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- [S4] Obituary.
Albert William Fulton was born in Truro, N.S. on April 8, 1938. He died in Toronto on July 17, 2008. Albert was the eldest child of Neil Seidmen Fulton (1900-1944) and Evelyn Jane (nee Wood) (1906 ? 1985). He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Emily (nee van der Vaart), their sons Alexander of Toronto and Nathaniel of Margaretsville, N.S., his brother Laurie of Truro, his wife Mildred, and their children and grandchildren. He was predeceased by his sister Laurel (1941–1986).
Albert enjoyed his schooling in Stewiacke and Amherst, N.S. and graduated from McGill University in 1958. He taught high school math and science in Carleton Place, Russell, near Ottawa, where he met the love of his life in 1961. Albert taught mostly math at Weston Collegiate Institute, retiring in 1988 to pursue historical interests. He was delighted to attend the 150th anniversary celebrations at the school last October. During the summers, until 1967, Albert enjoyed riding his bike down the hill to U of T to mark the grade 13 departmental exams, an experience which resulted in his own students being better prepared to write exams. Albert’s first historical project was the mounting of an exhibition by past and present Wychwood Park artists to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Park in 1888. The subsequent half year was spent researching and writing, with Keith Miller, the 300-page book, The Art of Wychwood, copies of which are in the Toronto Public Library system.
Albert’s next project involved traveling to the Maritimes and New England to research his own family history. Two of his direct ancestors had arrived in Plymouth, Mass. in 1620 on the Mayflower. His research eventually led to an extensive library of the Mayflower and UEL descendants and 32 binders on his direct ancestors, mostly through about 10 generations. Albert was extremely proud of his parental grandfather and namesake, Albert David Fulton (1867-1936), the Town of Stewiacke voluntary photographer and historian who published the definitive history of the town in 1907. Some of Albert’s most prized possessions were AD’s photography equipment and glass plates, and AW always strove to follow in AD’s footsteps, albeit in a different location.
Aside from his wife and sons, Albert’s two passions were collecting and preserving the history of the two Toronto neighbourhoods which he considered to be the most interesting and the most beautiful ? Toronto Island and Wychwood Park. After considerable effort, he and Emily were successful of acquiring a house on Algonquin Island in 1980 and a duplex in the Park in 1982. For many years Albert opened the Toronto Island Archives to the public on Sunday afternoons and the Wychwood Park Archives on Wednesday evenings, and he published an 8-10 page historical quarterly newsletter of both neighbourhoods. Albert hoped that both of the vast collections would find homes in the proposed City of Toronto Museum.
A private funeral took place. If interested in making a donation in Albert’s memory, please send a cheque to McGill University, c/o The Scholarship Fund.
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1938 - 2008 (70 years)
Siblings
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