A city man who spent 12 years in the Royal Canadian Navy is starting a second career thanks to a unique scholarship focused on a Windsor landmark.
St. Clair College horticultural student Tyler Ross will be the latest landscape steward of Windsor's Mackenzie Hall, a building constructed in 1855 by Alexander Mackenzie, Canada's second prime minister.
Ross is the recipient of a $5,000 scholarship provided this year by the Windsor Port Authority in partnership with The Friends of the Court.
The scholarship will allow the recent graduate of the St. Clair College Horticulture Program to work alongside city staff this summer to maintain the landscaping around the property at 3277 Sandwich St. W.
Ross says he wanted to do something completely different.
"I served 12 years in he Navy. It was a good opportunity to start another career and I thought horticultural would be something excellent to go toward," he says.
The 35-year-old Ross served as an electronic sensors operator after joining the Royal Canadian Navy in 2011. The St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic high school alum was stationed in Victoria, B.C. and in Ottawa.
Ross says when he left the Navy, he had four days before he started his two-year program at St. Clair.
"Living away and abroad was awesome but moving back home to be with my family and friends again was fantastic. Couldn't ask for anything more," he says.
Ross says he did some landscaping and grass cutting when he was younger and figured he would go back to his roots.
He will attend Olds College of Agriculture and Technology is an Alberta this fall as he pursues his bachelor of horticulture with the long-term goal of working in the field of conservation or in the national parks system.
The horticulture scholarship began in 2016 when The Friends of the Court indicated a need for more attention to the aging property.
The City of Windsor Parks and Horticultural departments, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 82, St. Clair College Horticulture Program, The Friends of the Court and Windsor Port Authority have all played a part in supporting the scholarship program.