By Permission of the Bowmanville Bee–
The neighborhood lost another beloved resident last fall when Ron Messier, 71, died of respiratory failure and pneumonia. A 25-year resident of Bowmanville, Messier was hands-on owner of Pauline’s Restaurant, and a long-time supporter of the Bowmanville Community Organization.
“He pretty much pulled the community together to form what is now the BCO,” Cindy Burgin, a neighbor and friend, told the Chicago Tribune. “He started many of the events that continue” still, she said.
Messier relocated to the Midwest from his East Coast roots to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a doctorate in English literature in 1970. He moved to Chicago shortly thereafter and decided “he had to get his life in shape,” his brother John told the Tribune. He said Ron opted to go to Al-Anon. It was there that he met Pauline and the couple married in 1981.
Pauline, who died just over a year before Ron, grew up in Bowmanville and supported her husband’s dream of opening a restaurant.
“He bought the place, named it for her and put a picture of her taken when she was four years old on the menu,” the Tribune writer Graydon Megan wrote. And Pauline’s will remain as it is, according to the manager and new owner, Kathy Henning.
Messier “worked so hard to get it the way it is, we can’t let this go,” Henning said in a November interview. Neither will Bowmanville let Messier go easily. He’ll be remembered for his community involvement, his dedication to his restaurant, his kindness to friends and neighbors… and for his love for that girl on the menu, Pauline.
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