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Cyril "Tim" Timsak

Also Jim Jimsak · Cyril Timsak · Cyril "Jim" Timsak · Cyril "Tim" Timsak · Jim Timsak · Tim Timsak · Cyril Jimsak · Cyril (Tim) Joseph Timsak

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePerson
Born1922-08-22
Died2011-09-27
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Person
Born
1922-08-22
Died
2011-09-27
Work
Co-owner, Shamrock Bar · Vice-president, Beaver Island Civic Association · Freight handler (self-employed rate notice) · Custodian / dockmaster, St. James Township Yacht Dock
Member of
Beaver Island Civic Association · Shamrock Restaurant and Pub
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
governancecommunitycommunication
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

Cyril “Tim” Timsak (22 August 1922 – 27 September 2011) moved to Beaver Island from Muskegon in June 1973 after buying the Shamrock Bar with his wife, Vera Jean (Munton) Timsak, and his cousin Barbara Beckers. He is very probably the “Jim Jimsak” the Beaver Beacon names as vice-president of the Beaver Island Civic Association in 1974 and 1975, again under the name “Cyril ‘Tim’ Timsak” in 1976, and outright as “Cyril Jimsak” in 1977.12345 After selling his half-interest in the Shamrock around the end of 1974, Timsak went to work for St. James Township; by June 1979 the Beacon already called him “Mr. Timsak of the yacht dock,” and township board minutes document him as the St. James Township Yacht Dock’s custodian and dockmaster from 1984 through at least 1993, a role his obituary says he held “for many years before retiring.”67

History

From “Jim Jimsak” to Cyril Timsak

In April 1973 the Beacon reported Archie LaFreniere’s sale of the Shamrock Bar, after “an illustrious and colorful proprietorship covering 36 years,” to Barbara Becker Anderson of Grand Blanc and her cousins “Cyril and Vera Jean (Jim) Jimsak” of Muskegon — the paper’s own misspelling of the surname.1 Classified advertisements for the bar through the following year used variant forms of the same name: “Jim Timsak” in November 1973 and again in January and May 1974, and “Jim Jimsak” in February 1974.8910 In March 1974 a “Bottom’s Up” column named “your hosts Barb and Jim” as attendees at a Lansing bartenders’ school and Licensed Beverage Holders Conference, and a September 1974 property notice used the surname alone, correctly spelled: land “sold to Cyril Timsak.”1112

The Beacon elected the same man to island office under the same unstable spelling. “Jim Jimsak” was Civic Association vice-president in February 1974 and was re-elected in January 1975; a March 1976 officer table — for the same Civic Association, not a separate body — names “Cyril ‘Tim’ Timsak” for the post, and in January 1977 the paper printed “Cyril Jimsak” as vice-president, combining the correct first name with the “Jimsak” misspelling in one line — the clearest bridge between the two name forms held in this record.2345 A February 1977 “Thank You” notice on behalf of Jackie Timsak calls her “the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cyril ‘Jim’ Timsak,” tying the “Jim” nickname to Cyril Timsak directly, and a May 1988 birth notice names grandparents “Mr. & Mrs. Cyril (Tim) Timsak.”1314

A November 2011 Beacon obituary resolves the identity independently of all this newspaper spelling. It gives his full name as Cyril “Tim” Joseph Timsak, born 22 August 1922 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Joseph and Anna Timsak, and states that he and Vera Jean (Munton) Timsak — married 3 June 1945 — moved to Beaver Island in June 1973 with their children, Joseph and Jacqueline, “after purchasing the Shamrock Bar with his cousin, Barb Beckers.” He was, in the obituary’s words, “co-owner of the Shamrock for 1½ years, but then sold his half-interest to Barb and her parents, Buz and Betty Anderson” — a date, roughly late 1974 or early 1975, that matches the Beacon’s own classifieds, which stop naming a Timsak after August 1974 and list Beckers alone from November on.7 The obituary does not mention the Civic Association vice-presidency and never uses the form “Jim Jimsak”; the link between the two rests on the convergence of the Shamrock purchase, the shared years, and the January 1977 “Cyril Jimsak” notice, not on any single source naming both together. Before the move to the island, Timsak had worked 33 years at the Anaconda Wire Factory in Muskegon; his wife also appears in the Beacon’s social columns in these years — in October 1976 she was among the islanders who helped host a touring group of 42 students and chaperones from the Traverse City Intermediate School Adult Training Program.715

