Members of the extended Kennedy family pose for a picture at the dedication of John Kennedy Memorial Park, on Parkwood Drive, held 11 this morning. ___________________________________________________________
John Kennedy “loved” North Bay, his wife Doris says, and would have been “tickled and delighted” to see a park dedicated in his name.
Kennedy died last December, but his name will live on with the dedication today of John Kennedy Memorial Park, which is located on Parkwood Drive.
The 6-hectare forested property became the city’s newest park, named for the developer of the Pinewood subdivision.
“We are here to dedicate this land in the name of the developer who saw potential in the future of North Bay and did something about it,” Mayor Vic Fedeli said.
“And while he created a place for you to live, he also thought about a place for us to enjoy life. And you do it here, every day.”
But residents of the area had to fight city hall first, and made sure parts of the park weren’t sold off as surplus land.
Council ultimately vetoed the idea by taking the five proposed lots out of the city's surplus land inventory, and voted to officially turn the property into a park.
At the dedication, Fedeli unveiled a city sign identifying the new greenspace, while Doris Kennedy, members of her family, and local residents looked on.
Kennedy said she was very happy her late husband had been honoured, because he loved North Bay.
“Everything we did was for North Bay. We met here and we married here and we lived years, and we were married for almost 65 years. So this is a great honour,” Kennedy said.
“John would have been tickled and delighted to see this green, this park in the middle of a city, and to know he had been a part of it.”
Pinewood resident Murray Neil said the entire community had worked to preserve the park “from day one.”
“If little jobs need to be done, nobody directs them, whether it’s a piece of glass that needs to be picked up or a tree that needs to be pared, we’re all there, and this has gone on for many years,” Neil said.
“But maybe it just took a while to get the city’s attention that this was going on, but we have developed a wonderful working partnership with the city.”
Valerie Bowness, John Kennedy’s daughter, said she was “so pleased and honoured” that the city has fulfilled a dream her father had had in the 1950s: to create parkland for North Bay.
“He was very community oriented and felt we in our family had a responsibility toward each other but also to make a contribution, which is what he did, and he did a lot,” Bowness said.
“He served on boards and on council, and he dreamt big and was always planning and thinking about the next thing he could do, and it was never for self aggrandizement. I’m so proud of him and so proud of the city for recognizing him.
Bowness said if Kennedy were alive and witnessing the dedication, “he’d be teary eyed, he’d be really happy.”
