Earl Armstrong Demont

With saddened hearts we announce the passing of Earl Demont, on July 23 after his big but fragile heart suddenly gave out at the age of 86. There’s a hole in the world now. But our grief is eased knowing that Earl left as he lived, with dignity and grace.

Born in Glace Bay on Sept. 19, 1929 Earl was the last of three boys born to Clarence and Mabel (nee MacKeigan) DeMont, both of Cape Breton lineage.

A coal town during the Great Depression would have been a hard go. Yet to hear Earl tell it he and his brothers grew up in a blessed place, drinking McKinley’s Iron Brew pop while watching colliery league baseball and hockey games, jumping from ice flow to ice flow—an act known as “skooshing the clampers”--on the brook at the bottom of Catherine St. and summering out on the Mira River, where they fished, swam and later went to dances at Spain’s Pavilion.

While attending Glace Bay High School Earl played hockey, rugby and basketball. At Acadia University Earl’s exploits in the gym and on the field continued, but he is forever remembered for somehow coaxing a cow up the stairs to the top floor in one of the residences at his beloved alma mater.

After completing his education certification Earl took a job teaching in Halifax. But when a job opened up at Glace Bay High School he returned to Cape Breton because he wanted no other place.

He was always on the move: upgrading his teacher’s training during the summers when he also sold cheese for Kraft and did other jobs to help make ends meet. During his long teaching career Earl taught at Woodill Junior High in Sydney, later moving Ashby School where he became vice-principal and Argyle School where he retired as principal.

Retirement fails to adequately describe the next act in Earl’s life. In Inverness, his second home, he fished for trout on Lake Ainslie and at Southwest Brook, always with a fly mind you since he had true disdain for “worm blobbers” even if they happened to be his sons.

There, he loved to snorkel--one summer the family’s only source of protein was what he caught in the ocean using his spear gun—as well as the endless card games at Broad Cove Banks with his many friends in the Inverness area.

In town he delighted in the recreational skates at the Glace Bay Forum—he was a beautiful skater--and his twice weekly swims at the Sydney Days Inn. Earl seldom missed a Cape Breton Oilers hockey game or a UCCB Capers basketball game.

But he was a man of diverse interests, a lover of cross-word puzzles, Celtic music, the Jiggs dinner at Colette’s Family Restaurant and all things Cape Breton. A world class practical joker, whose most memorable efforts his sons have deemed unfit for a family newspaper.

Above all he was a man who loved family. When the boys were young he taxied Bruce and Kenneth to innumerable hockey games and practices, to the baseball diamond and to the ski hill at Ben Eoin.

Earl and Rea spent so much time together that their sons referred to them as the Cup and the Saucer. Later in life, as time began to catch up, they spent countless hours doing crossword puzzles together and watching sports, particularly NBA basketball, on television.

Together they cherished their trips to Bloomington to see their grand-children--whom he had taught to drink from the Inverness stream and to whom he would send birthday cards inscribed with his unique jokes and riddles—and eventually even a great, grand-child.

But Earl was always happy to be back in Glace Bay, where he lived just blocks from the old house on York St. and spent most of his long whole life.

Once a nephew asked him if he ever wanted to see more of the world. He never felt the need, he replied. Earl had found the place that made him what he was—an eternally happy man.

Earl’s loss is felt by his sons Dr. Bruce Demont (Michele) of Bloomington, Illinois and Kenneth (Anne Addicott) of Glace Bay and his granddaughters, Brittany (fiancé David Tran), Caitlin, Renee and Chelsea and great granddaughter Peyton. He also leaves behind his special nephew Peter Anderson and wife Maureen, New Brunswick.

He was predeceased by his wife of 53 years Mary Georgina (Rea Anderson) Demont and his brothers Russell and Eric.

In lieu of flowers, the family would ask that donations in Earl’s name be made to the Nova Scotia Heart and Stroke Fund.

The family would like to thank the staff at Glace Bay Hospital and at Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney, as well as doctors James MacKillop, Paul MacDonald and Kevin Mcneil for their care in looking after Earl. The family would particularly like to thank Earl’s long-time friend and caregiver Margaret Blue.

A wake for Earl will be held at Patten Funeral Home, 71 Union Street, Glace Bay from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. on Aug 7. A service in memory of Earl will be held at 1 p.m. on Aug. 8 at Heritage United Church, 500 Charlotte St. Sydney with interment to follow at Forest Haven Memorial Gardens, 1510 Grand Lake Rd.