St. James Township, 1977–1993

In October 1977 a notice signed “Cyril Timsak” announced that, as of November 1, all freight he picked up would cost 25 cents per package — an independent freight-handling arrangement the notice does not tie to any employer.16 By June 1979 the connection to the Yacht Dock was explicit: reporting a boat rescue near Garden and Hog Islands, the Beacon wrote that “Mr. Timsak of the yacht dock” got word a boater was stranded and sent a rescuer, then corrected the destination once he “realized the mistake.”6 St. James Township board minutes document him in the role repeatedly through the 1980s and into the 1990s: in May 1984 as “Dock master,” reporting needed repainting at the Yacht Dock’s office and restroom building and hired with Kitty McNamara to do the work at $5.50 an hour; in September 1984 as “Custodian” on a township roster; in February 1985 paid $25 a month to oversee off-season dock maintenance; in July 1986 consulted by the board on whether a proposed private dock would create a docking problem, and answering that it would; in May 1987 reporting that year’s Waterways Commission docking-fee rates; in May 1990 assigned, with Rich Gillespie, to design a new bubbler system for the dock and to have a well driller test the well serving the fire hall and public restrooms; in October 1990 the subject of a planned board meeting on closing the dock for the season; and in May 1993 — the latest board-minute reference held here — approved to sweep village sidewalks.1718192021222324 His obituary summarizes the span without dates: he “began working for the St. James … James Municipal Yacht Dock, a position he held for many years before retiring.”7 He and Vera later retired to Charlevoix. Cyril Timsak died on 27 September 2011, at 89, survived by his children Joseph (Cheryl) and Jacqueline, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and two brothers; his wife, Vera, had predeceased him.7

Significance

Timsak’s public record on Beaver Island runs on two tracks that this article treats as one man on the strength of converging evidence rather than a single definitive statement: four years, 1974 through 1977, as an officer of the Civic Association, then responsible for the Fourth of July fireworks, the Fly-In, and the Beacon itself; and a much longer span — documented from 1979 to at least 1993, and described in his obituary as lasting “many years” — as the St. James Township Yacht Dock’s paid custodian, reporting docking-fee rates to the Waterways Commission and answering directly for dock capacity when the board weighed a competing private dock in 1986. Both roles survive only in brief board-minute and notice-column mentions; neither is otherwise recorded.

Evidence and limits

No single held source states in one place that “Jim Jimsak,” the 1974–1977 Civic Association vice-president, is the same person as Cyril “Tim” Timsak, the Yacht Dock custodian who died in 2011. The identification instead rests on several independent threads converging on the same set of facts: the April 1973 Shamrock sale notice’s own “(Jim) Jimsak” phrasing; contemporary classified advertisements using “Jim Timsak” and “Jim Jimsak” interchangeably through 1974; the January 1977 Civic Association notice that prints “Cyril Jimsak” — combining the correct first name with the “Jimsak” misspelling — for the same office; the “Jim” and “Tim” nicknames documented for Cyril Timsak in family notices from 1976 through 1988; and a November 2011 obituary that independently confirms the Shamrock purchase, the 1973 arrival, the cousin relationship to Barb Beckers, and the subsequent decades of St. James Township dock work, without ever using the “Jimsak” spelling or naming the Civic Association role. “Jimsak” and “Timsak” are visually similar in this period’s typesetting and in OCR alike, consistent with either a compositor’s error repeated across issues or a family nickname the paper never fully standardized; either way, the family the sources describe — Cyril and Vera Jean Timsak, cousins of Barb Beckers, of the Shamrock Bar and later the Yacht Dock — is consistent across every appearance from 1973 to 2011. Given that convergence, this record treats the Timsak identity and family facts as established, while keeping the Civic Association vice-presidency itself at probable — it is the one role the obituary does not corroborate.

