Wally’s Life Story

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Wayne attended Westmount High School where he served as Students’ Council President in his senior year. He graduated from McGill University with his Masters in Education and became a physical education teacher at Alexander Galt School in Lennoxville, QC. He lived in North Hatley with his wife, Debbie (nee Rochemont) and their 2 sons, Bryan and Kevin.

During these years, Wayne was very active in a variety of sports as a player and coach – earning several awards for his proficiency in hockey. He also coached football – 5 years as a high school coach and 4 years at the college level ( 2 years with Champlain College & 2 years with Bishop’s University). One of his most memorable accomplishments was being the defensive coach for the Champlain College Cougars who went all the way to the top, winning a Canadian National Football Championship. It was during these athletic years that he picked up the nickname ‘Wally’ which became more common than his given name.

Unfortunately, education budget cuts were later made in the early ’80s and Wayne was declared “surplus” and had to leave teaching – much to his regret. Now divorced, he moved to Ontario looking for employment. He lived briefly in the Ottawa area, then Hamilton and eventually settled in Niagara Falls, becoming the Marketing Director for the Niagara Falls Thunder Jr A Hockey Association.

In the early ‘90s, he joined Jostens, selling school graduation rings, as well as championship rings. Eventually becoming the Territory Manager for the entire Niagara Region, including the Hamilton area. His favourite part of his job was working with the championship teams since he was still an athlete at heart and derived much pleasure relating to the pride and excitement with each team’s winning accomplishment. (He still held this position until his illness.)

When plans were being made (in 1999) to establish a minor football league in Niagara, Wally was contacted to be a part of it. As Marketing Director, Wally became the liaison between the Niagara Regional Minor Football Association and the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Thanks to Wally’s eleven years of hard work with the league and dedication to the game of football, hundreds of NRMFA players and their families were able to participate in a variety of activities with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. He was very disappointed when time restraints forced him to resign this position, but he remained a loyal Ti-Cat fan.

In his early time at Jostens a co-worker set Wally up on a blind date.  He spent the next 21 years with that date, Cheryl, making it official with their wedding in 1999 and continuing to live happily together in the Niagara Region.

Unfortunately, in August 2014, Wally was diagnosed with an aggressive type of brain cancer which took his life on December 14, 2014 at age 65.  He is survived by his beloved wife, Cheryl, his sons Bryan (Krystal), and Kevin (Lieu), his step-children Kerrie (Mike), Kevin (Lori), six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, sister Norma, and sisters-in-law Judy and Lori (Jean).

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Wally Barrow Memorial Awards

In appreciation of his years of support to the Brock University Athletics Department, they honoured Wally at the March 25, 2015 Athletics Awards Banquet, by having the first “Wally Barrow Memorial” award presented to Coach of the Year, Murray Etheringtion for 2014/2015.  Cheryl was very moved to be invited to participate in the presentation.

The Wally Barrow Memorial Brock Coach of the Year:
2014/2015 Murray Etheringtion, Curling Head Coach
2015/2016 Charles Kissi, Men’s Basketball Head Coach
2016/2017 Katie Dortono, Figure Skating Coach
 

The Wally Barrow Memorial Bantam Championship trophy, in honour of Wally’s many years working with the Niagara Regional Minor Football Association.

Cheryl was honoured to present this trophy for the first time to the Niagara Falls Argos (Legion Branch 51) after the championship game on August 16, 2015.

Winners of the Bantam Wally Barrow Memorial Championship Trophy:
2015 Niagara Falls Argos (Legion Branch 51)
2016 Fort Erie Longhorns (J&A Athletics)
2017 Fort Erie Longhorns (KLIX Sports Photography)

 

 

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FAQs about Wally and his illness

Wally vs. Wayne?

• Most friends in the community knew Wayne Barrow by his nickname, “Wally”.  Others who knew him through his wife (Cheryl) or other family, called him his given name, “Wayne”.  Either name is fine.

Wally’s symptoms?

• In August 2014, Wally started showing signs that were initially thought to be fatigue – mostly lapses in concentration and trouble finding words. Over only a few days, these symptoms worsened and he developed significant memory and language (reading, writing and speech) impairments. These persisted and worsened over the next weeks.

  Since the brain controls everything in the body, brain tumours can have a wide variety of symptoms. For some of the common symptoms see The Brain Tumour Foundation

Wally’s diagnosis?

• Wally had a very aggressive kind of brain cancer, a Grade IV Astrocytoma (also called Glioblastoma, previously named “Glioblastoma Multiforme,” “Grade IV Glioblastoma,” or “GBM”)
• In 2017, The Tragically Hip fans will know that Gord Downie died of the same type of tumour.

Treatment Plan?

• Soon after his diagnosis, Wally had surgery in August to remove as much of the tumour as possible, but they could not remove it all.  In the Fall, he had six weeks of palliative radiation and concurrent chemotherapy (oral).  At the conclusion of that, his tumour quickly continued to grow and he declined rapidly, passing away before they could reassess further treatment.

General Brain Tumour Information

• Not all brain tumours are malignant (cancer), but they can be equally dangerous in the important brain tissue.
• For information on brain tumours and brain cancer, visit The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada and The Canadian Cancer Society.