Waterloo Region Museum

2011 Inductees

Ray Alviano
b. 1934

Ray Alviano was born in 1934 in Guelph. He got his start in the newspaper business in 1956 at the Guelph Mercury, working as a general reporter/photographer. In 1959, Alviano was hired by the K-W Record for a position in its sports department.  His career at The Record spanned 33 years. From 1968 to 1978 Alviano held the sports editor's position. He was a member of the Ontario Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, serving two terms as president in the early 1970s.

Alviano's efforts did not go unnoticed as many local, provincial and national athletic organizations honoured him for his work. In 1981 he was inducted into the Ontario Five-Pin Bowling Association Hall of Fame.

Alviano took on the job of managing the K-W Civitan junior women's softball team in 1983 and that year they won both the provincial and national championships. It would be the start of more successful runs, as the Civitan won provincial and national honors in 1987, 1989 and 1990.

Alviano was the founding president of Kitchener Fastball Promotions founded in 1994. The mandate of the group is to bring provincial, national and international softball (fastball) events to Kitchener. Alviano's volunteerism was also significant with Kitchener Minor hockey, Kitchener Minor Girls Softball and Kitchener Minor Baseball.

He was a member of the organizing committee for five Canadian junior baseball championships from 1995 to 2000. He volunteered for the 1997 World Women's Hockey Championship and 4 Nations Cup in 2002, both held in Kitchener.

Alviano was also the media vice-chair for the 2008 Memorial Cup Junior Hockey Championship held at the Kitchener Auditorium.   

Lorna Bergey
1921-2009

Lorna (Shantz) Bergey was born in Wilmot Township in 1921 and became one of Waterloo Region's most respected Mennonite historians. Although her formal education ended after Grade 8, Bergey always enjoyed books and collecting information. Through visits with family members, church and community events, she was exposed to verbal accounts and the folk history of Waterloo County and the Pennsylvania Germans. Thus began the foundation of her extensive knowledge, detailed stories and historical facts connecting people, places and events.

In the 1960s Bergey expanded her involvement in historical organizations. In response to invitations, she began preparing articles for publications and talks at family reunions.

Bergey held leadership positions in many organizations including the Waterloo Historical Society, Doon Heritage Crossroads, the Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church of North America and the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society of Waterloo and Ontario.

Her accomplishments and awards include the Joseph Schneider Haus Volunteer Award (1993), Kitchener Seniors Advisory Council Award of Distinction (1999), Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation Award of Excellence (2001) and the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada Award of Excellence (2007).

Peter Brill
b. 1943

Peter Brill was born in 1943 in Kitchener and had a long association with the Waterloo Siskins Junior "B" Hockey Team as a player and general manager.

Brill was a player on two Waterloo Siskins Sutherland Cup Championship teams in 1960 and 1962. He was General Manager for Waterloo Siskins Sutherland Cup Championship teams in 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1991. He also served as General Manager for the Cambridge Winter Hawks who won Sutherland Cups in 2000, 2006 and 2007. Brill is regarded as one of the premier architects of Junior "B" hockey teams in Ontario for more than 30 years.

Brill also served as Director of Scouting for the Ontario Hockey League London Knights and Sudbury Wolves. He was a Scout for the Los Angeles Kings from 1995 to 1997.

He was Director of Hockey Operations for Team Ontario Under 17 that won the World Championship Gold Medal in 1995.

Brill was inducted into the Waterloo Hockey Wall of Fame in 1996. He has been honoured by the Ontario Hockey Association with their Gold Stick Award in 2004 and with the Ontario Hockey Federation's Past President's Honour Award in 2004.

Mel Brown
1939-2009

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Mel Brown became one of the most sought-after session musicians on guitar and keyboards in North America.

Brown's recording career began in the mid-1960s when he recorded several albums. He also worked in television, performing on The Steve Allen Show, The Cosby Show and the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Throughout his career he performed with countless music legends in the blues, country and pop genres.

Brown came to Kitchener in 1989 to anchor the house band at a local blues night club. His appearances built a large loyal following for the blues and live musical performance in this region and his presence forever changed the musical landscape in the community.

Brown and his Kitchener-based band The Homewreckers became the flagship act on the Canadian blues label Electro-Fi Records. In 2000, Mel Brown and The Homewreckers released the album Neck Bones & Caviar, which was awarded the W.C. Handy Award for the Best Comeback Album of the Year. The same year it also won France's Blues Album of the Year. In 2001, Brown was nominated for a Juno award for Best Blues Album of the Year in Canada.

Brown's presence created a vibrant local blues scene and a growing audience for this form of music. The Kitchener Blues Festival would not exist and could not have grown to its current size as an international music festival, drawing tens of thousands to the community, without the influence of Brown.

Stan Deckert
1925-2002

Stan Deckert was born in 1925 and raised on a farm on the edge of Linwood in the Township of Wellesley. Throughout his life, Deckert was highly respected for his dedication and commitment to community service and volunteerism.

In both work and service, Deckert's extensive civic involvement included long-term leadership roles with the Linwood Lion's Club, Linwood Park Board and Linwood Snofest. In addition to these organizations he was a volunteer fireman with the Linwood Fire Brigade for 26 years, serving 15 of those years as Fire Chief. Deckert also served as Linwood's representative on the Wellesley Township Council from 1973 to 1998.

