Remembering an ‘invaluable’ Brandonite

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This article was published 18/10/2014 (4023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The community lost one of its biggest boosters this week.

Don Sumner, 86, died in Brandon hospital early Wednesday morning.

On Thursday, friends and family reflected on a man who became a mainstay at sporting events throughout the city.

“He was Mr. Brandon Curling Club and he was the biggest supporter of everyone from the club,” said BCC manager Gil Van Daele, who took over the club from Sumner, who ran it for 15 years until 1999.

Van Daele called Sumner the “driving force” behind the Masters league, which has featured more than 30 teams of 55-plus curlers from Westman.

“It was his passion that set him apart,” Van Daele said. “He was the guy behind everything that made it happen —he was invaluable.”

His role organizing events at the curling club was only matched by his ability with a broom in his hand and slider on his foot as Sumner captured the Zone championship in Masters and Mixed.

He was also instrumental in running some of the major curling events the city hosted, serving on the board of directors for the World Curling Championships, Olympic Curling Trials and Canadian Scott Tournament of Hearts.

In the summer, his wife, Betty, said Sumner could most likely be found two places — at Andrews Field with his beloved Cloverleafs or at Clear Lake, where he liked to fish and relax.

“He was the voice of the Cloverleafs for so many years and he loved doing that,” Betty said, adding that just this summer he was singled out by the announcer at a Marlins versus Cloverleafs game to loud applause, something that gave him a real thrill.

Sumner was the general manager of Team Manitoba on several occasions and worked with the 1967 Canadian Pan Am team.

After a playing career with the Virden Oilers, Souris Cardinals and Cloverleafs, Sumner became an original member of the Manitoba Senior Baseball League, acting as the secretary-treasurer of the league for more than four decades.

He also served as the statistician for the MSBL for two decades, and to this day, Betty said past players will show up looking for stats, which are meticulously kept in his basement, from baseball years past.

On the mantle in his living room stands his Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame trophy.

Sumner was inducted in 1997, and the trophy was recognition of his more than six decades to the sport.

The only thing more important to Sumner is what surrounds the trophy — photos of his family.

“He was very dedicated to his family,” Betty said.

Born in Virden, Sumner moved to Brandon to pursue an education, eventually becoming a teacher and finishing his career as the principal of Meadows School.

Outside of the classroom, he was an active at Knox United Church.

Sumner was involved in a collision last Tuesday, when the SUV he was driving struck the McDiarmid Complex on Princess Avenue while he was suffering a heart attack.

The family is having a private graveside funeral in Virden as per Sumner’s wishes.

It’s something that didn’t surprise Van Daele, who said Sumner was always willing to lend a hand without looking for anything in return.

“Between the curling world and the ball world, there wouldn’t have been a church big enough to hold all of the people that would have been there,” Van Daele said.

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