(To view our March/April 2015 issue of ClubWEST online, click here.)
Grimsby’s Rick Manners never met a challenge he did not relish
By Mike Williscraft
Would the real Rick Manners please step forward?
The bus driver.
The incredibly gifted artist.
The dedicated Kinsmen Club of Grimsby member.
The naturalist.
The dedicated husband of nearly 30 years.
The hard-working employee of the Grimsby Benevolent Fund.
The friend who would help at a moments notice.
The avid collector/builder of toy muscle cars.
No matter which hat Manners is wearing when one interacts with him, there is a common denomenator which is consistent: a big smile and a drive to get things done.
These days, most may recognize him from the GBF store or perhaps someone may have seen him in his Kin T-shirt setting up for a community event.
His passion, one of them, painting has taken a bit of a back seat at times in recent years.
While living in Toronto and operating studios in Thunder Bay, Brantford and Toronto simultaneously in the early 90s, Manners and his wife, Kathy, made a trip out to Grimsby to visit her parents who had just decided to retire there.
“Instead of taking the highway, we got off and took the scenic route. As we came into town on Hwy. 8, we passed the Old Stone Shop and I slammed on the brakes. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a great spot for me,” recalled Manners.
“ I got out of the car and saw a man raking in his yard. That turned out to be Al Jordan. I asked him if he knew who owned the shop. He said, ‘me’. It needed a lot of work, but we got it all set up, cleaned out and the rest is history.”
Actually, it is still a work in progress as fate brought Manners to town, but he is still in the process of completing the canvas which will depict his life here.
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See the full article in our online edition.
