COMBERMERE – Work stopped early at Pastway Planing in Combermere last Friday for family, staff and business partners to acknowledge the lifework of Ray Pastway. Employees of Pastway Planing (now part of Canwel), family and business partners from mills around the Valley who have known Pastway for 40 years, gathered to share refreshments and stories. “We’ve appreciated being part of his success,” John McCrae from Whitney said. “He’s built a business from the ground and built it into a state where the future looks at least as great as the past, which is a real accomplishment.” Peter Cybulski of Bancroft said, “I started very small, my company grew and it was with the assistance of Pastway Planing.” Pastway gave many local companies assess to a variety of lumber and wood product markets. “I’m not the biggest guy on the block, Ray has allowed us to have the services here and that allowed a lot of people to make a few extra bucks,” Cybulski said. Don Freymond of Bancroft said, “I always admired the effort he put in and the integrity he has in his business relationships. I just like to wish him the best in his retirement”. Ray Pastway, born and raised in this area with sawdust from his dad’s sawmill in his veins, went to university to study surveying. After a couple of weeks on his first surveying job, he found it repetitive and slow paced. “Growing up in a sawmill, being active, having sawdust in my blood, I had to get back into that,” Pastway said. To read the full story, pick up a copy of the July 4, 2018 paper.