Donald James Smith (March 23, 1924 – July 16, 2013) was a Canadian business leader, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He was president and CEO of EllisDon Corporation and is widely recognized for co-founding the construction giant and the landmark projects it was responsible for completing. EllisDon now has over 2500 employees, bringing in over $3.5 billion in revenues annually.
Early life
Donald "Bus" Smith was born on March 23, 1924, in Provost, Alberta, to Donald Bennett Smith and Florence Marie Smith. Don had an older brother, David Ellis Smith, and a younger sister, Muriel.
In 1929, when the stock market crashed, Donald Bennett Smith, a bank manager, lost everything. In 1930, during the Great Depression, when Don was six years old, his father suddenly died leaving Florence and the children with nothing at all. With no prospects in Provost and no way of supporting her family, Florence and her children were forced to move to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Upon moving to North Toronto, Florence found a home and a job as a Sales Clerk at Eaton's department store. Soon after, Smith's cousin George Ellis moved in with the family when his own father died.
With his mother always working and no father, Smith decided he needed to start making his own way. At the age of 10, Smith was given a toy movie projector from his mother. He proved himself a natural entrepreneur when he began using it to host Charlie Chaplin movie screenings in his basement for the neighbourhood kids, charging five-cents a head per showing. Smith later became a paper boy for the Toronto Star with his own route where he was successful. A combination of the Toronto Star paper route and other part-time jobs taught Smith the value of hard work.
As a young adult, Smith aspired to be an aeronautical engineer and so he enrolled into the Engineering program at the University of Toronto. Due to a condition from birth, Smith suffered from a tremor in his hands which caused him to have bad writing. Smith's professors returned ungraded tests because they could not read his writing and as a result, he was forced to drop out of school after his first year of university. Shortly after, he joined Foundation Company, one of the biggest construction firms in Canada at the time where he was made Superintendent by the age of 25.
In January, 1949, Smith married his wife, Elizabeth Joan McDonald. The newlywed couple moved to London, Ontario where they had their first child, Catherine, the same year in November. Catherine was their first of seven children followed by Robert, Lynne, Geoff, Michael, Donald, and David. Joan was a University of Toronto graduate with a degree in Philosophy. She began her career with charitable service and eventually moved on to municipal and provincial politics.
Career
At age 27, Smith quit his job at Foundation Company in pursuit of his own company. On April Fools' Day, 1951, Smith and his brother David launched EllisDon. The name of the company combined Don's first name and David's middle name, Ellis. Their first project was a small home renovation job which was funded by their mother who was also their bookkeeper. On the first day of business EllisDon also received a contract for a small three-room schoolhouse, Northdale Public School in London, Ontario. Shortly after its inception, David left EllisDon and relocated to Calgary, Ontario.
From the beginning, Smith built EllisDon into an industry leader with rapid growth. It began with schools and universities and eventually moved into other sectors like healthcare and office buildings, among other projects. Between 1956 and 1968, EllisDon made critical business investments, which included computerizing its accounting and cost control systems, and operating a purchased tower crane – the first construction company in Canada to do both. In 1971, EllisDon cemented safety as a top priority by becoming one of the first construction companies to launch a Corporate Safety Strategy to improve overall job site safety. Between 1974 and 1976, EllisDon focused on expanding, and established operations in Edmonton, Alberta and in Saudi Arabia. In 1978, and in the next three years that followed, EllisDon took on local projects that included the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario; Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta; a Bank of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario; and Peel Regional Police Headquarters and 22 Division in Brampton, Ontario– to name a few.