A platinum anniversary for local lovebirds
This July may go on record as the hottest ever, but Joan Duffus remembers July 16, 1955, as a very hot day as well. She can say that with certainty since she and her husband Ken were married that day. That’s not a typo, their marriage has lasted for seventy years and counting.
Obviously, an early start – they were 22 and 23 years old when they got hitched – and good health contributes to a union lasting that long, but the couple says it takes more than luck to forge a lasting union.
They met in 1953 on Vancouver Island and were married two years later. “It was a hot day – like today – when we got married in King City. We had a honeymoon in Boston which we spent one week’s salary on,” recalled Joan at a recent party celebrating the occasion.
“We drove there in a Daimler-Benz with ‘select drive.’ The car was a match to one that Princess Margaret was seen riding in at around the same time,” adds Ken.
It is no surprise Ken remembers the car since after the newly-weds settled in Toronto, Ken established himself as an automobile salesman after getting a job washing cars. “No one was paying attention to one customer who came in and wanted to pay cash for a vehicle, so I stepped in and made the sale.” Meanwhile, Joan rose through the ranks with retail giant Eaton’s in the accounting department.
Their leisure time was spent boating in the Kawarthas and they co-owned a cottage in Fenelon Falls. It was then, in the mid-60s, that they were approached to purchase Birch Point Marina on the south shore of Sturgeon Lake, about five kilometres from Bobcaygeon. Ken took on sales and mechanic duties, while behind the scenes, Joan kept everything working with her skills in human resources and accounting.
Joan credits that business partnership with strengthening their life partnership. “Working hard together for a common cause united us. We learned we had to solve problems at work together and not give up. Those lessons carried on at home. And, when things went well, we were able to enjoy that together, too.”
In 1969 they adopted their daughter Rachelle and the year after, Stephanie. Rachelle says her favourite memory of them as parents was on her 10th birthday. The family was fully immersed in the marina, and that meant attending the Toronto in-water boat show which always happened at the same time as her birthday. She never got to spend it with them until that birthday when they chartered a float plane and picked her up from the dock at the marina and flew her to Toronto.
Active in both Kinsmen and Kinettes, curling, Anglican and United Churches, Joan and Ken loved Bobcaygeon and were well-known in the Kawartha Lakes business community. They balanced that small town lifestyle with skiing, boating, and rally car racing that took them to all corners of the world. In what Rachelle Duffus calls a metaphor for the rest of their lives, during the rallies Joan would navigate, and Ken would drive. “Mom has been the backbone of every business and made it work. She’s the ant and dad’s the grasshopper.”
In 1979, they purchased Center Point Landing and began to build their next business. During their time owning the full-service marina, Ken and Joan won “unprecedented awards from boat manufactures for their sales and service.” They retired in the mid-80s to boat and travel.
However, retiring is something Ken and Joan are not good at, and he returned to his automotive roots. He worked at Holiday Ford in Peterborough for a time, but the entrepreneurial spirit couldn’t be denied, and he and Joan opened their own Bobcaygeon-based Ford dealership in the late 1980s.
Following in the award-winning tradition of Centre Point Marina, Duffus Ford garnered recognition from the Ford Motor Company, culminating in North American-level recognition for Joan’s business operations and their combined sales. Ford rewarded them with a trip of a lifetime to Russia.
“It sure opened our eyes to how the other half of the world lives. There was a guard on every floor of the hotel in St. Petersburg, the towels were about the size of two facecloths, and the toilet paper was rationed.”
Retiring, this time for real, in 1996, Joan and Ken took up RVing, travelling every coast-to-coast highway in North America and enjoying a mobile home in Florida.
When asked the inevitable question about advice for newlyweds, the Duffus’ kept it simple – “Don’t give up, solve your problems together, and don’t take things out on each other.”
Rachelle Duffus adds that there has been a lot of forgiveness and teamwork sprinkled in as well. “No marriage is perfect, but everything that they did, they did as a team, so you know their dreams were built as a team, too.”
