GRAVENHURST GLAZIER CLIFF WICHMANN WAS ‘LIKE FONZIE, MR. COOL’
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Cliff Wichmann is likely rolling over in his grave after Justin Trudeau promised last week to bring more high speed internet to rural Canadians.
Wichmann — a pioneer in the local satellite business — was doing that 20 years ago when the dishes were the size of small cars. And you needed a Muskoka shovel in winter to get good reception — or a blow torch to turn the damn things in the right direction to get a channel when they iced up.
That’s when the internet was in its infancy and the World Wide Web was a dirt road compared to today’s super highway.
But that was “Cliffy,” always ahead of the game, living on an edge he finally found in the glass business in the latter part of life after a brief stint at GM and in construction.
Clifford Murray Wichmann passed away suddenly on Sept. 4, 2020
He was 76.
A fine young hockey player and athlete growing up in Gravenhurst, Wichmann took radio and TV at Ryerson Polytechnic in Toronto where he was smitten by the satellite bug.
A fiery red head with a bit of a temper at times, “he’d get it done” on the ice, said John Moore who grew up with him. “And he kept it going.”
Rusty Draper remembers him as “the cool guy” at Gravenhurst High School.
“Like Fonzie, Mr. Cool.”
Always with a wickedly wry smile that attracted the girls.
Draper remembers one tale where Wichmann was living in the old Greavette house across from him on Bay Street and slept through a fire next door on Hughson Street at the old “Palmer House,” not 30 feet outside his bedroom window.
“We laughed about that and made sure he never forgot it,” said Draper, who just released his own memoirs: “Put the Kettle On Honey ….”
But it was in glass where Wichmann’s etched his lasting image with Muskoka Glass and Mirror.
Joining a long list of Gravenhurst glaziers — and helping others including his sister Evelyn learn the trade and start her own business — Wichmann was often seen Sunday mornings downtown cleaning up after some Saturday night hotel shenanigans led to plate-glass replacements.
Wichmann came from an athletic family.
His dad, Cliff Sr., who was known by his nickname “Barney,” was a very promising local boxer around the Second World War and an even greater hockey player as well. He had a shot at the NHL with the Red Wings in Detroit where he died.
Wichmann’s mom, Georgina Stockard — who spent many years commuting between Gravenhurst and her winter home in Mississippi — was also well known around town, living long and selling real estate for her son-in-law broker Al Sander, who married Wichmann’s sister Jeanne.
Sander, 83, who is recovering from a bad hip accident injury, said Cliff was also a “good boxer” as a youth.
“I coached him and Mike Barnes and those guys in hockey growing up.”
He said Wichmann was good, tough player who was also into bodybuilding in the Opera House basement, where teenage boys would hang out pumping iron and putting on the gloves after high school going into the 1960s.
“We had a lot of good times,” said Sander, “golfing and boating. He was a good golfer.”
Barnes remembers his old friend fondly.
“We were pretty tight for four years.”
Wichmann was the best man at his wedding in 1967.
“Woodsy was my wingman,” said “The Legend.”
“Down over the blue line he’d go and tee one up.”
They were part of one of the best junior hockey teams Gravenhurst produced.
In the 1961-62 and ’62-63 seasons the Jr. D Braves made it to the Ontario semi-finals, losing to a combined team from Hensall and Zurich, remembers Barnes.
(The Indians were the Intermediate team.)
With coach Bob Turner’s line-up card filled out with names like Paul Rutledge, Doug Warancki, Paul Clairmont, Lyle Mortimer, Wayne Corosky, goalie Cliff Hickey, Bob Cherry, George Cooper, Jim Ratcliff, Laurie Smith, Stewart St. John and Brian Williams to name a few.
They lost that second year, but not after giving it a good go.
Because the season went well into March and the ice was out of the Peter Street rink they played out of Bracebridge.
But a week or two off between series cost them.
They tried to tune up for the semis with a couple of memorable exhibition matches with the Jr. A Niagara Falls Flyers and Oshawa Generals, arranged by Generals GM Wren.
While Gravenhurst was no match for the mighty Flyers, who went on to win the OHA championship that year; against the Generals they held their own for two periods.
Until a young kid from Parry Sound named Bobby Orr let loose in the third.
And that the end of that historic hockey match old-timers still talk about as many future NHLers were on the ice in those games.
Barnes said “you didn’t want to cross (Wichmann) on the ice.”
Much like team-mate Corosky.
Barnes said the Braves were also good enough to “play up” and beat other Jr. B teams from Orilla and Barrie.
“People thought Jr. D was the lower end of hockey. But it was only because of the size of the town.”
Wichmann was also part some good fastball teams in town.
Barnes also recalls a couple of hitchhiking trips to Toronto with “Woodsy” to see concerts in $3 seats on the floor of Maple Leaf Gardens.
One notable thumb included hearing an all-star line-up that included Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Bill Haley and the Comets, Cliff Richards, the Platters, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Dion ….
“The list goes on and on, al the greats” said Barnes Sunday.
And one of his favourite groups the Isley Brothers.
Another trip began in Gravenhurst and ended under a rainy bridge bypass in Barrie.
And a missed chance to see Elvis in his only Toronto appearance, while young girls in town bragged about seeing the hipster the guys missed.
Wichmann had a lot cars.
But a story of local driving lore that got a lot of mileage — and that Barnes confirmed — was when Wichmann missed the left corner at the end of Bay Street at what is now the Muskoka Wharf.
“Woodsy” flew down the hill and sailed his car into the lake just between a black-and-white checkered billboard warning sign on the left next to Greavette Boatworks and the Brown’s boathouse on the right.
Barnes says aside from his wedding to Smith’s sister, Elaine, “those were probably the best days of my life.
“You can’t say he wasn’t a good guy.”
Wichmann is survived by daughter Cherami (Drew) a doctor of psychology, Cliff Jr. the III (Minna) a local landlord and former Google software designer, and by partner Lynda O’Hare and her children Laura, Kelly, Jason and Sean.
And by his ex-wife, Muskoka Real Estate Services agent Marg McLaughlin.
Wichmann was predeceased by sisters Jeanne (Al) Sander and Evelyn (Murray) Readman.
A celebration of life will take place at a later date.
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