FIREFIGHTER GAVE BACK
Topliffe dies at age 74
Doug Topliffe was just as devoted to a good joke as he was to a good cause.
The dedicated family man, retired Windsor firefighter, and tireless volunteer died Monday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 74. Known fondly as Topper, he’ll be remembered as the guy who could jokingly send his autograph to Bobby Hull one day, and remortgage his house the next to save a youth football league. “Doug never cared about what you were, he cared about who you were,” said his wife Annette. “That’s why the people who were in his life are from the most successful down to the people you wouldn’t even think about. They were all the same to him, and they knew it.” Topliffe retired as a District Fire Chief in 2002 after 36 years. But that was only his day job.
He was a volunteer for Special Olympics and many other charitable organizations. He was a founding member and coach of Windsor Minor Football Association. When the association fell on hard times, Topliffe took out a second mortgage on his house.
“He saved Windsor Minor Football by putting his money up to equip the teams,” said Pat Burke, friend and former fellow firefighter. Topliffe also let troubled young men stay at his home, helping them get back on their feet. He handed out blankets to the homeless and helped others pay their bills. “I remember when mortgages became 22 per cent, we didn’t have money,” said Annette. “But he would get money together to put other peoples’ lights back on.” She said one of her husband’s greatest legacies is his fight for fellow firefighters. After years of work, he helped convince the Ontario government to enact legislation providing coverage for 17 cancers tied to firefighting. She said he was honoured for his work years ago in Toronto. “I remember them giving him an award, saying the firefighters in Windsor, the firefighters in Ontario, and the firefighters in Canada are safer today due to the work by Doug Topliffe.”
In a bitter twist of irony, it was one of the cancers he fought so hard to get recognized that ultimately killed him. He was diagnosed in November 2017. Topliffe was one day from returning home from another hospital stay when a CAT scan revealed the cancer had returned.
“I tried to fix him so hard, just so he could come home,” said Annette. “But that damn cancer fooled us all and jumped back in July.” They were together 42 years, married for 38. Their love story began with an unlikely blind date. “My girlfriend, I didn’t trust her blind dates and I didn’t really want to meet him,” said Annette. But the connection was instant. When Annette answered her door, she asked where the handsome curly-haired man who she was supposed to meet was. Topliffe replied that he was a friend who’d been sent up to see if she was worth the trouble. She was.
“The minute he met me — he had a lot of girlfriends, he was very good looking, very popular, and he just wrote them all off immediately,” said Annette. “And that was it.” Even at his sickest, when he lost his strength and couldn’t sit up, that love and devotion never wavered. “Even though he stopped speaking, every once in a while he’d say ‘I love you,’ or he’d hold my hand and kiss it,” said Annette. His friends remember him being just as devoted. Burke and Topliffe met in 1963, as Grade 12 students at Corpus Christi high school. “When you’re looking at a friend, it’s somebody who’s there when you need him,” said Burke. “He was always there.” But he was just as devoted to having a good time, said Burke. Once at a conference in Dallas, they skipped a function and went out on the town. Brett Hull and Bobby Hull showed up at the restaurant where they were eating dinner. Topliffe asked the waiter for a napkin. He scribbled “to Brett and Bobby, best wishes” on it. Topliffe and Burke signed their names and sent it over.
“About five minutes later the waiter comes out and says Bobby Hull wants to meet those two guys that sent their autograph,” said Burke. “That’s the kind of guy Doug Topliffe was.” Visitation will be Friday from 2 to 5 p.m., and 7 to 9 p.m., with a firefighter walkthrough at 7:30 p.m.
The funeral will take place Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Families First on Dougall Avenue.