Wellanders shocked by Kormos’ sudden death

Tributes are still pouring in tonight for Peter Kormos.

The makeshift memorial on the porch of Peter Kormos’ Bald Street home continues to grow. Flowers, notes, and the cowboy boots: one of Kormos’ trademarks.

Former MP Al Pietz is one of the many who stopped by. “We’ll miss him. I just can’t believe it, I mean 60 years old.”

Kormos did have some health issues: back problems, high blood pressure. He recovered from Bell’s Palsy. And then on Wednesday, he fell while walking on the street in Toronto.

Friend Mike Grimaldi told CHCH News “(Kormos) was going to a cookbook store. He collapsed in front of the cookbook store. Somebody arranged for an ambulance to come and took him to the hospital in an ambulance. But he didn’t stay long enough to get checked out.”

Peter wouldn’t stay at the hospital, he checked himself out. He told people he had to be back in Welland the next day to deliver the eulogy at the funeral of Violet Evans, the mother of his law partner Mark Evans.

Grimaldi says Kormos told him he would go to the doctor on Friday. “I don’t know if he ever made it or not.”

The legendary politician from Welland was found dead in his home Saturday morning. The autopsy results came in Monday, and Kormos’ death is not considered suspicious. Police did not release the cause of death.

Mark Evans says Kormos was his mentor and the best lawyer he’d ever seen in action.

Kormos was known as a political scrapper; a fighter for the little guy; a man arrested for standing up for his principles. He wore his criminal record as a badge of honour.

But Mike Grimaldi says Kormos had another side: “I don’t think as many people knew what a kind heart he had, and what a generous person he was.”

Peter would go to the market on Saturday, buy bunches of flowers, and then take them to the hospital to personally give them to people he’d he didn’t know. He always showed up at funerals for those he did know. Flags in Welland today are flying at half-staff.

There will be no funeral service for Peter Kormos, but there will be a public memorial for him, expected in the near future.