NOSENKIS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-01 published
FUCHS,
Doctor
Helmuth (1929-2007)
It is with great sadness that the family of Helmuth
FUCHS announces
his passing on August 27, 2007 after a long illness. Helmuth
died peacefully in Wiarton, Ontario with his wife Mercedes Chacin
de FUCHS at his side. He will be sorely missed by his sons Christian
and Mathias, his adopted sons and daughters Mariano
CONSENS,
Chris PRODANOS,
Veronica
TRUJILLO and Flavia
CONSENS, his grandchildren
Marie-Andrea, Sebastien, Alex, Clemmy, Nicole, Micaela, Marina
and Nicolas, his sister Gerda (Bauer) and brother Hans Peter
and also by his innumerable Friends and colleagues in every corner
of the world. Helmuth is predeceased by his parents Margerette
(POSS) and Johann and his siter Rose-Marie. Helmuth was born
in Vienna, Austria on February 6, 1929. A man of many talents,
he became a renowned and distinguished ethnologist, museum professional
and educator. In 1956 he received his PhD in Ethnology and Archaeology
from the University of Vienna, with a focus on indigenous cultures
of Latin America. One year later, in 1957, the President of Austria
presented him with that country's most prestigious scholarly
award, the Theodor Korner Prize. Soon after, he became Curator
of Ethnology in the Museum of Natural Science in Caracus, Venezuela
and served as that institution's Chief of the Ethnology and Archaeology
Departments from 1962 to 1967. During his last three years in
Caracus, he dedicated half of his time to serving as visiting
professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
In 1967 Helmuth was asked to join the staff of the Royal Ontario
Museum as Curator in the Ethnology Department. Here he continued
his valuable field research on Indian tribes of northern South
America, contributing greatly to the collection of artifacts
and publications of the Royal Ontario Museum. From 1975 to 1980
he served as Curator-in-Charge of the Ethnology Department with
tremendous energy and dedication. In the period that followed,
up to his retirement from the museum in 1994, Helmuth
FUCHS acted
as a guest professor in some ten universities in Mexico, Peru,
Germany, Austria, Canada and U.S.A. He served on important committees,
including two terms on the Executive Board of the United Nations
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
International Committee on Ethnology Museums. After his retirement
he continued his museum work with Canadian Executive Service
Overseas donating his considerable skills, experience and knowledge
to various institutions and agencies throughout the world. Helmuth
passed his last years at his beloved retreat at Colpoy's Bay.
He took great pleasure tending his garden and feeding the birds
that found their way to his sanctuary; he found peace in listening
to their songs and to the sounds of the water nearby. He loved
to behold the fabulous view from his special lookout spot at
the kitchen table. And, perhaps most of all, he treasured the
time he was able to spend with all of his grandchildren - just
as they delighted in their time with him. In addition to his
prodigious professional achievements, Helmuth was also a man
of rare musical sensitivity and talent; had he not chosen the
career that he did, he might well have become an accomplished
concert pianist. He always shared his love of music with those
around him and entertained and delighted us all with his magnificent
performances and shared with us his collection of musical instruments
and music from all over the world. The family wishes to express
special thanks to Doctor Jean
MARMOREO and Doctor Maia
NOSENKIS and
to the staff of the Wiarton Hospital, as well as the staff at
CarePartners and Community Care Access Centre. The family also
expresses their special gratitude to Doctor Eric
BARKER who attended
Helmuth with utmost compassion and dedication not only during
the last eight months but during the last moments of his life.
We owe you all a debt of gratitude for the care and comfort you
gave to him. In accordance with Helmuth's wishes, cremation has
taken place. There will be no funeral home visitation or service.
There will be a memorial gathering at a later date. Arrangements
entrusted to the George Funeral Home, Wiarton, Ontario. Donations
made to the Wiarton Hospital or the Heart and Stroke Foundation
would be appreciated by the family as expressions of sympathy.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.georgefuneralhome.com
or Friends_Of_Helmuth_Fuchs@comcast.net
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NOSS o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2007-01-31 published
Arden Frederick
PIDGEN
In Loving Memory of Arden Frederick
PIDGEN who died peacefully at his
home on Monday, January 22, 2007 at the age of 81.
A WW2 Veteran, Lance Corporal
ARDEN was in the second wave in Normandy. Arden worked for
40 years at Robin Hood Flour Mill, in Port Colborne. He started the dart and horseshoe
leagues, was an avid bowler and was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion in Port Colborne.
He joined the Gore Bay Legion upon retiring in Silver Water. Born to Sophrona (née
HARPER)
and Harry PIDGEN on May 22, 1925 in Providence Bay. Cherished husband of 60 years to Vivian
(née LOVELACE.)
