Dean Robinson Books

New: From Walker's folly to 100, Oakwood Park 1922-2022. This book is a collection of stories by and about the many people who have been part of the first 100 years of Oakwood Park, the Lake Huron subdivision that begins on the north boundary of Grand Bend, Ont. In 1919, Clayton M. Walker, a furniture manufacturer in Wingham, Ont., bought 32 hectares of lakefront sand dunes and scrub oak from the Canada Company. From an agricultural point of view, the locals had deemed the property useless. Even its trees were not worth harvesting, they said. 

They dubbed the Canada Company’s sale as  “Walker’s folly.” Almost immediately, Walker began to add adjacent properties, all of them to fulfill his dream of a summer resort with a lodge and a cluster of cottages nestled among the oaks and fanned by breezes off Lake Huron. He called his development Oakwood, and added a golf course. In the century that has followed, Oakwood has thrived as a resort and golf destination, but also as a community of summer and full-time residents, many of them whose Oakwood roots go back  four or more generations. The book is available through the Oakwood Park Association, Inc. Contact: Lois Wallis at 519-238-2588.  

Also new:  A Century of Service The Rotary Club of Stratford 1922 -2022. This book celebrates the legacy of  Rotary members who have invested in their community and communities around the world. From the work with Respite House and worldwide Polio vaccination to the Dragon Boat Festival and the ever-popular Evening of Scotch Mist, the volume shares the colourful history of the Club over the last 100 years!  The book is available only through the Rotary Club: Contact: Charlene Gordon at: edgo@cyg.net. Canada: 519.273.5126

Author

• 1982 Howie Morenz: Hockey’s First Superstar  SPA, FF, SPL

• 1985 Lucky Lott: Hell Driver SPL

• 1986 Mitchell, A Reflection SPL

• 1987 Seaforth, Beginnings SPL

• 1989 Railway Stratford SPL

• 1991 Reflections, the Stratford Agricultural Society 1841-1991 SPL

• 1991 Y Stratford, A History 1858-1991 SPL

• 1992 Service Above Self, Rotary Club of Stratford 1922-1992  SPA, SPL

• 1996 Would the Stag Line Please Move Back! Mitchell District HS SPA, SPL

• 1997 From Walker’s folly to Fabulous, 75 Years of Oakwood 1922- 1997

• 1999 Picture Mitchell 1857-1997  SPA, SPL

• 2000 Glory Bound! The Stratford Cullitons 1975-2000 SPL

• 2003 For your health, Stratford General Hospital 1975-2000 SPL

• 2003 Overdue, Stratford Library Services 1856-2004  SPA, FF, SPL

• 2004 By the Old Mill Stream, Carlingford, 1856-2004 SPL

• 2004 Fair Legacy, Mitchell and District Agricultural Society 1854-2004  SPA, SPL

• 2011 Hardly Normal, The Stratford Normal School and Stratford Teachers College 1908 -1973 SPL

• 2012 Railway Stratford Revisited SPA, FF SPL

• 2015 42 Wellington, the music and the memories  SPA, FF, SPL

• 2016 Howie Morenz Hockey’s First Superstar (2nd ed. 2016) SPA, FF 

• 2019 Not the Last Waltz and other Stratford stories  SPA, FF

• 2022 A Century of Service, the Rotary Club of Stratford 1922-2022  This book is available only through the Rotary Club: Contact: Charlene Gordon at: edgo@cyg.net. Canada: 519.273.5126

• 2022 From Walker's folly to 100, Oakwood Park 1922-2022 This book is available through the Oakwood Park Association, Inc. Contact: Lois Wallis at 519-238-2588.

Author/Editor

• 1992 Conestoga College Twenty‑Five Years of Education That Works   1967‑1992 SPL

• 1995 From Scotch Broth and Irish Stew, A History of Hibbert Township  1846‑1996 SPL  

• 1998 The Hills of Home, North Easthope Township 1827‑1997  SPL

• 1999 Echoes of Ellice, Ellice Township 1827-1997               

• 2000 Water Under the Bridges, Fullarton Township 1824-1997 SPL

• 2002 Memories of Downie, Downie Township SPL

• 2008 Historically Bound, Embro and West Zorra 1820-2007

Photographer

1990 Daytripper, 50 Trips In and Around Southwestern Ontario SL  N/A

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