Bill Brown - Class of 1953

Bill wearing CCHS Senior "B" Hockey Team uniform.

Bill's hockey career took off while still a youngster playing for Royal George School in Greenfield Park.
Here, at age 12 Bill is shown being presented champions' trophy by Bill McCubbin, head of Greenfield Park Community Sports.

Memory Lane

· While in Greenfield Park, I was part of a team that competed in a track meet in St. Lambert. The theory then was, if you can skate 'fast' you can run fast. It was the first time I had ever seen spikes or track shorts (Jim Grant) - I came last in every race.

I recall the endless street hockey games we played – often using frozen horse manure as a puck. I think it was then that I decided to be a forward rather that a goalie.

My father had 2 favorite sayings: 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.' and 'the bigger they are the harder they fall.' – He lied.

John Rosevear once told me that the biggest part of me was my mouth and that I had better learn how to fight or run – I never did either.

The poolroom rivalled the Pit as the epicentre of cultural and social activity– apart from serving the best steamed hotdogs in the world it was a male sanctuary where your ability was tested in the least physical way. At one point my mother suggested having my mail forwarded there.

Assuming the statute of limitations has expired, I admit that it was Gerry O'Connor and I who took down the Elmo the Elephant Flag and replaced it with a pair of long-johns (his father's).

My 6 year old grandson is going to be confused with my acceptance by the Who's Who Committee because he thinks I'm boring.

Send an Email to Bill

Bill was born in Montreal on May 19, 1936, the second of five children. He learned early in life the value of sharing and, because he was small for his age, developed a quick wit to deal with adversity. The family lived in Greenfield Park, where he attended Royal George School and recalls, “We lived about a mile and a half from the school and when the lunch bell rang we ran like hell, taking all the short cuts to get home and back in time. In the winter we hooked rides on the bumpers of anything with four wheels.” It was at Royal George that Bill first discovered he had natural athletic ability.

When he was 13, the family moved to St. Lambert, where he met Gerry O'Connor, a kindred spirit who became, and remains to this day, his best friend. Classmates remember him as fun loving and non-judgmental. In St. Lambert, he says, “there was very little 'social' pressure - we were all aware that some families had more but it didn't seem to matter. In my opinion St. Lambert gave each of us the opportunity to succeed or fail - and who could ask for more.” He remembers Chambly County High School as a place where, “teachers seemed to care about you and what you intended to do with your life.” It was in St. Lambert where his natural athletic ability blossomed. “Like most of my contemporaries, I played the full roster of sports offered by the CSA and was an average quarterback, but it seemed hockey was where I excelled.” In addition, hockey provided him with the chance for a university education. Offered a full scholarship at St. Lawrence University, located in Upstate New York, he enjoyed a “growth spurt” and emerged a premium player on one of the best teams in the country. He twice led the team in scoring; set an NCAA record for the fastest hat trick -2 minutes and 21 seconds, (a school mark that stands to this day); played in a National Championship, overtime loss to Michigan State that the coach, of 25 years, called the greatest game he ever coached. In his senior year, he won all three major athletic awards – Outstanding Athlete, Most Gentlemanly Player and Most Improved Player – something that had never been done before or since. “I also set a record for the most inglorious ending of a college career in history”, Bill says. “My final game was a double overtime loss to our arch rival and as we were leaving the ice, a teammate, in frustration, tried to throw his stick across the ice. 'I was directly behind him and took the blade flush n the face. I had a mild concussion, picked up 10 stitches and had to return to Canton after graduation to have my two front teeth replaced because the impact had killed the nerves – beat that>'

Upon graduation, in 1958, Bill joined the Rolland Paper Company as a sales promotion representative, subsequently assuming responsibility for Export Sales and eventually becoming V.P. of Marketing & Sales. He recalls, “I am, by nature, a homebody and for 5 years I logged more that 250,000 miles traveling around the world and, no matter where I was, I couldn't wait to get home - especially the time I was detained by Belgian Congo authorities as a suspected gun smuggler.” During this period, he frequently represented the Canadian Fine Paper Industry at International symposiums and served as chairman of the Fine Paper Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association from 1974-75.

In 1976, seeking a new challenge, he joined Barbecon Inc., Canada's largest national wholesale paper distributor and envelope manufacturer and successfully turned around one of its operations. It took four years, but Bill “never worked harder or was happier.” He was transferred to Toronto in l981 and became President of Barber-Ellis Fine Papers, overseeing the five Barbecon companies in Eastern Canada. He was President and served on the Boards of the Envelope Manufacturers Institute and the Canadian Fine Paper Trade Association.

In l985 Abitibi Consolidated, the world's largest newsprint manufacturer, bought Barbecon and with a corporate objective to double the size of its non newsprint business from $1.5 to $3 billion over five years, Bill was made Sr. Vice President of Administration of their Diversified Group and charged with setting up the internal mechanism to achieve this objective. During this period, Bill's international experience proved invaluable and he was instrumental in establishing a company in Holland and was part of acquisition task forces to several Eastern Block countries, the Orient and Latin America.

In 1991, the Diversified Group was sold and Bill stayed with Abitibi as Sr. Vice President of Corporate Communications. At his retirement dinner in 1996 the CEO characterized Bill as “one of the best natural leaders he'd ever met - one of the few people who talked straight and never gave bad counsel.” This last comment sums up the drive and passion Bill brought to his work and his life. He balanced a fine mind with a genuine compassion for people. “I think it's important to try and make a difference in whatever you do,” Bill said. Moreover, the record seems to prove he did. He was responsible for the Company's mentoring program; he became an accomplished public speaker and, ran workshops for employees at all levels; he developed an innovative approach to the problem of harassment in the workplace and gave seminars across North America. “I think, all too often, we tend to disregard the role luck plays in our lives. I made a career out of making the most of my good fortune.”

Bill has visited Buckingham Palace, fished for salmon in Labrador with a Prime Minister and was recently made an 'Honorary Woman' by the IODE for assisting in their fund raising efforts. He lives with his wife, Lise, in a 150-year-old stone house on 56 acres in Norwood, east of Peterborough, Ontario and believes the old axiom that the enemy of life isn't death – it's boredom. He built a fully functional log cabin from scratch, using 120 cedar logs and 1200 stones for the fireplace. He claims to be a reasonable gardener, a prolific birdhouse maker a passable cook, and is blissfully happy living the life of a gentleman farmer. He tries to see his three children as often as possible– Dwight, in Boston (with the three grandchildren), Cory, in Rhode Island and Jody, in Vancouver and treasures the friendship of old CCHS classmates.

When questioned about his success he says, “I feel that God created average people, like me, to give others confidence that they too can succeed if they are prepared to work at it.” Asked what inscription he would like to see on his tombstone, he quotes the opening lines from the novel Scaramouch, “Born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad.” Interestingly, this same quote appears beside his picture in the Chambly County High School annual in 1953 – the year he graduated.

If our teenage years play a critical part of who we eventually become then I was blessed to have lived in St. Lambert.

2006 - Bill in Florida with grandson who is proudly wearing
a St. Lawrence University hockey jersey.