St. Clair Balfour III OC DSC (April 30, 1910 – May 9, 2002) was a Canadian businessman.

St. Clair Balfour
Born
St. Clair Balfour III

(1910-04-30)April 30, 1910
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
DiedMay 9, 2002(2002-05-09) (aged 92)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma materTrinity College, Toronto
Known forPresident and Chairman of Southam Inc.

Biography edit

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of St. Clair Balfour II and Ethel May Southam (the daughter of William Southam, the founder of Southam Newspapers), he attended Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario and he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Trinity College in 1931. In 1933, he married Helen Gifford Staunton (1908-2010).[1] They had two children: Lisa Balfour Bowen and St. Clair Balfour IV and two grandchildren, Arabella Bowen and Staunton Bowen.

He then started working for The Hamilton Spectator, a Southam newspaper. He would remain at Southam until retiring as Chairman in 1985. During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Navy in the North Atlantic and was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross.

After the war, he returned to The Spectator becoming its publisher in 1951. In 1954, he was appointed executive vice-president and managing director of the Southam company. He became president in 1961. In 1975, he was appointed Chairman.

In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of being one of the "most highly respected newspaper publishers in Canada".[2]

He died in Toronto of lung cancer in 2002.

References edit

  1. ^ Death Notice of Helen Gifford Balfour, The Globe and Mail, September 6, 2010. Helen Balfour had died on August 25, 2010. Along with her daughter Lisa Balfour Bowen and son-in-law Walter Bowen, she remained a member of the Presidents' Circle of donors to the University of Toronto well into her 90s: see List of Members of Presidents' Circle 2005-2006; www.alumni.utoronto.ca.
  2. ^ "Order of Canada".

External sources edit