Ian was born and brought up in Toronto through the 1940s and 50s. In his younger years an association with Lennox & Addington County came about through the purchase by his parents of a cottage property on upper Mazinaw Lake, north of Highway 7. He has sustained that association over the years by the fact that his mother, Nadine moved to Cloyne in 1967.

Ian graduated in Civil Engineering from Queen’s University in 1965 and went to work with Imperial Oil Limited in Toronto, moving to Burlington, Sault Ste Marie and back to Toronto. He began his own construction/renovation business in Toronto in 1978, moving to Cloyne in 1985 as the Building Inspector for Barrie Township. Over the years Ian has been involved with a myriad of volunteer endeavours including Jay-Cees in Burlington, Big Brothers in The Sault, the YMCA in Toronto and lately, in the North of 7 area; the Ambulance/EMS service in Northbrook, the Cloyne and District Historical Society, Land O’Lakes Community Services and the CFL&A. For his volunteer work, in 2014 Ian was privileged to receive the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Volunteerism in Ontario. It was a great honour.

Ian lives in the hamlet of Cloyne with his wife Margaret Axford and looks forward to the ongoing relationship with the Community Foundation of Lennox and Addington and its northern extremities.