“He has undoubtedly made Orillia a better place,” says a community member after the death of Bullen, a respected teacher, church founder and advocate
Fayne Bullen, a popular teacher, local politician and community activist, has died at the age of 95.
Following his death on Monday, community members are remembering Bullen as an “incredible man” who uplifted others through his tireless efforts to make Orillia a better place for all.
“He undoubtedly made Orillia a better place and left an impact that went far beyond the majority of people who lived in Orillia. Just a great man,” said Chris Peacock, executive director of The Sharing Place Food Centre.
After growing up in a close-knit family of 13 in Grenada, Bullen moved to Canada in 1955, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and then a teaching certificate from the University of Toronto. He moved to Orillia in 1965.
He served as head of the history department at Park Street Collegiate Institute for 24 years, where he worked hard to make the subject interesting and served as a role model to both his students and his colleagues.
“Instead of teaching history primarily as a multitude of facts to be memorized – a method that has deterred generations of students – he asked questions about the past and researched historical data that would provide relevant answers to those questions,” Jim Watt, a former colleague, recalled in a statement to the Orillia Museum of Art & History.
“If you happened to walk past Fayne’s classroom and the door was open, you would inevitably hear the students engaged in passionate debates.”
Bullen will be remembered not only for his efforts to make history more interesting, but also for his efforts to help all students achieve what they were capable of.
“Fayne is truly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He was kind, considerate and treated us all equally,” recalls Orillia Councillor Ralph Cipolla. “He was very considerate of people, especially his students. He wanted to make sure they were sufficiently trained to take the next step.”
That compassion extended to the broader community in many ways. Bullen led a number of local initiatives – including the effort to open The Sharing Place in the 1980s. The organization now provides thousands of meals to the community each week.
“He was one of the founding members of The Sharing Place and went through the difficulties of starting a nonprofit, which is no easy task,” Peacock said. “He was an incredible man who was truly committed to the community.”
Bullen was the food bank’s landlord until it moved to its Dufferin Street location several years ago. Peacock said he was always helpful and willing to work with staff to ensure the success of The Sharing Place, even when the decision was made to move to the new, larger locations.
“He owned the building and was very kind and generous with the monthly payments and made sure it remained affordable for The Sharing Place,” Peacock said. “When we moved from West Street to Dufferin, he was very supportive of that move, despite losing a tenant, and helped us ensure a smooth transition between the two locations.”
Bullen was also involved in other areas of social service, advocating for nonprofit housing and playing a role in converting a house near St. James’s Anglican Church into four rental units to serve as the Couchiching Jubilee House.
He helped found the St. James Non-Profit Corporation and has been involved in the creation of more than 200 nonprofit housing units in the city over the years.
Bullen was also president of the Orillia Historical Society, chaired the Orillia Cricket Club for twenty years, and was active in the Rotary Club and numerous other community organizations.
For Cipolla, a fellow immigrant in Canada, Bullen’s tireless efforts to improve the community have their roots in his humble beginnings.
“Those of us who come out of poverty tend to … help others,” Cipolla said. “He knows what it felt like to be in the shoes of some people in the community, so he reached out to them and made sure they all … felt comfortable living in a community like ours.”
Bullen’s efforts didn’t end in Orillia.
He served as an alderman (now a city councillor) from 1990 to 1999 and was a regular NDP candidate at the provincial and federal levels in the 1970s and 1980s. Cipolla sees this as an attempt to take his passion for social change beyond the city’s borders.
“I supported him, and I’m not an NDP supporter, believe me. I supported him because he believed that we are all the same, that we all want the same thing, and that is to overcome poverty,” Cipolla said.
“I think he wanted to do that at both the provincial and federal level and make sure that everyone is protected and everyone is treated equally.”
These and other efforts led to the City awarding Bullen the Order of Orillia earlier this year.
Roger Pretty, a former teaching colleague, summed up Bullen’s wide-ranging accomplishments – from politics to activism and more – in a recent social media post.
“A remarkable teacher, community activist, sportsman, businessman, landowner, politician at the local, provincial and federal levels, democratic socialist, appointed OMERS director by Bob Rae, benefactor of a charitable institution, leader of a service club, traveler to every continent except Antarctica, inveterate gardener, accomplished cook, winemaker, punch maker and purveyor for every social occasion and friend to all he met,” Pretty said of his Park Street colleague.
Greater than all his personal achievements, however, was Bullen’s attitude towards life and his friendship with others.
“He was always positive and always looking for solutions,” Pretty said. “Deeply honest, always personally loyal and eternally cheerful. He brought a smile to people’s faces every time he met them.”
During all this time he was a family man with four children and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
You can read his obituary here.
A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, September 22nd at Hawk Ridge Golf and Country Club.
