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Obituary for Harold Clair Shantz

Harold Clair  Shantz
Harold Clair “Hap” Shantz

Born March 21, 1927 in Stratford
Died May 19, 2017 in Kitchener

Harold “Hap” Shantz passed peacefully on May 19th in Grand River Hospital in his 91st year. Hap was predeceased by his father Hiram and mother Clara (Bannon), a brother Jack, sisters Eldora Kompf and Helen Szabo; in-laws Wilf Reinhart, Verna McCaffrey, Francis Reinhart, Dr. Ed Reinhart, Anne’s twin Marie McQuillan, twin siblings Joan White and John Reinhart; and son-in-law Alex Renaud. He is survived by his wife of 65 years Anne (Reinhart), twin brother Howard “Bud” (Joan) and sister-in-law Rita McAndrew. As well, Hap was Padre to Steve (Karin), Pop to Sue Havitz (Mark), father to Janice, and Dad to Tricia (Rusty); proud Papa to granddaughters Courtney Miller (Damian), Taylor Miller (partner Emi), and Niki DeVeto (partner Alex).
Hap excelled in football, baseball and hockey and was a member of the Waterloo Siskins in 1946-47. He coached Bantam and Midget hockey teams and, in 1962 was named first sports director for the Kitchener Recreation Commission. Late in life, he helped organize a senior walking track group at Stanley Park Community Centre. While completing Grade 13 at Stratford Central Collegiate, Hap was a Warrant Officer with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets in 1945. A year later he graduated from Stratford Teachers College and became the first male teacher in the Kitchener Catholic Schools when joining the faculty at St. John’s where he taught for four years. After a decade in the personal finance industry, Hap returned to education, teaching physical education at six separate schools in Kitchener while earning his B.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University (1967) and M.Ed. from the University of Toronto (1971), then served the Wellington County Separate School District for 22 years, first as a teacher at St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes, then as principal at St. Francis of Assisi and Sacred Heart schools. He was named Educator of the Year by the Wellington Board in 1987.
Hap put his faith in action, first as altar boy in Stratford and later as a member of the first St. Anthony Daniel Parish Council and altar server for numerous masses and funerals. Following retirement, he was literary presider at Sunnyside Home for 23 years. In 1989 and 1990 Hap helped organize, on behalf of Bishop Anthony Tonnos, the Catholic Spanish Community in Kitchener. This project evolved into the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission. Consistent with his faith and Canadian values, Hap was a passionate supporter of new Canadians. He was a member of the KW Refugee Committee and chaired the St. Anthony Daniel Refugee Committee for two decades. Over nearly 25 years, he and Anne assisted refugees from 63 countries, by troubleshooting immigration problems, securing food, clothing, furniture, housing, and assisting with job searches. In 1991, the KW Record wrote, “Shantz knows there are people who would criticize most of his work – they would argue people who do not have legal status in this country, should not be assisted. But he said: ‘These are people without a country and I feel it is important to keep a family together.’” Primarily for these contributions, Hap earned a Canadian Government Refugee Award (1990), Ontario Refugee Award (1992), Kitchener Award of Distinction (2006), Kitchener Salute to Senior Award (2007), and Queen’s Jubilee Medal (2013).
Cremation has taken place. A Memorial Funeral Mass will be held at St. Anthony Daniel R.C. Church, 29 Midland Dr. Kitchener on Saturday, June 17, 2017 at 11am. A reception will follow in the Parish Life Centre of the church.
In memory of Hap, friends and family are urged to donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation (cards are available at the Henry Walser Funeral Home 519-749-8467). His family would like to thank the staff and residents of Fergus Place for welcoming Hap during the past year.
Visit www.henrywalser.com for Harold's memorial.

