The End of an Era - William Leo Montgomery April 18, 1925 - Sept. 20, 2019

The End of an Era

On Friday morning, Sept. 20, 2019, we said Good-Bye to William Leo Montgomery

Born in Winnipeg on April 18, 1925, WLM joined the Canadian Navy when he was still a teenager.  He served on the corvette HMCS Nanaimo escorting convoys across the North Atlantic during WWII.  

He believed passionately in country and cause and agreed completely with the words from a familiar Remembrance Day poem that;
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
When the war ended, Bill enrolled at the University of Manitoba and graduated as an Electrical Engineer.

His first job out of school was with Amalgamated Electric, where he specialized in the application of ASCO transfer switches, which he bought from Davis Controls Ltd. in Toronto.  It wasn’t too long before Ces Davis recognized the potential of this young P.Eng. in Winnipeg and in 1956, Mr. Davis offered Bill a job and moved the Montgomery family from Winnipeg to Etobicoke.

For 35 years, Davis Controls was his home away from home.  Davis Controls provided the ways and means for Bill to raise his family, and he was conscious of that each and every day he went to work.  He approached his work with the same dedication and passion that he brought to everything he did.  He never lost his enthusiasm for work, but when he retired, he was as committed to enjoying his retirement years as he was to enjoying his 35 years at Davis.  Bill had a reputation for being ethical and honest and uncompromisingly fair.  He loved to travel, but even more than that, he loved to come home.  Home was the centre of his universe, because home was where Joan was.

I had the pleasure of working with him for 13 of those years and I am grateful that he enjoyed almost 30 healthy post-Davis years at home with his wife Joan.