Central Frontenac, Sharbot Lake says goodbye to (Coun.) Bob Harvey

Craig Bakay | Feb 22, 2023

Central Frontenac lost one of its community cornerstones, not to mention one of its more colourful characters when Bob Harvey died Feb. 9 at Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital. He was 82 and had been suffering a brief illness.

Bob, the barber, served the Township for 13 years as a councillor, and for six years on Oso Council before that. He helped make the transition through amalgamation, as well as the Ice Storm in 1998. He came by municipal politics honestly, his father William having been reeve of Oso Township from 1958 to 1974, after having served one term as a councillor.

Harvey was known on council as being fiscally conservative with a taxpayer’s dollar but he also had an appreciation for the value of architecture, often arguing (usually unsuccessfully) for things like brick facades and clock towers on municipal structures. He could be counted on to have an opinion (usually well-thought out) on just about every item on a given agenda and sparked many a lively debate. But he wasn’t one to speak just to hear the sound of his own voice and when he spoke, it was generally with the undivided attention of his fellow councillors.

Although just about all of his time in Central Frontenac was spent in Sharbot Lake, where he was the barber for nearly 60 years, he wasn’t one to see what he could get for his district to the detriment of the Township as a whole. He often advocated at-large elections which he believed would better Central Frontenac, rather than just Oso.

Bob was born in Perth in 1940 and moved to Clarendon in 1947 when his dad bought the Clarendon Store, a building which still stands near the Clarendon K & P railroad station. He attended the one-room Clarendon schoolhouse and later Sharbot Lake High School, which he left before graduating to work in a rail yard and operating heavy equipment in Toronto.

At 21, he married Toots Keirstead, whose siblings turned out to be successful artists. He worked for a year to put himself through barber school and at 23, he opened up a shop in a building across from the train station in Sharbot Lake.

Over the next few years, he purchased land and built the barber shop/pool room across Robert St. from the municipal office. The Township eventually bought the property after he retired and the public works department now calls it home.

He and Toots had three sons (Jeff, Craig and Brett), eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. In 1991, they built the large home on the hill behind the barber shop.

Between Council and the barber shop, you’d think most of Bob’s time would be spoken for but he was well known for several other interests.

For example, until ginseng was put on the endangered species list in 2008, he along with the Boots Traynor clan from Westport were known as the people to go to for wild ginseng. He also bought and sold furs and seemed to very much enjoy buying up properties at tax sales.

He also had a passion for horse racing, having owned several taken home many wins.

He loved the outdoors and was a hunter most of his life.

But if you had to sum up the kind of man Bob Harvey was, just think of this image. He could often be seen, at his own expense and asking nothing for it but the thanks of his neighbours, mowing the lawn in the park across from his barber shop.