{"id":11514,"date":"2015-08-05T14:44:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T18:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11514"},"modified":"2015-08-12T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T17:41:48","slug":"norm-weller-remembered-as-big-man-who-left-big-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/norm-weller-remembered-as-big-man-who-left-big-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"Norm Weller remembered as \u201cbig man, who left big impression\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Norm Weller Park near Aurora\u2019s southwest corner might bear his name, but his impact can be seen just about wherever you are in Town.<\/p>\n

Mr. Weller, Aurora\u2019s former Parks Director, and a former Councillor, died Saturday at Southlake Regional Health Centre at the age of 84, after a brief illness. In the days following his death, Mr. Weller is being remembered as a man with a clear passion for Aurora, a passion which led to the creation of Aurora\u2019s parks and trails system as we know it today.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially we only had Town Park, and the subdivisions were built and parks were created, but they weren\u2019t really created \u2013 they were just areas designated for parks,\u201d recalls former mayor Evelyn Buck. \u201cIt was his idea the Town needed to hire someone to take care of the parks and over the next 12 to 14 years, Norm built all the parks in Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Buck says she first met Norm Weller in a chance meeting when both were novice local politicians. They just happened to be standing in line next to each other to renew their drivers\u2019 licenses at Elwood Davis\u2019 gas station near Yonge and Wellington and they soon got to talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like the Post Office when you went to pick up your mail \u2013 you soon got into a conversation,\u201d she says. \u201cHe was one of a kind in the energy and passion he has for everything. It didn\u2019t matter what you turned to, Norm had an opinion and Norm had a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither of them got elected during their first crack at municipal politics, but eventually voters invested their confidence in both of them and both continued their service to the community. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience with Norm has been a great and successful working relationship, full of enthusiasm,\u201d she says. \u201cHe had a great relationship with everybody, including landowners and farmers. He was a tremendous help putting the Aurora Home Show together and working with farmers, if he hadn\u2019t been there, there wouldn\u2019t be a Santa Claus Parade because he got all of them to make their flatbeds and equipment available for the Parade. He just put his heart and soul into everything, well beyond any hours of work. There were no hours of work, as far as Norm was concerned. He just worked all the time and just loved the Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a sentiment that is shared by former mayor Tim Jones. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could always count on Norm for telling it like he thought it was. Whatever he told you, you always knew it was coming from the heart. He didn\u2019t mince words and he said it as he saw it. Norm had his own style, not unlike John West. The two of them were kind of like bulls in a china shop sometimes, but it was in a good way. You knew their sentiment was definitely for the Town. <\/p>\n

\u201cOurs are not just thrown-together parks. They are well thought out. He wasn\u2019t elaborate, but [everything he created] was basic and good. We have already benefited and people will tell you Aurora has some of the best parks going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both former mayors agree an integral part of Mr. Weller\u2019s legacy is the hiring of Jim Tree, then aged just 19, who serves as Aurora\u2019s Parks Manager today. He spotted the young man\u2019s potential right out of high school and the latter \u201clearned a hell of a lot from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very principle-oriented man,\u201d Mr. Tree recalls. \u201cHe worked with very little funds when he started, and that was the pre-development era when there were no development charges and funds were tough to get. He brought the department up from nothing and was very conscious of spending. He was always used to doing more with less and did everything with his heart and soul. He was as grassroots a person as you could ever imagine. He was always in touch with the people who paid the bills.
\n\u201cThat was the best advice he gave me \u2013 giving value to taxpayers\u2019 dollars. To do that, he was all about doing work in house and doing a lot of work and managing projects himself, getting deeply involved so he could track costs and minimize waste. That sticks with me to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norm Weller is survived by his wife, Shirley, children Clayton, Lynn and Brenda and their spouses, grandchildren Rebecca, Rachel, Lydia, Stacey, Darren and Travis, and great-grandchildren Aaron, James, Natalie, Carter, Hudson and Teighan.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norm Weller Park near Aurora\u2019s southwest corner might bear his name, but his impact can be seen just about wherever you are in Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2ZI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-02 16:17:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-06-04.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}