Penticton honours prominent citizen Rory McIvor with his own street

Penticton paid tribute today to a man Mayor John Vassilaki, who emceed the event, told PentictonNow "was a fellow who really, really cared about his community, and didn't do it for glory or for gain. He did it because he wanted to make our community better than it was."

Rory McIvor, according to the official press release, was a library director for 27 years and a director of the Okanagan Summer School of the Arts. He founded the South Okanagan Community Association, acted on the Board of Governors for Okanagan College, and was a city councilor from 2002-2008.

Whew!

And this afternoon at 3 p.m. during a ceremony at the Penticton Public Library, the city officially renamed Fairview Road to Rory McIvor Way.

"I served with him on city council," said Vassilaki, "and we were together with the Rotary Club for close to twenty years. We had different opinions about matters and his politics were different than mine. But he was always kind, and he respected somebody else's opinion."

"And he was a joker, a storyteller. And he would put me straight when he didn't think I was going in the right direction. And I listened to everything he said because I learned a lot from him. He'd been working in the community a lot longer than I was, for no gain."

Also on hand were McIvor's daughters, Aerin McIvor of Penticton and Heidi McIvor of Vancouver. And they couldn't stop smiling.

"He was brought up in Saskatchewan, so he was a huge Roughriders fan," said Aerin, laughing. "But he loved Penticton and everything about Penticton. He was a justice of the peace for several years, and he was Penticton's citizen of the year not once but twice."

"And he was chairman of the school board for several years. He retired from that position when Heidi graduated. He wanted to shake her hand as she graduated."

"But there's one person who's missing today. Our mom, who's fighting Alzheimer's. To him, my mom was everything."

Heidi McIver echoed her sister's thoughts. "My dad dedicated his life to this town," she said. "It was his passion. It was the reason he got up every morning."

And they were both thankful for their father's hospitality to international students. "He always had international students staying with us here in Penticton," said Heidi. "They came from all over the world and stayed with us anywhere from a weekend to a year. So we were exposed from an early age to every single culture you can imagine. It was wonderful."

"We're really grateful for this because I know if my dad was alive right now, he'd be beside himself. He'd be so happy."

Vassilaki summed up the tribute, saying, "This street I think is ideal for Rory. He worked at the Library right there, and he also worked at the school across the street. I don't think you can honour him any more than renaming the street that faces all the places he worked."