Robert David McCall
September 14, 1958-November 15, 1991
Left: Rob McCall. Photo courtesy Dalhousie University Archives. Right: Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Rob became interested in figure skating when hanging around the rink where his mother Evelyn, who had skated in the Ice Capades, worked as a coach. "He was a real ham right from the start," she recalled. A talented athlete who swam competitively in his youth, Rob made his debut at the Canadians in 1974, placing second to last in the novice ice dance event with his partner Marie McNeil. Rob and Marie rose through the ranks of Canadian ice dancing, taking the silver in the novice event in 1975, the gold in junior in 1977 and two bronzes and a silver in senior from 1978 to 1980. In front of a hometown crowd in 1981, they made history as the first Atlantic Canadians to win the Canadian senior dance title. Teaming up with Tracy Wilson, Rob won an incredible seven consecutive Canadian dance titles, two Skate Canada titles and two medals at the World Championships. In Calgary in 1988, they made history as the first Canadians to win a medal in ice dancing at the Winter Olympic Games. As professionals, Tracy and Rob toured with Stars On Ice, Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano's Skating tour and won the World Professional Championships in Landover, Maryland. Rob was absolutely beloved by family and friends for his amazing sense of humour. His mother recalled, "He loved life. Everything was an adventure. He loved to draw, golf, swim and canoe. The only thing he couldn't do was sing or water ski." He passed away on November 15, 1991 at the age of thirty-three. He and Marie (McNeil) Bowness are the only figure skaters in Nova Scotia's Sports Hall Of Fame.
Greg Guy's 1992 article from the "Mail Star" about Rob McCall and Skate The Dream: "Evelyn McCall chokes back tears as she unfolds a pink remembrance card embossed with a logo from a bereaved families' group. A year ago, she lost her son Rob to AIDS. 'It is really difficult to talk about Rob right now. Yesterday was the anniversary of his death, and there's a lot of grief that comes around this time of year.' For a year and a half, McCall witnessed her son's valiant fight against the deadly disease. This weekend, she will fulfill his dream of setting up a foundation in his honour. She will also watch the first ice show that will see about a half-million dollars go to AIDS research. During the past year, McCall sat on a board at the Toronto Hospital to help organize Skate The Dream - A Tribute to Rob McCall, being held at the Varsity Arena in Toronto on Saturday. The tribute will be televised on CTV on Dec. 19, and a toll-free number will be issued for viewers to donate to the AIDS research fund. 'For me, it's something very positive to come out of a very negative thing,' she says. 'It's Rob's dream, and he wanted to have a cure for AIDS. It's too late for him, but we can do a lot of good with this and we can help a lot of people.' Tracy Wilson says 26 skaters - including Kurt Browning, Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Debi Thomas, The Duchesnays, Toller Cranston and Brian Boitano - will 'skate the dream'. Cape Breton's Rita MacNeil will sing at the show. Wilson is Rob's former ice dance partner and co-chairperson of the event, along with Olympian Brian Orser. Rob McCall died at age 33 in his Toronto apartment on Nov. 15, 1991, with his mother, brother Steve and close friends at his bedside. Later that night, the McCall family issued a statement saying the champion ice dancer had AIDS. His struggle with AIDS began in March 1990, following the World Figure Skating Championships in Halifax. 'When I saw him at Worlds, he was very thin and he looked tred. I thought it was due to the fact he was working so hard,' his mother recalls. 'He didn't seem to be himself, there was something definitely bothering him.' On Easter Sunday that year, McCall received a phone call at her home in Dartmouth saying Rob had been taken to hospital after suffering shortness of breath while practicing for an ice show in Maine. The next day she was in a doctor's office in Portland and was told that her son had pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. McCall knew exactly what that meant, and she remembers the doctor's words: 'Rob has full-blown AIDS'. For the next few minutes, McCall just sat there. 'I remember the room just swirling around. It was like I wanted to scream, but I couldn't scream. It was quiet. I couldn't say anything. Everything sort of went black. Then I remember the doctor saying, 'Yes, he has AIDS, but he's a real strong boy and you don't have to worry, he could live for another four or five years and there may be a cure by that time. Rob will do okay, I'm sure, but he might go through a very difficult time.' Her first question was, 'Does Rob know?' The doctor said he had just told him. 'I remember asking a lot of questions about the disease and then leaving that office. I don't think I spent so much time in all my life as I did in that hospital chapel. I just needed that support.' McCall also remembers a small card Rob gave her when he was in the Maine hospital. The card simply read, 'Mom, thanks for having me as your son. Love, Rob.' The card, even more than her son's medals, the Order of Canada and all the awards, is her most treasured memento. After the diagnosis, Rob, his mother and close friends Wilson and Orser then had to decide whether to go public with the news. For a number of reasons, Rob and his family decided it was best not to release a statement. 'Unlike Magic Johnson, Rob was really sick now,' says McCall. 'Rob is well known as an Olympic athlete and it would have been a media event for him. He just wasn't in any shape to handle it... I guess I felt it was my role to protect him.' During the next 20 months, McCall says, her son developed many diseases common to AIDS patients: Kaposi's sarcoma, steroid-induced diabetes, and brain cancer. He was also treated for cytomegalovirus, which can lead to blindness. During his final months, the cancer spread into her lungs. He went from 185 to 140 pounds. Before his own death, Rob had lost two skating friends to AIDS. Vancouver's Dennis Coi, a national team member and a former World Junior Champion, died in 1987, and skating choreographer Andre Denis died two years later. Last year, former Canadian Champion Brian Pockar of Calgary died of AIDS complications on April 28. Last month, former Olympic champion John Curry announced he has the disease. Despite the death of so many world-caliber skaters to AIDS, McCall says it is unfair to cast judgments on the sport... McCall had difficulty telling even her closest friends that Rob had AIDS. 'For the longest time, I couldn't say the 'A' word. But now I tell everybody, because I think the more we talk about this the more you don't hide it and the more that can be done about it. If you push AIDS into a corner and pretend it'll go away, it won't help.'... Rob maintained a sense of humor through his battle with AIDS. Tracy Wilson recalls visiting Rob after he had lost his hair to chemotherapy. 'I brought in my son Shane when he was about two months old and Rob joked about who had more hair, him or the baby.' And on Hallowe'en he made a mask and dressed up for the occasion. McCall recalls a day when he was taking steroids as part of his treatment. He ate dinner, told her to put her coat on, jumped out of bed, ripped out his IV and headed with her to a cafe and dined on sushi. When he returned to his room, he ordered a large pizza. 'I couldn't believe the appetite he had, he was laughing about never being able to eat that much.' McCall's desire to carry out Rob's dream is as strong as the torch Betty Fox carried for her son Terry. McCall would like to see a Rob McCall Centre for AIDS and perhaps develop national skate-a-thons along the lines of the annual Terry Fox Run... For now though, the first step towards a national AIDS research foundation will happen on Saturday. 'It's going to be so wonderful to be there, and it's going to be great for me to see as a parent how much he was loved... Rob would have been so proud.'"
*Source for inclusion: National AIDS Memorial, The Names Project Memorial Quilt
