My Path to the Dundas Valley

You could read My Path to the Dundas Valley simply for the engaging stories it recounts from the life of Thomas Beckett— lawyer, family court judge, conservationist, and family man. These stories range from his antics at the University of Toronto where he studied law; to his encounter with the ghost of Tom Thomson as he paddled Canoe Lake while he was working as a counsellor; to the guided tour he took of the Barton Street Jail courtesy of the warden just after the hanging of Harry Lee, the last man hanged in Hamilton, Ontario. You will not easily forget Tom’s description of crashing a KKK rally in North Carolina in 1965, his young family–and camera—in tow. Or the gangster client who was on the lam from the mob and who sought protection and money in exchange for providing information about his involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Tom’s book is also a call to arms for public service. Fans of conservation will learn of his role as co-founder of the Spencer Creek Conservation Authority, which later became the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority, for which he served as the first Chairman. During his tenure, the Authority benefitted from an unprecedented acquisition of land, guaranteeing its protection for the future. He was, as Gordon Bullock called him in the Foreword, an ‘activist’ without knowing the word .