Article from the KW Record
October 26/1991
By Rose Simone
Record Staff

Problem-solver extraordinaire
Harold Shantz ensures refugees don’t get lost in the daily shuffle
Harold Shantz has been making countless frantic phone calls to Florida and Washington in a desperate effort to get American visas for a Cuban-East German family on the verge of being kicked out of Canada.
Shantz stepped in to help the Cuban man, Alfonzo Matienzo, his East German wife Ursula, and their six year old daughter Jennifer, who were rejected as refugee claimants in Canada and are desperate.
As Shantz dashed out of the room to make more phone calls on their behalf, Ursula was beside herself with worry. She explained they have no jobs, no home and no money. East Germany has a horrendous unemployment rate, and moreover, Alfonzo is black and their daughter Jennifer is of mixed race. Although Alfonzo is trained to work in the micro-electronics field, Ursula fears racial prejudice in Germany will make it even more unlikely her husband will be able to find work.
Worse, if Alfonso is deported to Cuba, he could spend a minimum of two years in jail for defecting from that country, a visibly upset Ursula said, using broken English.
The family’s one string of hope now rests with a Cuban-American community in Miami, Fla., which has provided an affidavit saying it is willing to sponsor them.
Over the telephone, Shantz elicited promises of help from the American Cuban Foundation but that was weeks ago, and still nothing tangible has come through. The Matienzos are still in a no-status limbo, growing more anxious every day.
The family first landed in the Maritimes and recently migrated to Waterloo Region, where they have a friend who was able to put them up for a while. But their friend was told by his landlord that the Matienzos could not stay there because children are not allowed in his apartment building. Suddenly, the family was on the verge of being on the street.
Shantz was called to the rescue. He found them a hotel room for a night, then a senior citizen’s unit that happened to be temporarily empty for a few more nights: then an attic apartment a local refugee worker happened to have open for a short time: then a refugee apartment temporarily empty on Benton Street and then another empty unit in a housing co-op on Chandler Drive.
From week to week, Shantz, a Roman Catholic layman, has prevailed upon the St. Vincent de Paul Society and various Roman Catholic parishes for food vouchers, furniture and rent money to keep the family surviving.
Shantz feels sorry for the family but other than to keep trying for those American visas, and seeing to it they don’t get cold and hungry while they wait, there is not much more he can do.
“They really thought they would be able to stay here,” he said sadly. “I really thought by now we would have those visas and they would be on their way to Miami,” he added.
The Matienzos were grateful for the help, Ursula said since they arrived in Waterloo Region. Shantz is the one Canadian they’ve met who has gone to such trouble – without him she doesn’t know what the family would have done.
Carl White, president of the Particular Council, co-ordinating body for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, said Shantz does this sort of thing all the time.
“I see Harold quite frequently – he looks after refugees who call on all the parishes, and he has been quite active in this work for some time.” White said.
“We have helped him numerous times with donations for food, furniture and clothing. Occasionally we help with rent as well. He has great contacts with the immigration people, and numerous times, he is called out in the middle of the night to meet refugees who arrive unexpected at different borders.”
Volunteers are the backbone of refugee assistance work in Waterloo Region. More often then not, volunteers like Shantz emerge spontaneously from the pews of various churches.
“Their importance is that they ensure refugee families don’t just get lost in their own little world or their own little apartment. That can make all the difference, in terms of them getting on their feet,” said Joe Mancini, director of The Working Centre, affiliated with St. John’s Kitchen.
Shantz, a member of St. Anthony Daniel Church, got involved when he and his wife, Anne, were asked by their church to go out and see a Hispanic woman and her daughter, who had called the parish for help. “We found them living in an absolutely frightful basement apartment,” Shantz said.
Since then, he has been devoting countless hours, seven days a week, to helping refugees and refugee claimants. During any one day he’ll make between 15 and 30 telephone calls and visits on their behalf.
He recently got involved in helping a refugee man from Sri Lanka whose wife was trapped without proper papers in countries surrounding Sri Lanka. Without those papers she is stuck – unable to join her family in Canada and fearful of going back to the country she fled. Shantz took the man to Waterloo MP Walter McLean’s office to see if something could be done about having an embassy issue the woman a visa to Canada on humanitarian grounds.
He routinely takes refugee claimants to the legal aid office immigration hearings in Toronto and Hamilton and immigration meetings in Kitchener. He collects vouchers for daily necessities such as food, winter clothing and furniture. Shantz said generous people in the community are constantly donating everything from food and clothes to used wheelchairs, appliances and television sets.
Shantz knows there are people who would criticize most of his work – they would argue people like the Matienzos, who do not have legal status in this country, should not be assisted. But he said, “These are people without a country and I feel it is important to keep a family together.”
Shantz points to the unfairness of a system that makes some people more privileged than others when it comes to crossing borders. “We all know professional athletes and people in the entertainment business are continually living in different places around the world. People with money can come and go as they please – if high-profile people can do that, then why not the average person?”
While some people would consider it idealistic thinking, Shantz envisions a day when the world will be more global. “We have seen tremendous changes taking place in the world in just the past few years, with the European common market, and the talking down of the Berlin wall. Maybe 100 years from now we will have borderless borders,” he said.
Shantz recognises there is a lot of prejudice against the refugees and immigrants who are now coming to Canada from poorer nations of the world. “We are bringing in people who do have a different culture and different approach to work and that represents a change for us – but I think these people deserve a chance. We have tremendous resources in this country that we have not tapped yet.”
He said North Americans should ask themselves when they’ll have accumulated enough wealth and begin sharing that wealth. “When is enough enough for us? There are a lot of resources in the world and there is a lot of food – sufficient for all the people of the world. But what we call the Western world has a pretty big share of that,” he said.
A teacher and principal in Catholic schools in Guelph and Kitchener for almost 40 years, Shantz retired from his education career in 1987. But Shantz said he doesn’t like the word ‘retirement’ because it has the word ‘tire’ in it. “I prefer to call it a resurgence- a time to get away from what you were doing and activate yourself – physically and spiritually.”
His refugee work is just one aspect of his resurgence. He has been active in the Kiwanis Club and because of his background in physical education he still plays a number of sports and has been involved in sports associations.
Shantz rushed in to get as involved as possible in his church as soon as those opportunities were presented to Roman Catholic lay people as a result of Vatican II. “We were pew sitters for a long time in the Catholic church and Latin masses were the main reason for that,” he said. He was instrumental in convincing the Hamilton diocese to hire a priest to serve the Spanish speaking population in Waterloo Region.
Shantz said pastors and lay people have to get behind refugee work. He points out churches need refugees as much as refugees need churches. “The future people in church pews will be the people in the refugee and immigrant populations.”
While working with a complicated case like that of the Matienzos can be frustrating Shantz finds rewards in his work as a refugee volunteer. “When daily needs are met – when you get food, clothing, furniture, get them to refugee hearings and help them find housing – those are the things that are reassuring,” he said.
White also a volunteer agrees, “You see that you are needed and that without you some of those people would be in really bad shape,” he said, “it is enjoyable because you can see things getting done – it is slow, but it gets done and if you can be a part of that, it can be a real pleasure.
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