Michael Zareski

I was born on August 23, 1949 at 3:52 am in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada as the first boy and third child in a family that would eventually grow to fourteen children, seven boys and seven girls. My father came to Halifax with the Navy during WWII and settled in Dartmouth, my mother’s hometown and our home base for the next fifteen years. During that time there were postings to navy bases from the west coast of Canada to the south coast of England for durations of a year or two, and as children, our contact with our father was intermittent at best because he was away at sea for months at a time. 

In 1958 my father and uncle built a cottage affectionately referred to as “The Camp” where his growing family of boys would spend weekends on the lake, swimming, fishing, skating, and exploring while my sisters stayed at home with my mother to enjoy some peace and quiet. That is not to say that the girls were not welcome because in later years my younger sisters enjoyed spending time on the lake, especially with the larger extended family get-togethers. The legacy of the Camp is enjoyed almost seven decades later by the extended family of sons, daughters, nieces and nephews, a testimony to the vision of my father and uncle.

From 1956 to 67 my education was divided amongst nine public and parochial schools from Dartmouth Nova Scotia to Southsea England to Porters Lake Nova Scotia to Saint John New Brunswick and then back to Dartmouth where I graduated from Dartmouth High School. This offered valuable lessons in adapting under new circumstances and learning to go  with the flow. 

From the age of fourteen, I worked part time and summer jobs while going to school starting as a carry out boy in a grocery store, to gas station attendant, to construction laborer. Circumstances did not allow much time for sports or social activities; I can still remember my high school guidance counselor telling me that I was a nice boy but no worker and would never make it in university. 

My silent thought to such a statement was ‘we will see about that’ and in the fall of 1967, I enrolled in the three-year Engineering Diploma program at St. Mary’s University and then went on to the Technical University of Nova Scotia where I graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1972.

During my university days extracurricular activities included class representative on student council, student body president, producer of the annual engineers talent show, drama society stagehand and inter varsity sports. Lifelong bonds with a small handful of close friends were forged during those early years.

With a credential in hand, and molded by early experiences, it was now time to make my mark in the world. The rest as they say is history and is articulated in my book Independent: The Journey of a Sigma Male.