Well-known Port Hawkesbury dentist dead at 88
Dr. Royden Trainor’s life could perhaps be summed up in a series of numbers.
He lived a good life of 88 years.
For 42 years, he served as a dentist in the town of Port Hawkesbury, out of an office located in his Prince Street home.
For 59 years, he was a devoted husband to his wife Mary.
Together, they raised seven children, with another who died in infancy.
But when it came to recollections of Trainor’s legacy following his death Tuesday, the number 20 was raised in one conversation. It was a story relayed to his son, Royden Jr., by Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, about a time when his own father, former premier the late John Savage, was campaigning in the riding of Richmond with the younger Royden accompanying him. A woman approached asking, “Is that a Trainor?”
The single mother then recounted a story that had occurred years earlier when she and her children were badly in need of dental care but had no insurance and Royden Sr. agreed to see to their needs, and he spent the day treating them.
“When she asked what was the charge, Dad said $20 which she could not believe and thought he was referring to a payment plan. He took the $20 and before she left he said, ‘You forgot the change,’ and handed her two tens. Confused, she said, ‘That is not the right change,’ and Dad said, ‘It is around here.’”
Royden Jr. said that John Savage joked that Trainor, a well-known Liberal supporter, perhaps was really a socialist, “but his cars were too old and not fancy enough to fit in with the lefty crowd on the mainland ... ‘He might be a real one, after my own heart, now that is what a Liberal should look like,’ John would say.”
Trainor replied with one of his favourite sayings, “Them to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Trainor retired in 1997. His daughter Patty went on to follow in his footsteps and, with her husband, Ian Greencorn, also operates a dental practice in Port Hawkesbury.
Trainor’s funeral mass took place at 2 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Port Hawkesbury with Rev. Conrad Edwards officiating. Burial followed in the parish cemetery.