WATERLOO — George Ellis, Col. Hugh Heasley, former Waterloo mayors James Bauer and Frank Bauer, and Helmut Oberlander are the mystery men who broke ground in 1965 for one of Waterloo's first suburbs.

Record readers answered a call from The Record to help identify the five men in a historic photograph of the groundbreaking at Lakeshore Village in Waterloo.

"We actually have that picture hanging at my dad's house," said Irene Rooney, Oberlander's daughter.

Oberlander was president of Lakeshore Village Development Ltd. and Oberlander Construction Ltd. at the time.

Thirty years later, Oberlander gained notoriety when the federal government sought to strip him of his citizenship for lying about his wartime service to get into Canada. He has fought to keep his citizenship and avoid deportation since 1995.

Oberlander was an interpreter with a mobile death squad in German-occupied territories during the Second World War.

Rooney identified the men in the photo after Waterloo Coun. Angela Vieth and Regional Coun. Jane Mitchell asked for the public's help ahead of a historic tour of the area on Sunday.

Wendy Ritzer said Oberlander hired her father George Ellis to manage the project.

She and three sisters pestered their dad to name some streets after them, instead he chose names from their former city, Scarborough, for the neighbourhood.

"We were all upset," Ritzer said. "We were going, 'Why don't you name one of the streets after us.' "

The four siblings would also look at a model their dad had of the project and pick out which houses they would want for their own.

"That was the funny thing, we didn't want our sister as our neighbour," she said.

Bruce Scheifele was part of the engineering design team for Lakeshore Village.

He remembers the challenge of moving Laurel Creek.

"We had a real time," he said. "The creek … was moved 100 feet to the left to accommodate the design.

"That was quite a chore."

Heasley and the Bauers round out the list of local figures who were present at the Lakeshore groundbreaking.

Frank Bauer was mayor from 1954 to 1955 and James Bauer was mayor from 1960 to 1965.

Rooney said a park is named after Heasley in Lakeshore. He was heavily involved in the community and led the St. Mary's General Hospital capital campaign in 1959.

Rooney provided the photo to the City of Waterloo Museum to be scanned and reproduced.

Vieth and Mitchell lead the historic walk Sunday at 1 p.m. starting at the Albert McCormick arena.

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