Fonds F343 - J. Paul Rexe fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

J. Paul Rexe fonds

General material designation

  • Multiple media

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Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA ON00334 F343

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Edition statement

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Statement of scale (cartographic)

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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1969-2006 (Creation)
    Creator
    Rexe, J. Paul (John Paul)

Physical description area

Physical description

8 cu ft., .25 cu metres.

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1944-2010)

Biographical history

John Paul Rexe (1944-2010) was a well-known Peterborough politician, planner, teacher, and writer. The first child of John and Ruth, Rexe was born 5 June 1944 in Kingston, Ontario. When he was five his family moved to Peterborough where he attended Confederation Public School and later Kenner Collegiate. After articling in chartered accountancy with McColl Turner in the early 1960s, and later working in computer programming for Canadian General Electric, Rexe took a degree in history and economics at Trent University and graduated in 1964. In the late 1960s, Rexe earned a teacher’s diploma from the University of Toronto and eventually took a position at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School in Peterborough.

Politics, however, was Rexe’s ultimate calling. He sat as Councillor with the City of Peterborough for the Ashburnham and Otonabee Wards from 1971 to 1973 and later ran (unsuccessfully) as the NDP candidate for Peterborough in the 1979 general federal election and the in the 1981 provincial election. He returned to City Council in 1980 where, for seven years, Rexe served on over 40 municipal boards and committees. For his community work Rexe was awarded a Bicentennial Medal in 1984.

However, two highly-publicized lawsuits (Kazowski vs. Rexe, Galvin vs. Rexe) led to his removal from Council in 1987 by judicial order for not properly declaring a conflict of interest in a real estate matter. Rexe continued as teacher at Kenner Collegiate and later Crestwood Secondary and managed a municipal consulting business (Public Consulting Group) in his spare time. In 1993-94 he returned to Trent University and earned a Masters in Canadian Studies.

After retiring from teaching in the 1990s, Rexe worked with the Queen’s-Trent Concurrent Education Program and later became an adjunct professor in the Queen’s Faculty of Education. From 1998 to 2003 Rexe wrote a column (“Rexe Appeal”) for the Peterborough Examiner about local issues. He returned to city politics in 2003, winning election as Councillor for Otonabee Ward. In 2006 Rexe ran for mayor but lost to Paul Ayotte.

Rexe was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2008 and passed away in August of 2010 at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

Custodial history

Had been part of the collections of J. Paul Rexe, and was transferred to the Trent Valley Archives by Rennie Marshall in 2012.

Scope and content

Material contained in the Rexe fonds spans the years 1969 to 2005 with the bulk of material dating from 1979 to 1991. The collection contains materials pertaining to Rexe’s personal and professional matters, including material from his election campaigns beginning in the late 1970s to his work on Peterborough City Council 1980-87 and later 2003-06. The collection contains much correspondence, City Council memoranda and meeting agendas, planning documentation and reports, news clippings, personal notes, PCG reports and studies, court transcripts, legal invoices, and more.

The collection is organized into four series, Series B and C comprising the bulk of the collection.

Series A contains materials related to Rexe’s early teaching years and career(s) before re-entering politics in the 1980s.

Series B contains materials from his years on City Council 1980-87, and is the largest and most extensive part of the collection.

Series C gathers materials pertaining to his legal matters, particularly Kazowski vs. Rexe (see biographical note, below); and finally,

Series D contains materials from his later career(s), including his planning and consulting work (with Public Consulting Group, Inc.), his years teaching at Kenner Collegiate and Crestwood Secondary schools, his graduate work at Trent University, and his return to city politics in the early 2000s.

Notes area

Physical condition

Contains many primitive photocopied pages that are fading.

Immediate source of acquisition

Rennie Marshall.

Arrangement

Collection was acquired without any discernible order, although materials were contained in folders and binders and, at times, in piles with elastics around them. Approximately half of these files had control numbers on them—written in blue pen onto white masking tape—although their origins, meaning, and purpose were unclear. Materials have been retained as they were received but placed into new, archival folders; binders have been replaced with folders where necessary.

In each case the original order of materials within the individual files has been preserved where possible. Though new control numbers have been applied, the former control numbers have been transferred to the new folders (in pencil) and recorded in the finding aid. Organization and description of the collection by volunteer Matthew Griffis, November 2012 to January 2013.

Language of material

  • English
  • French

Script of material

    Location of originals

    Availability of other formats

    Restrictions on access

    Open to researchers.

    Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

    Finding aids

    Available on site.

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    Accruals

    None expected.

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