Open questions

  • Did Cyril Timsak serve as Civic Association vice-president beyond 1977, or hold any other Civic Association office? No later election notice naming him has been found in the held run.
  • When exactly did Timsak’s Yacht Dock service end? The latest held board-minute mention is May 1993; the obituary says only that he held the position “for many years before retiring.”
  • Was the October 1977 freight-handling notice connected to his later township employment, or a separate private arrangement?

See also

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, April 1973, “Shamrock Sold.” ↩ ↩2

  2. Beaver Beacon, February 1974, “New Officers.” ↩ ↩2

  3. Beaver Beacon, January 1975, “New Officers.” ↩ ↩2

  4. Beaver Beacon, March 1976, Civic Association officer table. ↩ ↩2

  5. Beaver Beacon, January 1977, “New Officers.” ↩ ↩2

  6. Beaver Beacon, June 1979, boat-rescue item. ↩ ↩2

  7. Beaver Beacon, November 2011, obituary of Cyril (Tim) Joseph Timsak, https://discover.beaverisland.net/Beaver-Island-2011-11-Beacon.pdf. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Beaver Beacon, November 1973, classified advertising, “Shamrock Bar.” ↩

  9. Beaver Beacon, January 1974, classified advertising, “Shamrock Bar.” ↩

  10. Beaver Beacon, May 1974, classified advertising, “Shamrock Bar.” ↩

  11. Beaver Beacon, March 1974, “Bottom’s Up.” ↩

  12. Beaver Beacon, September 1974, property notice. ↩

  13. Beaver Beacon, February 1977, “Thank You” notice. ↩

  14. Beaver Beacon, May 1988, birth notice. ↩

  15. Beaver Beacon, October 1976, item on a Traverse City Intermediate School tour. ↩

  16. Beaver Beacon, October 1977, freight-rate notice. ↩

  17. Beaver Beacon, May 1984, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  18. Beaver Beacon, September 1984, St. James Township roster. ↩

  19. Beaver Beacon, February 1985, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  20. Beaver Beacon, July 1986, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  21. Beaver Beacon, May 1987, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  22. Beaver Beacon, May 1990, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  23. Beaver Beacon, October 1990, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

