Ms. Lisa MacLeod: D. Aubrey Moodie was a cherished son of Carleton county who would later the father of Nepean. As a young farmer, Aubrey brought Nepean back from near extinction in the 1950s after annexation with Ottawa, which decreased our population from 24,000 to roughly 2,000 people.

Aubrey’s hard work, vision and strong conservative principles revived our community and Nepean flourished under his watch. By the time he ended his tenure as Nepean reeve, Aubrey had steadily grown our community from 2,000 to 6,000 people. There is little wonder why the voters elected Aubrey an unprecedented three times. He was the only reeve in Carleton county’s 127-year history to serve that long.

Aubrey built a community whose fire, police, sewer and other township services were the envy of Carlton county and of Ottawa. He built the foundation for our two greatest community assets, the Queensway Carleton Hospital and Algonquin College. As one of my mentors, Bill Tupper, our former MP, pointed out when he eulogized his mentor last week, Aubrey was one of the greatest municipal success stories of our time.

Personally, I am deeply saddened, as are all of the residents of Nepean. He was someone who, along with Dr. Tupper, provided me with a lot of advice and encouragement throughout my career. The residents of Nepean–Carleton are grateful for Aubrey’s century of service to our community. He died two months short of his 100th birthday. He lived by the example my father taught me and which was reflected upon my Dr. Tupper: He left his community better and stronger than he found it. What more could we have asked for or expected of him?