Friday, April 2, 2010

GEORGE H. RUBIN

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My father, George Harry Rubin was born in Manhattan on April 2, 1912. He left this earth the summer of the year 2000.
 
Pop was president of Metropolitan News Agency at 1248 Peel Street, Montreal, Canada, for thirty-seven years, starting in the mid-1940's. Metro News, aka "The Store", our family  business, was the first international newspaper retailer in Montreal, decades before any other international newspaper store opened in Montreal.
 
We received postcards from all over the world addressed to "The Newsstand, Montreal." People compared Metro to the newsstand at Times Square.
 
At the corner of Peel and St. Catherine, in the heart of downtown Montreal, the world came to our doorstep. Pop loved meeting people from all walks of life, and he learned something from everyone he met, including bits of many languages. He was extremely hard-working and diligent, bright and outgoing, yet remarkably modest. Everyone liked him.
 
My father was my first and most important teacher. He taught me everything from spelling, composition and poetry to appreciation of the movies of the 1940's and  opera, literature and world affairs. He taught me to ride a two-wheel bike and later, a Kaiser automobile. He taught me just about everything I know.
 
Pop wanted nothing more than to be a good person, to do a good job and to take good care of his family. He was very active in politics behind the scenes for decades. He served on advisory committees to well-known Liberal politicians. But he would not accept compliments, titles, perks or money. He never partied or dressed up for show. He just wanted to do what was right - a rare quality in the world today.
 
It is hard to believe that the world still goes on without my father. I miss him every day.
 
Phyllis Mass Carter
 
 
METROPOLITAN NEWS AGENCY -
AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE NATION AND THE WORLD.

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