MICHAEL SUTCLIFFE, VICTIM OF WEST GRAVENHURST ACCIDENT TUESDAY, WAS CONTRACTOR AND ‘REALLY GREAT GUY’

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST  — Family and friends are mourning the passing of a Gravenhurst man in Tuesday’s car accident at Pine Lake.

Michael Sutcliffe died in an apparent head-on collision on Hwy. 169 at about 6:30 p.m. Aug. 5. He was the lone driver in a black Subaru.

“Really great guy,” said Robert Gauthier, who fished and played poker with him after Sutcliffe moved to town at the end of elementary school and before attending GHS.

The 50-year-old father was a local builder and contractor working for himself and who had also worked for other construction companies.

He lived in town with a son and two older daughters in a blended family with his partner. His parents Allan and Lela live in West Gravenhurst.

The grieving families could not be reached for comment.

He was the uncle of Emma Sutcliffe, who in 2011 was seriously struck in a boating accident with her father Jason in Gravenhurst Bay and who has since recovered.

Sutcliffe is also survived by a second older brother Ryan.

Michael Sutcliffe, 50, was a contractor and avid fisherman who died Aug. 5 in a collision in front of Pine Lake Cottages on Hwy. 169 in West Gravenhurst. PHOTOS Facebook

Gauthier said the friends shared a love of fishing in summer and ice fishing in winter.

“He was the one who got me back in to pickerel fishing in Muskoka — after my dad died.

“He was always laughing. I never saw him mad. But he was no softy.”

Police continue to investigate the double fatality, which also included an unidentified Muskoka Lakes man, 61, a passenger in a white Cadillac. The driver of that vehicle was transported by air to a Toronto hospital with life-altering injuries.

See yesterday’s MuskokaTODAY.com story here about Good Samaritans who came to the aid of the crash victims.

GOOD SAMARITANS CAME RUNNING LAST NIGHT AFTER ‘TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE’ DOUBLE FATAL CAR ACCIDENT IN GRAVENHURST CLAIMS MUSKOKA MEN https://muskokatoday.com/2025/08/good-samaritans-came-running-last-night-after-terrible-terrible-double-fatal-car-accident-in-gravenhurst/

Sutcliffe lived in Gravenhurst with his three kids in a blended family with his partner.

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