  24. Beaver Beacon, May 1993, St. James Township board minutes. ↩

The dated record

4 dated events · 1922–2011These years on the timeline →

Sources

  1. Lists Jim Jimsak as Civic Association vice-president; it supplies no full civil identity, term, or biography.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-02_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held eleven-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-02_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Names Jim among the Shamrock hosts who attended a March 9-13 Lansing bartenders school and Licensed Beverage Holders Conference; it supplies no license or complete business biography.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-03_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held nine-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-03_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Names Jim Jimsak vice-president of the Beaver Island Civic Association after the January 9 election; it provides no term dates or complete office record. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1975-01_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The scan confirms the officer result.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1975-01_Beaver-Beacon
  7. Reports Archie LaFreniere's sale of the Shamrock Bar after 36 years to Barbara Becker Anderson and her cousins, Cyril and Vera Jean (Jim) Timsak — printed "Jimsak" in this issue — of Muskegon. The surname "Jimsak" recurs in the 1974-75 Civic Association officer notices and once more, combined with the correct first name "Cyril," in January 1977; "Timsak" is the form used in property, family, and township-board notices from 1974 onward.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1973-04_Beaver-Beacon
  8. Identifies Jackie Timsak as the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cyril "Jim" Timsak — the source that establishes "Jim" as a nickname for Cyril Timsak, the Shamrock Bar co-owner, bridging the 1973-75 "Jim Jimsak" civic notices to the Timsak family documented continuously from 1974 through the 2000s. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-02_Beaver-Beacon
  9. Lists "Cyril 'Tim' Timsak" as vice-president of the Beaver Island Civic Association — the same organization as the 1974-75 "Jim Jimsak" notices, not a separate body — showing the same man carrying both the "Jim" and "Tim" nicknames within a few years. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-03_Beaver-Beacon
  10. Reports property "sold to Cyril Timsak" — the correctly spelled surname used in the same year the Civic Association notices print "Jim Jimsak." The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-09_Beaver-Beacon
  11. Names grandparents "Mr. & Mrs. Cyril (Tim) Timsak" of Beaver Island — the later-decade form of the nickname, alongside Mr. and Mrs. Don Mooney. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1988-05_Beaver-Beacon
  12. Records a motion paying Cyril Timsak $25/month to oversee Yacht Dock maintenance in the off season. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-02_Beaver-Beacon
  13. Records Cyril Timsak reporting Waterways Commission docking-fee rates to the board. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1987-05_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Classified advertisement lists "Jim Timsak" and "Barb Beckers" as the Shamrock Bar's daily contacts, the correctly spelled surname used in a contemporaneous business advertisement seven months after the April 1973 sale notice printed "Jimsak."
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1973-11_Beaver-Beacon
  15. Repeats the Shamrock Bar classified advertisement naming "Jim Timsak" and "Barb Beckers."
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-01_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Repeats the Shamrock Bar classified advertisement naming "Jim Timsak" and "Barb Beckers," with revised daily hours.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-05_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Reports the January 13, 1977 Civic Association election with "Cyril Jimsak" as vice-president and Barbara Beckers as treasurer — the only held source that prints "Cyril" directly against the "Jimsak" spelling, bridging the two name forms. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-01_Beaver-Beacon
  18. A notice signed "Cyril Timsak" states that as of November 1, all freight he picks up will cost 25 cents per package; it does not identify an employer or formal position. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-10_Beaver-Beacon
  19. "Mr. Timsak of the yacht dock" is reported relaying word of a stranded boater to a rescuer — the earliest held source tying Cyril Timsak to the St. James Township Yacht Dock, five years before the earliest held board-minute reference. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1979-06_Beaver-Beacon
  20. Records "Cyril Timsak, Dock master" reporting on needed painting at the Yacht Dock office/restroom building, and a motion hiring Timsak and Kitty McNamara to do the painting at $5.50/hour. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-05_Beaver-Beacon
  21. Lists "Custodian: Cyril Timsak" in a township roster. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-09_Beaver-Beacon
  22. Records the board asking Cyril Timsak whether a proposed private dock would create a docking problem; he replied yes. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-07_Beaver-Beacon
  23. Records Cyril Timsak and Rich Gillespie assigned to develop a new bubbler system for the Yacht Dock and Timsak asked to have a well driller test the well serving the fire hall and public restrooms. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1990-05_Beaver-Beacon
  24. Records board members set to meet with Cyril Timsak on closing the Yacht Dock for the season. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1990-10_Beaver-Beacon
  25. Records approval for Cyril Timsak to sweep sidewalks, the latest held board-minute reference to his township work. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1993-05_Beaver-Beacon
  26. Names Vera Timsak among islanders who helped host a group of 42 visiting adult-training-program students and chaperones — documents his wife's own community presence in the same period. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-10_Beaver-Beacon
  27. Read directly from the publisher's PDF (not part of the held local archive). States Cyril "Tim" Joseph Timsak was born August 22, 1922 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Joseph and Anna Timsak; married Vera Jean Munton June 3, 1945; worked 33 years for the Anaconda Wire Factory in Muskegon; moved to Beaver Island in June 1973 with children Joseph and Jacqueline "after purchasing the Shamrock Bar with his cousin, Barb Beckers"; was "co-owner of the Shamrock for 1 1/2 years, but then sold his half-interest to Barb and her parents, Buz and Betty Anderson"; then worked for St. James Township at the "James Municipal Yacht Dock, a position he held for many years before retiring"; and died September 27, 2011, at 89, survived by children Joseph (Cheryl) and Jacqueline, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and predeceased by his wife Vera. It does not mention the Civic Association vice-presidency or use the name "Jim Jimsak."
  28. Lists Cyril “Tim” Timsak as Civic Association vice-president. It provides no complete civil identity, term, vote total, or biography. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-03_Beaver-Beacon
  29. The held issue confirms the printed officer slate.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1976-03_Beaver-Beacon

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 5 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Cyril "Tim" Timsak”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/people/cyril-timsak/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, February 1974, "New Officers." (and 28 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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