Richard Rohmer

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Richard Rohmer
Rohmer speaking at a Remembrance Day ceremony in 2012
Born	(1924-01-24) 24 January 1924 (age 97) Hamilton, Ontario
Allegiance	Canada
Service/branch	Royal Canadian Air Force
Rank	Honorary lieutenant-general
Commands held	Chief of Reserves of the Canadian Armed Forces Commander of the Air Reserve Group
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Officer of the Order of Canada Commander of the Order of Military Merit Distinguished Flying Cross Order of Ontario Knight of the Order of Saint John Canadian Forces Decoration Officer of the Order of Leopold (Belgium) Legion of Honour (France)
Other work	Author, lawyer, columnist

Richard Heath Rohmer OC CMM OOnt DFC CD QC (born 24 January 1924) is a Canadian aviator, lawyer, adviser, author and historian.

Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California, as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie. The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of 14 January 2009 describes Rohmer as "one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century". General Rohmer is the honorary advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces. He is the advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs for the organization and conduct of Canada's celebration of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy in June 2014 and the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland in May 2015. He is currently believed to be the senior surviving Canadian Veteran of D-Day, the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Holland.

Military career[]

After his studies in high school he worked briefly at Fleet Aerospace before joining in 1942 on his 18th birthday the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). In Europe in 1943/44 as a reconnaissance pilot flying North American Mustang fighters he completed a 135 mission tour of operations at the end of November 1944 in Holland. On 17 July 1944, he had spotted a fast moving staff car, usually used to carry German officers. According to Rohmer, the German officer being carried was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.^[1] Rohmer reported the car's location to Group Control Centre, which sent in a Spitfire piloted by Canadian Charley Fox. Rohmer took part in D-Day and the Battles of Normandy, Belgium and Holland. He is now the senior surviving Canadian veteran of all of those Battles.

In 1945 he was demobilized and transferred to the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve (RCN(R)), where he was appointed as a lieutenant (P) RCN(R) with seniority. He served at HMCS Hunter in Windsor, Ontario, as commanding officer University Naval Training Division (UNTD) from 1946 until he retired in 1948.^[2]

In 1950, he returned to the RCAF (Reserve) flying Vampire jets and commanding 400 Squadron (City of Toronto) and 411 Squadron (County of York). He retired in 1953 as a wing commander.

In 1971, he was appointed honorary Lieutenant-Colonel (and later Honorary Colonel) of 411 Air Reserve Squadron. In April 1975, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and appointed Senior Air Reserve Advisor. On 1 April 1976, he was appointed commander of the newly formed Air Reserve Group. On 31 January 1978 he was promoted to the rank of major-general and appointed Chief of Reserves. He was appointed a commander of the Order of Military Merit in December 1978 and left the military in January 1981.

On 22 December 2014, Major-General (Retired) Rohmer was named honorary advisor to the Canadian Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff, a position "...created to recognize MGen (Ret’d) Rohmer’s contributions to the Canadian Armed Forces, and the unique advice and guidance that he provides to the Chief of the Defence Staff, drawing from his wealth of experience in service to Canada".^[3] On 26 June 2015, in his capacity as honorary advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rohmer was promoted to the rank of Honorary Lieutenant General by the outgoing and incoming Chiefs of the Defence Staff.^[4]

Professions[]

Rohmer, who completed his legal studies at Osgoode Hall Law School,^[5] was called to the Bar in 1951, appointed Queen's Counsel in 1960, and currently holds "not practicing law" status with the Law Society of Ontario. He was chairman of the 60th anniversary of D-Day celebrations that took place in the presence of the Queen at Juno Beach in Normandy on 6 June 2004. As ministerial advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs he took part in the planning, preparation and execution of the government's celebration of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day at Juno Beach, France, on 6 June 2014, and was similarly engaged in the plans for the in-Holland Canadian celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands on 5 May 2015. He is now one of the very surviving Canadian veterans of both of those Battles (Normandy and Holland).

He co-chaired the Ontario advisory committee that created the veterans' memorial unveiled on 17 September 2006 in front of the provincial legislature at Queen's Park, was chair of the Premier's Ceremonial Advisory Committee (2006-2014), and was a ten-year member of the advisory council of the Order of Ontario.

Rohmer currently holds the following honourary positions: honorary deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police; honorary chief of Toronto Paramedic Services; patron of the Toronto St. John's Ambulance (1978–2007), honorary fire chief of Collingwood, Ontario, and honorary chief of the Toronto Police Service. He is also the original honorary Chief of Paramedics in Ontario,^[6] and during the period 1978-2007 was patron of the Toronto division of St. John's Ambulance.

In 1958, he unsuccessfully challenged , the incumbent Progressive Conservative MPP in the riding of York East, for the Conservative nomination for the 1959 general election.

During his law practice he was counsel before several administrative tribunals in land use and transportation. His major official plan change success occurred in 1972 when as counsel for Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways and their subsidiaries he appeared before the Ontario Municipal Board in a six-week contested hearing that resulted in the change of the official plan for all of the railway use lands around Union Station (Toronto) from Yonge Street to Bathurst Street (185 acres) to a high density mix of residential, commercial, entertainment, hotels, sport centres and other uses including construction of the CN Tower. That official plan is the basis for years of enormous development on the lands - lands then and now worth billions of dollars. It was/is the largest official plan change in the history of Canada.

