Michael Giffen, 55, was killed when the roof of his market building collapsed.

Farmer dies in Huron farm accident as did his father and grandfather

Farmers Forum staff

GLEN HURON — A popular school board superintendent who retired to work on his family’s ancestral orchard and farming operation died Feb. 21 when the roof collapsed on the operation’s market warehouse in Huron County.

Michael Giffen, 55, also a drummer with a local Scottish piping band, was inside the structure at Giffen’s Country Market when it collapsed around 1:30 p.m.

Giffen retired from the Simcoe school board in 2022 to take over the apple and farm business following the death of his father in a 2021 combining accident. His grandfather also died on the farm in a 1976 accident involving a corn auger.

Police haven’t reported an official cause for the roof collapse but the region has experienced especially heavy snow this winter. A number of roofs in Southwestern Ontario have buckled under the weight, including a North Perth dairy barn whose roof came down on Feb 25, seriously injuring a farm worker.

Giffen’s wife, Kim, and their three sons, William, Lucas and Jack, survive him. The community was set to gather and remember the deceased March 4 at the Georgian Bay Hotel in Collingwood.

“Mike was an anchor for our band, always sensible and calm, but with a glint of humour in his eyes,” Giffen’s bandmates with the Beinn Gorm Highlanders said in a Facebook post. “He had a fabulous sense of rhythm, and it was a joy to watch him ‘dance’ with his drum.

“Mike and Kim would often invite the band to play out at his farm, and the barn at Harvest Glen was a great place of camaraderie and music.”