David Marsh’s heart has never left his childhood home in the Arctic.

While some people might be content simply reminiscing, Marsh is a man of action. The retired principal, who lives in both Parry Sound and Huntsville, has spent most of his time and money for the past 10 years gathering much-needed clothing, footwear, tools, toys and other items to send to Inuit communities across the Arctic.

 Marsh was raised in Arviat, 350 miles north of Churchill, on the west side of Hudson’s Bay.

“The population was 350 in summer and 12 in winter, when the Padleimuit people were inland hunting caribou,” he says.

Marsh’s father, an Anglican priest, eventually became bishop of the Arctic diocese. His mother was an artist whose watercolour paintings were shown at the McMichael gallery and are now found in the Prince of Wales Gallery in Yellowknife.

Until age 8, Marsh lived and thrived in Arviat. His mother taught him, along with anyone else who wanted to learn to read, write and count, in their home.

Then, he was sent to school in Lakefield, Ontario.  Adjusting to life in the south wasn’t easy.

“I looked white,” he explains, “but I had never had shoes on my feet, only mukluks.”

A year later, the rest of the family moved to Aklavik in  the western Arctic, and Marsh joined them.

“I went to an Indian residential school,” he says. “That was another interesting cultural change.”

One of his favourite memories is of racing on skates down the frozen Mackenzie River,  pulled by one of the dogs from his dogsled team.

In 1949 his family moved to Toronto. “I started Grade 7 there. That was a horror show,” he recalls. “I learned that money made a difference. Systems should be fair, but they’re not.”

As a student at several prestigious private schools, Marsh was left off sports teams in favour of weaker players with “important” parents.

Luckily, he had a better experience at McGill University, where he received a Masters in biology, played on the McGill football team, and found fairness.

During all this time, he maintained his connection to the north. He worked summers on the Hudson’s Bay Company supply boat out of Montreal, then paddled the rivers around Lake Superior on lamprey control, and finally he  worked in the Yukon for the Arctic unit of Fisheries Canada. “That put me close to home again,” he says.

Marsh became a teacher and coach of many championship sports teams in Thunder Bay, Hanover and Brantford. Throughout the years he always had a special interest in disadvantaged students.

“The kids that didn’t have anything got special consideration,” he says.

It was in 1982 as principal of Parry Sound High School that Marsh first thought of sending a shipment north. The school band was getting new uniforms, and he sent the old ones to a man who had worked with his father in Arviat.

A few years later, he began sending skates. “I could fit 25 pairs into a tea box,” he says, adding that he shoved little shoes and boots inside the skates to take full advantage of the space.

When Marsh retired in the early ’90s he worked part-time  in a jam factory to make extra money to buy supplies and pay for shipping. The company also provided him with an unlimited number of barrels.

Since the late ’90s, Marsh has devoted himself to finding and packing items for his Inuit friends.  He estimates the original value of goods he has sent north to be about $2 million.

“I branched out from skates to anything that I can get in a barrel,” he says. “I shop for 30,000 people.”

Among the items that have made their way to the Arctic are more than 100 sewing machines, several organs, and a “whale puller,” which was originally used as an extraction line in the bush.  

This winter he is arranging for a shipment of medical assistance devices like wheelchairs and walkers to be flown to Nunavut.

“It looks like Home Depot will donate a container and the armed forces will divert a Hercules aircraft to the Muskoka Airport to pick it up,” he says.

Marsh says he would like to thank the people of Huntsville, who have been very generous. Unfortunately, his years of giving are coming to an end, hastened by bureaucratic problems and shipping issues.

But his focus on the north will go on. Next, Marsh is planning to edit five manuscripts about the Arctic written by his late father.

And, knowing Marsh, he will find other ways to keep in touch with his homeland and its people.

“I never know what’s going to happen,” he says. “Life’s an adventure.”

Is there someone you’d like to see profiled in this space? Please call Paula at 789-5541 or e-mail  pboon@metrolandnorthmedia.com.