Senator’s
Statements
Senator W. David Angus
February
3rd and 8th, 2005
The Late Roy Fraser Elliott, C.M., Q.C.
Honourable
Senators, I rise today with much sadness to signal the
passing last Wednesday in Toronto of a truly remarkable
Canadian, a man I was privileged to know as a friend and loyal
partner for close to 50 years.
Roy Fraser
Elliott lived a diverse and productive life and Canada is
surely enhanced for his having passed this way. On Monday
afternoon, Grace Church on the Hill in Toronto was full to
capacity as individuals whose lives he touched in a myriad of
ways came from near and far to celebrate his life.
As the French
would say, Fraser Elliott “avait beaucoup de cordes à son
arc”. He had many strings to his bow. He was a brilliant
lawyer, a canny businessman and entrepreneur, a sensitive
patron of the arts and a generous benefactor to countless
causes and institutions. He was also an astute art collector
and an avid sportsman. He loved golf and salmon fishing. His
ardent competitive spirit, so evident in his professional and
business life, was also alive and well on the golf course.
He was born in
Ottawa on November 25th, 1921, the son of Colin
Fraser Elliott, a lifetime civil servant, whose career
included terms as Deputy Minister of Revenue and Ambassador to
Chile.
Fraser’s higher
education included a B. Comm. from Queen’s University in 1943,
a law degree from Osgoode Hall in 1946 and a Harvard MBA in
1947. Although a proud son of Ontario, after Harvard, Fraser
ventured to Montreal where his extraordinary career would take
shape and evolve over the next 30 years before he decided in
1976 to continue his noble pursuits in Toronto. He quickly
mastered the mysteries of “le droit civil” and was sworn in as
a Member of Le Barreau du Quebec in 1948. Fraser befriended
his father’s protégé, a brilliant young tax lawyer named
Heward Stikeman, who had just returned to Montreal after nine
years as a government lawyer in Ottawa including two years as
special counsel to the Senate Banking Committee with a mandate
to design a complete new set of tax laws for Canada.
In 1952, these
bright and ambitious young men as partners founded their own
tax/corporate boutique law firm, Stikeman & Elliott. They
complemented each other beautifully; Stikeman being the
visionary intellectual and legal purist, and Elliott the
pragmatic businessman. Today, Stikeman Elliott is a leading
global law firm with close to 400 lawyers and Fraser was still
attending the office regularly as recently as two weeks ago.
For Fraser
Elliott, hard work, focus, loyalty, integrity and sound
judgment were the key ingredients to success. He also
earnestly believed that success and good fortune carry with
them the obligation to “put back” to society. He always
encouraged his colleagues and associates to “get involved” and
to participate in community affairs and public service.
Fraser’s
incisive business acumen manifested itself outside the law
firm through a wide variety of successful commercial ventures
through which he accumulated a substantial fortune. By far
his favorite and best known business pursuit was Canadian
Aviation Electronics or CAE. He and Mr. Stikeman invested in
CAE in 1951 as a small start-up technology company. Fraser
went on to serve as its Chairman and guiding spirit for over
50 years. CAE is today one of Canada’s proudest business
success stories having become a vast global corporation and
the world’s principal designer and producer of aircraft flight
simulators.
Fraser Elliott’s
philanthropy included quiet support for numerous cultural,
health and educational organizations with which he became
involved, often in a leadership role, and to whom he donated
literally tens of millions of dollars.
Fraser’s
admirable accomplishments were deservedly recognized when he
was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1980.
He was
predeceased by his wife Betty Ann McNicoll and is survived by
his six children and their families. Fraser Elliott has now
gone to his eternal resting place; may he rest in peace.
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