The Greatest Hamiltonian

At first, I was inclined to pick George Hamilton as the greatest Hamiltonian. After all, he did found the city, right?

Well, the name of the article is “The Greatest Hamiltonian”. I hardly think it’s fair if George automatically got the title, don’t you?

In my opinion, the title should go to *drum roll*:

Ron Joyce.

Some of you may think I’m crazy. An ex-cop? A donut shop founder?

Sure, he wasn’t born in Hamilton, but who can control where they were born anyways? Not only did he serve on Hamilton’s police force, protecting our streets and ensuring the well-being of people, he entered a franchise partnership with another great Canadian hockey player, Tim Horton.

He is a prime example of how a normal person can do extraordinary things. I chose Ron Joyce because of his great business ability. He is a person I can aspire to, especially as I am in the Commerce faculty.

He bought out the franchise partnership when an untimely accident killed Tim Horton. He was basically the driving force behind the incredible growth of the franchise that has gained a fantastic reputation as one of the best coffee shops in North America.

He is also a great philanthropist. He has created the Tim Hortons Children Foundation, sending thousands of underprivileged children to camp each year. This even earned him the Gary Wright Humanitarian Award in 1991, which is obtainable periodically in recognition of the outstanding contributions to the betterment of community life throughout Canada. The recognition he has achieved has been primarily for his work with the Foundation, which he has received the Order of Canada, an extremely prestigious award that recognizes a lifetime of distinguished service in or to a particular community, group or field of activity – AKA Hamilton.

He has also donated to McMaster University – twice! $10 million dollars went towards the new sports stadium and $10 million dollars more went towards the new Burlington campus, which will be the expansion of the business program.

Ron Joyce is what I consider probably the greatest Hamiltonian. He was an average Joe that went on to do great things, and ended up helping a lot of people along the way, especially for his community, Hamilton. You can’t get much better than that.