He was twice chancellor of the University of Windsor, serving a total of 13 years. In 1978, he negotiated the donation of Conrad Black's collection of Duplessis papers in exchange for an honorary degree.

He was a charter member of his local (Don Mills) Civitan club,^[7] and he served as treasurer of the international organization. His position allowed him to meet U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to present Civitan's World Citizenship Award.^[7]

Literary activities[]

Two of Rohmer's better-known novels are Ultimatum and Separation. Ultimatum, published in 1973, features political, economic, and energy crisis themes as well as the author's opinion about the viability of the Canadian nation. It is Rohmer's most popular novel^[1] and it was the best-selling novel in Canada in 1973.^[8] Three years later, Rohmer published Separation, a novel with domestic and international political themes surrounding the ambition of Quebec separatists to establish the Canadian province as a separate nation. It stayed on the Toronto Star's best-seller list for 22 weeks.^[9] Separation was made into a television movie in 1977, and aired on the CTV network. Barry Morse was cast for a brief appearance as the British prime minister.

Rohmer chaired the Royal Commission on Book Publishing in 1971/72. He is a known Canadian author of both fiction and non-fiction; throughout his literary career he has published over thirty books. His most recent non-fiction is The Building of the CN Tower published 2011 by RailCore Press Inc. of which he is president. His most recent novel, Ultimatum 2 was published early 2007. It fictionalizes a confrontation between the US and Russia against Canada over the building of an international high level nuclear waste disposal site in Arctic Canada. The second edition of his historical novel on the 1866/67 Canadian negotiations with the British for autonomy under the British North American Act is Sir John A's Crusade and Seward's Magnificent Folly.

Family[]

Rohmer lives with his wife Mary-O in Collingwood, Ontario, and practices aviation litigation with the Toronto law firm of Rohmer & Fenn. He has two daughters, Ann Rohmer, a TV personality, and Catherine, a lawyer. He is a licensed pilot.

Bibliography[]

• Practice and Procedure Before the Highway Transport Board (1965)
• The Green North: Mid-Canada (1970)
• The Royal Commission on Book Publishing (Chair, 1972)
• The Arctic Imperative (1973) Toronto, McClelland and Stewart ISBN 9780771077012
• Ultimatum (1973) Toronto, Clarke, Irwin ISBN 9780772006189
• Exxoneration (1974)
• Exodus UK (1975) Toronto : McClelland and Stewart ISBN 9780771077067
• Separation (1976) McClelland and Stewart ISBN 9780771077043
• Balls! (1980)
• Periscope Red (1980)
• Poems by Arthur Henry Ward (1980)
• Separation two (1981)
• Pattons Gap (1981) New York : Beaufort Books ISBN 9780082500629
• Triad (1982)
• Retaliation (1982)
• Massacre 747 (1984)
• Rommel and Patton (1986)
• Starmageddon (1986)
• Hour of the Fox (1988)
• Red Arctic (1989)
• John A.'s Crusade (1995)
• Death by Deficit (1996)
• Caged Eagle (2002)
• Raleigh on the Rocks (2002)
• Generally Speaking (autobiography, 2004) Toronto, Dundurn Group ISBN 9781550025187
• Ultimatum 2 (2007) Toronto, Dundurn ISBN 978-1-55002-584-2
• Building of the CN Tower (2011)
• Building of the Sky Dome/Rogers Centre (2012)
• Sir John A's Crusade and Seward's Magnificent Folly (2013)
• Poems by A H Ward
• Practice and Procedure before the Ontario Highway Transport Board
• Report of the Royal Commission on Book Publishing (co-author)

Honours[]

Ribbon bars of Richard Rohmer

Ribbon	Description	Notes
	Order of Canada (OC)	Officer 20 April 1990 [10]
	Order of Military Merit (CMM)	Commander 11 December 1978 [11]
	Order of Saint John (K.StJ)	Knight of Justice
	Order of Ontario (O.Ont)	Member 1997
	Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
	1939–1945 Star
	Air Crew Europe Star	With "FRANCE AND GERMANY" Clasp
	Defence Medal
	Canadian Volunteer Service Medal	With Overseas Clasp
	War Medal
	Canadian Centennial Medal	1967
	Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal	1977 Canadian Version of this Medal
	125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal	1992
	Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal	2002 Canadian Version of this Medal [12]
	Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal	2012 Canadian Version of this Medal [13]
	Canadian Forces Decoration (CD)
	Service Medal of the Order of St John	With 3 Silver Clasps
	Distinguished Marksmanship Ribbon	From the United States Armed Forces
	Order of Leopold	Degree of Officer From the Kingdom of Belgium
	Legion of Honour	Knight From the Republic of France

• Appointed as a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1960.
• Honorary Chief of Toronto Police Service (TPS) on 26 March 2015^[14]
• Named as "The Most Interesting Canadian" by the National Post^[15]

Honorary degrees[]

Richard Rohmer has received many honorary degrees in recognition of his service to Canada, these include:

Country	Date	School	Degree
Ontario	May 1975	University of Windsor	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [16]
Ontario	2009	Law Society of Upper Canada	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [17]
Ontario	20 November 2015	Royal Military College of Canada	Doctor of Military Science[18]

This list is incomplete; you can help by . (December 2015)

References[]

External links[]

• Richard Rohmer at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database