kindness will keep affecting others and live forever.”
From early on he loved baseball, playing the game with friends and knowing the game intimately. Anyone could ask him a random baseball question, such as, “Who played third base for Boston in 1949?” He’d always know. A star athlete at Runnymede Collegiate in track, basketball and football, Pat also once won the Toronto District Mile.
Patrick believed he invented the world's most widely-used expletive, or at least was responsible for combining its four-letter word with 'off'.
In 1942 at age 16, Pat had a summer job at the Toronto docks alongside tough older men who’d tease Pat for never swearing. He decided to do something about it. One night he turned all the swear words he knew over in his head. Finally the perfect phrase struck him. When he tried the expression out on the dockworkers the next morning, their jaws dropped. A year later he began hearing the expression around Toronto. Recently, an etymologist friend confirmed that the phrase started coming into usage in 1943, making Pat’s story stand. Ironically, I never heard Pat use the phrase except in telling this story. He was too nice for that.
Pat was a lover of maps and any road leading somewhere new. He spent years travelling abroad in the 50s, hitchhiking around North America, and canoe tripping in northern Ontario. Not surprisingly, after teaching high school math for six years, he decided to teach geography. He did graduate work in Madison, taught at Kent State, then at the University of Guelph until retirement. He was known to his students as the “Jimmy Stewart professor”. He looked like Jimmy Stewart and had the actor’s drawn-out friendly delivery.
While teaching high school in Fort Frances, Pat met teacher Tena Kettles, a Manitoba farm girl with a lively sense of humor and keen intelligence. They married in 1959 and had two daughters, Linda and Laurie.
At age 58, Pat developed a heart condition and was told he had a year to live. He retired early and lived each day thrilled to be alive. He went on to live another 28 years, travelling, reading, writing, and outliving the doctor who’d given him the prognosis.
As for his childhood theory on kindness, he held onto that belief all his life. He was the nicest guy I ever knew.
Patrick Gough
Geography professor, baseball lover, birdwatcher, hitchhiker, inventor of world’s most infamous expletive, grandfather. Born June 20, 1926, in Toronto. Died in Guelph, August 2, 2012, of a stroke, age 86.
**************
Patrick Gough stayed on daylight savings time all year, preferring not to change the clocks in the fall. “Why lose all that sunlight?” he’d say. He also loved espousing on his theory that everything affects everything. When he was 12, he was walking home from school one day when he was struck for the first time with the dreaded realization that one day he’d die. Struggling to make this inevitability more agreeable (he was an atheist) he realized that perhaps part of a person can go on after death. “If you’re always nice to people, that kindness will keep affecting others and live forever.”
From early on he loved baseball, playing the game with friends and knowing the game intimately. Anyone could ask him a random baseball question, such as, “Who played third base for Boston in 1949?” He’d always know. A star athlete at Runnymede Collegiate in track, basketball and football, Pat also once won the Toronto District Mile.
Patrick believed he invented the world's most widely-used expletive, or at least was responsible for combining its four-letter word with 'off'.
In 1942 at age 16, Pat had a summer job at the Toronto docks alongside tough older men who’d tease Pat for never swearing. He decided to do something about it. One night he turned all the swear words he knew over in his head. Finally the perfect phrase struck him. When he tried the expression out on the dockworkers the next morning, their jaws dropped. A year later he began hearing the expression around Toronto. Recently, an etymologist friend confirmed that the phrase started coming into usage in 1943, making Pat’s story stand. Ironically, I never heard Pat use the phrase except in telling this story. He was too nice for that.
Pat was a lover of maps and any road leading somewhere new. He spent years travelling abroad in the 50s, hitchhiking around North America, and canoe tripping in northern Ontario. Not surprisingly, after teaching high school math for six years, he decided to teach geography. He did graduate work in Madison, taught at Kent State, then at the University of Guelph until retirement. He was known to his students as the “Jimmy Stewart professor”. He looked like Jimmy Stewart and had the actor’s drawn-out friendly delivery.
While teaching high school in Fort Frances, Pat met teacher Tena Kettles, a Manitoba farm girl with a lively sense of humor and keen intelligence. They married in 1959 and had two daughters, Linda and Laurie.
At age 58, Pat developed a heart condition and was told he had a year to live. He retired early and lived each day thrilled to be alive. He went on to live another 28 years, travelling, reading, writing, and outliving the doctor who’d given him the prognosis.
As for his childhood theory on kindness, he held onto that belief all his life. He was the nicest guy I ever knew.
 Patrick Gough and my son Quinn |
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