Written by Toni Lavigne-Conway | Special to the Valley Gazette
Daniel (Danny) Patrick Hudder, also known to his Barry’s Bay school chums as Leo, has died.
Born to Rockingham native John Hudder and Stella (Yantha) of Barry’s Bay, Danny was the 2nd oldest of eight children. The couple met before John joined the army and after promising his sweetheart he’d return for her after the war, they wed. He went on to work at CAF Radar station in Foymount until it closed, and later opened his own aluminum siding, doors, and windows business in
the Bay.
“We were all raised here in the Bay, in the house my father built with his father-in-law across the street from the hospital,” said David Hudder, oldest sibling in the family. “Danny and I were less then two years apart, so we grew up and did a lot of the same things together, although he was the bigger sports guy.” An avid hockey player, David recalls that quite early on he got the nick name “slap shot” because of his talents on the ice.
Like most kids who grew up here during that time, pond hockey was a big part of his childhood, a place where, according to his younger sister Joanne (Mastrovich), who now lives in Merritt B.C., “he really enjoyed and made many lifelong friends. He loved his sports. There wasn’t a sport he didn’t watch on TV although hockey was his favourite.”
Danny attended St. Joseph’s elementary school, followed by MVDHS, where he was a champion wrestler. He left high school early to find work in Windsor, where many of his friends and folks from the Bay had gotten jobs and settled.
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