Loved father of Clayton and wife
Linda of Welland, Ken and wife Lori of Saint
Catharines, Ron and wife Barbara of Orillia, Lloyd and wife Kathi of Anaheim, California,
Doug and wife
Sue of Port Colborne, Arlene and husband Alan
McCAULEY of Welland. Special
grandfather of Jennifer (husband Jason
D'ANNA), James (wife Nancy), Jason, Jeffery, Amanda,
Laura, Sarah, Valerie (husband Remington
NOSS), Lisa, Erik, Ellen, Vivian Erika (predeceased),
Hailey, Caitlyn and great grandfather of Cameron and Logan. Visitation was from 2 - 4 and
7 - 9 pm, Thursday. Funeral Service was at 11 am, Friday, January 26, 2007 at Island Funeral
Home. Burial in the spring in Silver Lake Cemetery.
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NOSTRAND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-12 published
Headstrong Chief Executive Officer saved Churchill Falls and
rescued the Bank of Montreal
An emergency boss who took over after a plane crash wiped out
everyone else, he brought the power project in on time before
moving to a troubled Bank of Montreal, where he ruthlessly cleaned
house
By Gordon PITTS,
Page S8
Besides banking and family, William
MULHOLLAND's grand passion
was raising Hanoverian riding horses, which, according to one
of his nine children, are "headstrong, able and smart." Those
adjectives can just as easily be applied to her demanding father,
said Caroline
VAN
NOSTRAND.
Those traits helped propel Mr.
MULHOLLAND, a U.S.-born outsider,
into one of Canada's most exciting and controversial management
careers. He was the emergency boss who came in to save the massive
Churchill Falls power project in Labrador. Then he turned around
the Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest bank, and as a financial-services
innovator helped change the country's banking industry.
As an agent of change at the lacklustre Bank of Montreal, he
fired executives who didn't measure up, winning a reputation
as a tough, uncompromising boss. He tightened credit policies,
led technological innovation and bought a Chicago bank in a far-sighted
move that anticipated a North American market. He helped lead
the Canadian commercial banks' march into investment banking
with the purchase of brokerage Nesbitt Thomson.
Like many turnaround managers, he was accused of staying too
long as Chief Executive Officer and losing touch with a rapidly
evolving industry. Yet he reached down into the ranks to develop
a new generation of Bank of Montreal leaders that included future
Chief Executive Officers Matthew Barrett and Anthony Comper.
He was a complicated man who was seen as remote, autocratic,
introverted and eccentric, but he was regarded as brilliant for
some of his strategic moves. He could become deeply absorbed
in detail and alarmingly inattentive to people's feelings. In
describing him, Friends often fall back on that old cliché: "He
did not suffer fools gladly."
"My father was not always easy," said Ms.
VAN
NOSTRAND, who lives
in Toronto. "He had exacting standards and he upheld them for
himself and expected others to do their best to get that same
quality.
"But you can't mistake that for a lack of true caring and love
and a huge commitment to family."
Still, for all his high standards and strategic thinking, Mr.
MULHOLLAND's
own career was almost haphazard, the product of tragic circumstances,
timing and managerial agility.
He was born in Albany, New York the
son of a civil servant who
became New York's director of parks. Even at birth, he had a
Canadian connection - his maternal great-grandmother was a French-Canadian
from Trois-Rivières. He attended Christian Brothers Academy,
a Catholic military school in Albany, where he became an expert
rider, marksman, and fly fisherman -- interests he pursued throughout
his life.
He graduated from high school, joined the U.S. Army during the
Second World War and trained as a weapons instructor before being
posted to the Philippines. After discharge, he entered Harvard
College, got his B.A., then earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business
School, while working in the summers as a park ranger.
He then parlayed a social connection with the financier Morgan
family to join the investment banking house Morgan Stanley and
pursue a career on Wall Street.
He married the daughter of a family friend, Nancy
BOOTH, on June 22,
1957. Their rearing of nine children (four daughters and five
sons) has been attributed by his wife to the consequences of
a union between an Irish Catholic and a Free Methodist.
Mr. MULHOLLAND thrived in investment banking. One of his clients
was Brinco, a Montreal firm of British-Canadian origins that
was building the $1-billion Churchill Falls hydro project. He
placed a $500-million bond issue for the company - at that time,
a record sale of securities by a corporation.
But on November 11, 1969, Brinco's executive jet crashed, killing
six members of its senior team, including the president and finance
vice-president. The company was leaderless at a critical juncture
in the Churchill Falls project. Mr.
MULHOLLAND "was the last
man standing who knew what it was all about," said Richard
O'HAGAN,
who was later his public-affairs specialist at Bank of Montreal.
In January, 1970, at the age of 43, he moved to Montreal to become
Brinco's president and Chief Executive Officer. He also joined
the board of the Bank of Montreal, which was the principal commercial
banker for the Churchill Falls project. He brought the project
in five months ahead of schedule and under budget.
