Thursday, December 30, 2021
I worked for Doug Smith, who worked directly for Al, in the early and mid 1980's. I think families, especially children, only have a vague idea of what their parents do. Al could be very demanding, but also had a great, wry sense of humor. Personally, he was the most impactful person I ever had the privilege of working for. He did amazing work on behalf on the people of Ontario while at Ontario Hydro. His reward was having been treated rather poorly when Maurice Strong became the Chairman of the company. I can only surmise that Strong did what he did because he was either intimidated by Al, or he simply wanted to make a statement. In any case the company and its successors have not seen the like of Al since, in my opinion.
I left the company over twenty years ago and have lost track of most people there.During these 'Covid' times I have decided to attempt to write about that period in the eighties, especially about the fine work your father did. And I was hoping that I may have had a chance to speak to him about those times. I'm sure he was a great loss to your family. He was a great contributor to this province and was a great loss to the company when he left.
Sincerely,
Richard Ronchka