Any initiative brought forward by Deckert always had the best interests of the community at heart. He helped realize a Community Centre in the 1960s, a baseball diamond, fundraising dances, space for a fire hall and library, a sister-city initiative with Linwood, Michigan, and numerous grant requests for recreation projects.

In athletics, Deckert was a valuable hockey and ball player playing on teams both in Linwood and Wellesley. During the 1940s and 1950s his team celebrated many championships. After his years of playing sports Deckert coached many young men's baseball teams. He was also instrumental in twice getting a proper ball diamond with lighting for the community.

Through his lifetime, Deckert was honoured with a Certificate of Merit from the Government of Canada, the Melvin Jones Fellowship for Dedicated Humanitarian Service, and the Canada 125 Anniversary Commemorative Medal for significant contributions to his community.

Garnet "Bud" Koehler
b. 1931

Garnet Koehler was born in 1931 in New Dundee and purchased his first motorcycle at age 16. Two years later in 1949, Koehler won his first trophy for motorcycle racing. Throughout his career, he participated in road and drag races, dirt and flat-track scrambles, hill climbs and ice racing.

In 1952, Koehler raced in his first Canadian Motorcycle Association (CMA) sanctioned event.  And in 1957 he won the CMA's White Trophy, awarded for the most points earned annually in all types of motorcycle racing in Canada.  In 1958, he also began racing competitively in the US, wining dirt track and road races in both countries.

He was the first Canadian to win the American Motorcycle Association 50-mile national amateur race in 1960.  In 1962, Koehler won the Ontario half-mile championship.

Koehler won the Canadian national dirt track championship in 1963, but crashed later that year in the provincial championship, suffering severe back injuries that forced him to retire from competitive racing. Koehler was inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2008.

Katherina Kubenk
b. 1970

Katherina Kubenk was born in Toronto in 1970 and grew up in Kitchener, attending Eastwood Collegiate.

Kubenk trained for freestyle skiing and competed internationally starting in 1987 at the International Youth Championships in Finland. She was a member of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team from 1988 to 1998.

From 1990 to 1996, Kubenk competed regularly in World Cup international competitions of the Fédération Internationale de Ski, and had top three placings 32 times, including 10 gold medals, earning her World Champion status. She won the FIS World Cup Overall Title in 1993 and 1996, and Kubenk was World Champion in 1993.

As an accomplished Freestyle Skier, Kubenk competed in Moguls and Aerials for Canada at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.

In 2008, Kubenk was appointed as the Technical Director of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association in Vancouver.

Rabbi Philip Rosensweig
1928-1989

Rabbi Philip Rosensweig was born in Toronto. As a teenager he was involved in securing passports for Holocaust survivors and working with Canadian organizations to help them get settled. Rosensweig attended Yeshiva University in New York City, and received his Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbi A.A. Price in Toronto.  Rosensweig held various posts in Toronto including at the Save the Children Foundation. At age 25, he came to Kitchener and became head of Beth Jacob Synagogue.

Within 10 years, Rosensweig had overseen the construction of the synagogue and family centre on Stirling Avenue South in Kitchener, which is still in use today. During his 36-year tenure at Beth Jacob Synagogue, he was successful in combating assimilation and loss of faith by many of the community's Jewish families.  During this period, many Jewish congregations failed across Ontario but Waterloo Region's stayed strong thanks to Rosensweig's dedication and personality.

Probably his proudest achievement was to establish ongoing relations between the Jewish and Christian communities in the Region. Rosensweig represented the Jewish community at many public events, and he spoke countless times in local schools and churches. Prior to his death, Rosensweig was instrumental in organizing a seminar for school teachers to help them inform their students about the Holocaust.

University of Waterloo Warriors
1974-75 Men's Basketball Team

The University of Waterloo Warriors 1974-75 Men's Basketball Team provided the greatest of seasons and at the same time the saddest of seasons.

The team was unbeaten in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union that season, with a perfect 25-0 won-lost record including an 18-game winning streak.

The culmination of the on-the-court campaign came right in the university's jam-packed Physical Activities Complex when the Warriors earned a dramatic 80-79 victory over the University of Manitoba Bisons in the playoff title game.

Although the roster that year featured five Ontario natives, including three graduates from Forest Heights Collegiate in Kitchener, the final game line-up was missing one of those three. Centre-forward Mike Moser, an all-Canadian all-star, died in his sleep during a Florida exhibition tour earlier that season. In a silent but profound tribute to Moser, only four Warriors were introduced as starters for each game after his death, including the title game.

Breslau Merchants Softball Team

Breslau Merchants were a senior softball team that competed in the North Waterloo Rural Softball League. This was an outlaw league with orthodox pitching, legal balk, hidden ball trick and lead offs. All players had to be residents or employed in the community in which they played. The league ran for 60 years from 1931 to 1991 - the oldest continuous organized softball league in Canada.

In 1947 the team acquired land, and along with local store owner Roy Schiedel, they collected money from businesses and residents to turn the land into a ballpark. They ploughed, seeded, and built fences and backstops. Schiedel sponsored the team providing uniforms and gear. Players volunteered their time and money to care for and improve the ballpark. In 1964 the Breslau Recreation Association was formed and assumed ownership of the ballpark.

Breslau Merchants won the North Waterloo Rural Championship in 1945 and 1948, and from 1951 to 1960 they won 10 consecutive championships. They also won in 1971, 1972 and 1978.