THE ADVOCATE 119
VOL. 80 PART 1 JANUARY 2022
school. Sherman played 13 games for the Lions that 1957 season, but his
professional football career was cut short by a knee injury.
The Hood family had a rustic retreat northeast of the Soo, which they
called “the Camp”. In his youth, Sherman spent a lot of time at the Camp,
hunting and fishing and living the outdoor life. During breaks in high school
and university, Sherman worked as a forest ranger in areas north of the Soo,
but he also spent a lot of time at the Camp, where he would train for the
football season by running on the Algoma Central Railway tracks in the
area. He was a multi-sport athlete, as he also played hockey and at one time
he was the heavyweight boxing champion of southern Ontario.
Sherman graduated with the UBC law school class of 1960, along with his
future law partners Leo Amighetti and Art Harvey, and future judicial colleagues
Ross Collver, Ross Lander and Ray Paris. He secured articles at Russell
& DuMoulin, where his research skills found favour with Douglas McK.
Brown, a leading litigator of the time. He was called to the bar on September
29, 1961 and was kept on as an associate. At the firm, he formed a close and
lifelong friendship with future Chief Justice Allan McEachern, who was six
years his senior.
Sherman married Roberta Johnson on February 25, 1966. He had met
Roberta in 1965 through his friendship with an insurance client, Don
Napier. Don and his wife Gale thought Sherman and Roberta would make a
good match, so they invited both of them over for dinner. While the attraction
was immediate and mutual, Roberta had some initial reservations
about dating a husky former football player. Those reservations soon vanished,
they married and children followed: Shannon, Sherman Jr. and
Suzanne. Through their 55-year marriage, Roberta kept the home fires burning
while Sherman advanced through his career.
Sherman’s busy practice was rooted in insurance defence work, but he
also did other types of litigation, including commercial cases. He was thorough
in his work and often did his own research (and always checked the
research others did for him). He was dedicated and loyal to his clients, and
they were the same to him in return. In later years, he developed a close
relationship with the late Peter Toigo and his family, and he provided sound
advice and legal services to members of the Toigo family and their companies
for many years. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1985.
Sherman was an excellent mentor to his junior counsel, though he had
something of a love/hate view of juniors. At one point, some of his juniors
attempted to catalogue the various guides and strictures he had dispensed
into a list of rules, but these rules changed quickly, were only temporary or
were possibly facetious (for example, when he declared he would no longer