Rohmer, Richard
Biography
Major-General (Ret'd) Richard Heath Rohmer (born in 1924) OC, CMM, DFC, KStJ, O.Ont, CD, Officer of the Order of Leopold [OfL] Belg., Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (France) QC, LL.B, Doctor of Laws [LLD] .Honorary Aide de Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario . Canada's most decorated citizen, is an aviator, a senior lawyer specializing in aviation law, adviser to corporate titans and the Government of Ontario. He is a prolific fiction and non-fiction writer as the bibliography below shows. Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and grew up in Hamilton, Pasadena, Windsor and Fort Erie. He was an unexceptional student in high school and worked briefly at Fleet Aerospace before joining, at 18, the RCAF early in World War II. He flew P-51 Mustang fighters; was over the beaches of Normandy on D-Day; was at the Battle of Normandy as a fighter reconnaissance pilot when he spotted Rommel and aided in taking him out of the war on 17 July 1944. Rohmer was not permitted to attack the staff car but by radio reported its location to Group Control Centre who sent in two Spitfires that did the attack . 412 Squadron, of which Charlie Fox was a member, was not airborne at the time of the successful attack on Rommel. Rohmer took part in the liberation of France, Belgium and Holland. After the war, thanks to the advice of a priest at Assumption College in Windsor, he found his way into the practice of law where he continues to distinguish himself. He continued with the Air Force, attaining the rank of Major-General, Chief of Reserves of the Canadian Armed Forces. He is active in a range of legal, corporate and military activities. He was chairman of the 60th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations which took place in the presence of the Queen (whom he escorted) at Juno Beach in Normandy on 6 June 2004. He chaired the Ontario Advisory Committee that created the Veterans' Memorial, unveiled on 17 September 2006 in front of the Provincial Legislature at Queen's Park, Toronto.
His novel Ultimatum 2, published in 2007, is about a confrontation between the US/Russia against Canada over the building of an international high level nuclear waste disposal site in Arctic Canada with intrigue, sex, violence, and the only way out of Iraq for the US. General Rohmer is Honorary Deputy Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, Honorary Chief of Toronto Emergency Medical Services, Patron of the Toronto St. John Ambulance, Honorary Fire Chief of Collingwood, Honorary Detective of the Toronto Police Service and Honorary Commanding Officer of the 707 Major-General Richard Rohmer Air Cadet Squadron of Etobicoke, Toronto. He was twice Chancellor of the University of Windsor, serving a total of 13 years. In 1978 he negotiated the donation of Conrad Black's collection of original Duplessis papers in exchange for an honorary degree. He lives with his wife [Mary-O] in Collingwood and practices aviation litigation. He has two daughters, Ann Rohmer a TV personality and Catherine, a lawyer. He is a licenced pilot.
(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rohmer)
Published Work
2007. Ultimatum 2. Toronto : Dundurn Group. (Fiction)
2004. Generally speaking : the memoirs of Major-General Richard Rohmer. Toronto : Dundurn Group. (Nonfiction)
2003. Raleigh on the rocks : the Canada shipwreck of HMS Raleigh. St. John's, Nfld. : Creative Publishers. (Nonfiction)
1997. Golden phoenix : the biography of Peter Munk. Toronto : Key Porter. (Nonfiction)
1995. Death by deficit : a 2001 novel. Don Mills, Ont. : Stoddart. (Fiction)
1995. John A.'s crusade. Don Mills, Ont. : Stoddart. (Fiction)
1989. Red Arctic. Markham, Ont. : Fitzhenry & Whiteside. (Fiction)
1986. Starmageddon. Publisher Toronto : Irwin. (Fiction)
1982. Triad. New York : Beaufort Books. (Fiction)
1981. Patton's gap : an account of the Battle of Normandy 1944. Don Mills, Ont. : General Pub. (Nonfiction)
1980. Periscope red. Don Mills, Ont. : General Publishing Co. Ltd. (Fiction)
1978. E. P. Taylor, the biography of Edward Plunket Taylor. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart. (Non-fiction)
1976. Separation. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart. (Fiction)
1975. Exodus/UK. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart. (Fiction)
1974. Exxoneration. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart. (Fiction)
1973. Ultimatum. Toronto : Clarke, Irwin. (Fiction)
<1973> Canadian publishers and Canadian publishing. Toronto : Queen's Printer for Ontario. (Nonfiction)
1973. The Arctic imperative; an overview of the energy crisis, by Richard Rohmer. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. (Nonfiction)
[1970]. The green north. Toronto : Maclean-Hunter. (Nonfiction)
