With sadness I must report the passing of William C. Tate, my stepfather, on Thursday. Bill and my mother met and fell in love when I was a young teenager. He was a neighbour, and I had met him, and even stayed over at his house with his son before they would meet, which is a bit unusual. He was kind and generous and supported her and our family for many decades. While he died from cancer, it came upon him quite suddenly and he was fortunately strong until near the end.

Bill was a leader in Toronto’s business community. He started out in the finance dept. of the small Canadian office of Garret Corporation, a major aerospace manufacturer. Quickly he was put in charge, and built it up to a 1,400 person operation making a variety of important components for civil and military aircraft.

I have created a site with a slight longer obituary and a link to a comment/guestbook thread on this blog. Visit the Bill Tate memorial at wctate.com or the guestbook page.