Ron SOUTHERN, the Calgary-based head of Atco Ltd., was supplying
Brinco with housing for its Churchill Falls work force. He was
also negotiating to build housing factories in the Soviet Union
and invited Soviet president Alexsei Kosygin to tour his facilities
in Montreal. Mr.
MULHOLLAND agreed to provide testimonials for
the Atco products, and impressed Mr.
SOUTHERN with his ability
to hold his own in intense geopolitical discussions.
It was the beginning of a Friendship that was cemented in the
mid-1970s, when Mr.
SOUTHERN opened his Spruce Meadows equestrian
centre near Calgary. Mr.
MULHOLLAND attended the first major
equestrian event, impressing Mr.
SOUTHERN with his own riding
skills. Each year, he would take a long country ride on the morning
of the big event.
With
Churchill
Falls complete, Mr.
MULHOLLAND was recruited to
become the Bank of Montreal's president in 1975. He found another
organization in crisis mode. "It took him about a year to get
a grip on the bank, but he was a bulldog and he got it done,"
Mr. SOUTHERN said.
The new banker became immersed in Bank of Montreal's liquidity
problems and cost-control challenges, as well as its struggles
to move from manual systems to the computer age. After the incumbent
Chief Executive Officer retired, he took the top job in January,
1979, adding the chairman's role 2½ years later.
He was involved in hiring Mr.
O'HAGAN, who had served in the
Prime Minister's Office under another eccentric legend, Pierre
Trudeau. Mr.
O'HAGAN recalled how his job interview with Mr.
MULHOLLAND
stretched to more than two hours, until he finally telephoned
his next interview party to beg forbearance. Mr.
O'HAGAN was
fascinated by this brilliant, obsessive man and joined the Bank
of Montreal team.
That extended interview was a harbinger of the
MULHOLLAND style.
He was notorious for unpredictably long meetings, forcing managers
to queue up for hours, awaiting audiences that lasted long into
the evening.
He was determined to weed out the perceived dead wood that had
allowed the bank's problems to build. In his zeal to cleanse
the ranks, he was accused of creating a demographic crisis in
the bank. One unidentified manager told Report on Business magazine
in 1989 that "an entire generation of management has been cremated."
"Those judgments were not made whimsically - they were made on
the basis of performance," insisted Grant
REUBER, the bank's
president during the
MULHOLLAND era. "I don't think he relished
letting people go, but if they hadn't measured up and they hadn't
recovered, they probably didn't survive."
Jeff CHISHOLM, a retired Bank of Montreal executive, said he
never saw this side of his former boss - Mr.
MULHOLLAND simply
demanded honest answers from his managers. He said his positive
traits never came to light because the Chief Executive Officer
did not really care what critics thought of him.
Mr. MULHOLLAND also pulled off a deal that transformed the bank:
the 1984 purchase of Harris Bank, a U.S. Midwest regional powerhouse
based in Chicago. Some critics have contended that once the deal
was done, the bank didn't really capitalize on its new U.S. platform
- but at minimum, Mr.
MULHOLLAND created the potential platform.
"He had a vision about what was going to happen to the North
American economy and to financial services within North America,"
said Mr. Chisholm, a former Harris Bank executive who joined
Bank of Montreal.
Later, Mr.
MULHOLLAND moved quickly on the deregulation of Canada's
financial industry by acquiring Nesbitt Thomson, the foundation
of today's Bank of Montreal Nesbitt Burns Inc., the bank's investment
subsidiary.
Whether he stayed too long is much debated; it's a common problem
with strong leaders in politics and business. But Mr.
MULHOLLAND's
saving grace was to leave the bank in good hands.
Mr. Barrett, his successor, was a charming people person who
provided a sharp contrast with his more aloof predecessor. Mr.
MULHOLLAND
"knew he was not Mr. Popularity with everybody," Mr.
O'HAGAN
said. "He recognized there would be a contrast and that Barrett's
personal style would register differently. I think that was part
of the reason he chose him."
Mr. Barrett, now retired from banking, said in an e-mail message
that "Bank of Montreal shareholders and employees owe a debt
of gratitude to Bill for stepping into the bank at a difficult
time in its history. Those that succeeded him benefited greatly
from his legacy.
"He once joked that he built the Stradivarius that others played
beautifully. I certainly agree with that."
After he retired in 1990, Mr.
MULHOLLAND had time to focus on
family, horses and his beloved Windswept Farm near Georgetown,
west of Toronto. He worked to develop the Hanoverian breed in
Canada.
But in recent years, Parkinson's disease took its toll. At the
MULHOLLANDs' 50th wedding anniversary party in early July, Friends
felt he almost willed himself to attend. It wasn't long afterward
that he was admitted to hospital.
William MULHOLLAND was born in Albany, New York on June 16, 1926.
He died of complications from Parkinson's disease and other medical
problems at his home near Georgetown, Ontario, on September 8,
2007. He was 81. He is survived by his wife Nancy, nine children
and 11 grandchildren.
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