Richard Rohmer

Richard Heath Rohmer (born January 24, 1924) is a Canadian aviator, lawyer, adviser, author and historian.

Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California, as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie.

After his studies in high school he worked briefly at Fleet Aerospace before joining in 1942 on his 18th birthday the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

In Europe in 1943–44 as a reconnaissance pilot flying North American Mustang fighters he completed a 135 mission tour of operations at the end of November 1944 in Holland.

On July 17, 1944, he had spotted a fast moving staff car, usually used to carry German officers.

According to Rohmer, the German officer being carried was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Rohmer reported the car's location to Group Control Centre, which sent in a Spitfire piloted by Canadian Charley Fox.

Rohmer took part in D-Day and the Battles of Normandy, Belgium and Holland.

He is now the senior surviving Canadian veteran of all of those Battles.

In 1945, he was demobilized and transferred to the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve (RCN(R)), where he was appointed as a lieutenant (P) RCN(R) with seniority.

He served at HMCS Hunter in Windsor, Ontario, as commanding officer University Naval Training Division (UNTD) from 1946 until he retired in 1948.

In 1950, he returned to the RCAF (Reserve) flying Vampire jets and commanding 400 Squadron (City of Toronto) and 411 Squadron (County of York).

Rohmer, who completed his legal studies at Osgoode Hall Law School, was called to the Bar in 1951, appointed Queen's Counsel in 1960, and currently holds "not practising law" status with the Law Society of Ontario.

During his law practice he was counsel before several administrative tribunals in land use and transportation.

He retired in 1953 as a wing commander.

From 1957 to 1959, Rohmer was a councillor on North York township council representing Ward 1, the township's easternmost district, which included Don Mills, where his family had lived since 1954.

In 1958, he unsuccessfully challenged Hollis Beckett, the incumbent Progressive Conservative MPP in the riding of York East, for the Conservative nomination for the 1959 Ontario general election.

In the 1960s, he supported John Robarts's successful candidacy to lead the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and then served as a senior advisor and legal counsel to Premier Robarts for three years.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rohmer promoted a plan for a megaproject to develop and populate the Canadian sub-Arctic which he called the "Mid-Canada Corridor".

While the plan interested some industrialists, CEOs, bankers, and the railways, it failed to win support from the Canadian government.

He and Robarts conceived the idea, adopted by the provincial legislature in 1965, that the province adopt a provincial flag modelled on the red ensign.

The move was in response to the Great Canadian flag debate in which the federal government decided to drop the Canadian Red Ensign in favour of the maple leaf flag.

Rohmer is a monarchist.

In 1971, he was appointed honorary Lieutenant-Colonel (and later Honorary Colonel) of 411 Air Reserve Squadron.

His major official plan change success occurred in 1972 when as counsel for Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway and their subsidiaries he appeared before the Ontario Municipal Board in a six-week contested hearing that resulted in the change of the official plan for all of the railway use lands around Union Station from Yonge Street to Bathurst Street (185 acres) to a high density mix of residential, commercial, entertainment, hotels, sport centres and other uses including construction of the CN Tower.

That official plan is the basis for years of enormous development on the lands - lands then and now worth billions of dollars.

It was the largest official plan change in the history of Canada.

Two of Rohmer's better-known novels are Ultimatum and Separation.

Ultimatum, published in 1973, features political, economic, and energy crisis themes as well as the author's opinion about the viability of the Canadian nation.

It is Rohmer's most popular novel and it was the best-selling novel in Canada in 1973.

In April 1975, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and appointed Senior Air Reserve Advisor.

On April 1, 1976, he was appointed commander of the newly formed Air Reserve Group.

On 31 January 1978 he was promoted to the rank of major-general and appointed Chief of Reserves.

He was appointed a commander of the Order of Military Merit in December 1978 and left the military in January 1981.

The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of January 14, 2009 describes Rohmer as "one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century".

General Rohmer served as honorary advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces from 2014 to 2017.

He was the advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs for the organization and conduct of Canada's celebration of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy in June 2014 and the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland in May 2015.

He is a veteran of D-Day, the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Holland.

On December 22, 2014, Major-General (Retired) Rohmer was named honorary advisor to the Canadian Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff, a three-year appointment "...created to recognize MGen (Ret’d) Rohmer’s contributions to the Canadian Armed Forces, and the unique advice and guidance that he provides to the Chief of the Defence Staff, drawing from his wealth of experience in service to Canada".

On June 26, 2015, in his capacity as honorary advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rohmer was promoted to the rank of Honorary Lieutenant General by the outgoing and incoming Chiefs of the Defence Staff.