‘He loved to build’
The late Johnny Yurchesyn to enter Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame
Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series of four stories featuring this year’s Cape Breton Business and Philanthropy Hall of Fame inductees
Growing up on a South Bar farm, Johnny Yurchesyn dreamed of becoming a pilot.
The son of Ukrainian immigrants never did learn to fly, but that didn’t stop him from spreading his wings over Cape Breton’s business community that would come to include the Joneljim construction company he cofounded in 1970.
Yurchesyn, who was born in 1926 on Henry Street in Whitney Pier and passed away in 2003 at the age of 77, is to be recognized for his business acumen when he is posthumously inducted into the Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame during a June 7 ceremony at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre.
Daughter JoAnn Yurchesyn, who now resides in Vermont, is traveling home to accept the award on behalf of her father.
“He was always busy, he never stopped, and he loved to build — there was nothing he wouldn’t try — he was fascinated by how things worked,” recalled the seventh of eight children born to John and Mena Yurchesyn.
JoAnn said it was her father’s time on the family farm that shaped his future.
“The farm was a big part of his history, a big part of who he was — he was a really smart man, but his parents pulled him out of school to work on the farm and he hated it,” she said. “It was challenging and arduous work, but he formed his acumen for business and building there because they cleared the land and built every building on the farm — he was the ultimate do-it-yourself man and he was very resourceful, he could visualize something before it was even there.”
Yurchesyn built his first family home in his early twenties and would eventually land a job with
Municipal Ready-Mix, working in the Sydney River company’s small jobs department. And, with his strong work ethic and jackof-all-trades skill set, he quickly rose to foreman. Then, in 1970, when the company wanted to divest itself of the small jobs section, it sold it to Yurchesyn, who purchased it with young carpenters Nelson Latimer and Jimmy Kehoe. One of the first employees of the new Joneljim company was office manager Diane Jeans, now 72, who recalled her first day of work and of meeting Yurchesyn for the first time.
“I had spent a year working for Irving Schwartz and Johnny hired
me over the phone, but he told me I couldn’t start yet because they hadn’t finished building a washroom,” she said.
“He called three weeks later and told me to meet him at the site, so I was there waiting when he pulled up in a green station wagon and he said ‘Hi, I’m Johnny’, then he unlocked the door and said ‘you’re in, the accountants will be calling you.’”
Jeans, who still works for the Joneljim Group of Companies, said the establishment of the new business was an exciting time for those involved.
“Oh, but Johnny worked so hard, they all did, they worked well together and complemented one another, each brought his own talents to the business,” she said.
Business partner Nelson Latimer passed away at the age of 76 in 2013, leaving Jimmy Kehoe, who is now 76 himself, as the lone surviving member of the trio.
“He was a stern guy, but a funny guy and he always had a story for you and he got along very well with his employees — he knew all about hard work, he didn’t shy away from it, and he wouldn’t ask his employees to do anything that he wouldn’t do, he was just that kind of individual,” said Kehoe.
“It wasn’t always about making money — for us, it was about how long we worked together and how well we got along, that’s not always the case in partnerships.”
Yurchesyn would go on to be involved in other businesses, including the establishment of Skipper John’s restaurant in North Sydney. He was also on the board of companies like Stephens Building Supplies and Sydney Millworks.
In his leisure time, Yurchesyn enjoyed harness racing and was actively involved in Cape Breton’s horse owners’ community. He was also an avid tarabish player, who wouldn’t pass up the chance to get into a game. And, according to daughter JoAnn, he loved watching his favourite baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays.
“To this day, whenever one of us sees a blue jay we say ‘Oh, look, it’s Dad coming to visit!’” she said.
“And, did I mention he loved to build things?”
Yurchesyn will enter the Cape Breton Business and Philanthropy Hall of Fame, established in 2002, along with three other inductees, including dance studio owner Susan Gallop, trucking magnate Tom MacDonald and Sydney businessman Martin Chernin, who is being inducted in the philanthropy category.