Newfoundland hardware boss built an empire; Pragmatic founder built up one of largest hardware chains in Atlantic Canada
ST. JOHN'S -- The founder of Atlantic Canada's best-known building-supply stores has died. Eli Chester Dawe, the pragmatic and inventive business force behind Chester Dawe Ltd, died after a long illness. He was 98. Known as Chester (it was a family custom that the children were called by their middle names), Mr. Dawe ran the family-run Chester Dawe Ltd., which he built up to be one of the largest hardware chains in the region. The youngest of seven sons and nine children surviving of Captain William and Eliza (Russell), Mr. Dawe was born in Bay Roberts, Nfld., in 1904 to a mercantile/seafaring family. He learned bookkeeping at a business school and then spent two years apprenticing with machine and cooperage plants in Boston and New York. In 1929, Mr. Dawe became the manager of the newly opened St. John's outlet of the family firm William Dawe and Sons. "He was keenly pragmatic and had an intimate, hands-on, encyclopedic knowledge of how Newfoundland worked," said artist Christopher Pratt, Mr. Dawe's nephew. "At 16 or 17, he'd be sent to White Bay or Samonier to move a boiler by slide to Holyrood, and then by schooner or train." Mr. Dawe launched Chester Dawe Ltd. in 1945, with a head office on Topsail Road in St. John's. The chain now has eight locations and a staff of 250. Not content to supply only building materials, the company later engaged in such complex projects as a lumber mill on the Northern Peninsula, military bases and housing developments. Mr. Dawe was a significant lobbyist for the provincial introduction of CMHC low-cost housing in the late 1950. Better Homes was Chester Dawe Ltd.'s real-estate arm, and the 900-home Woodlands subdivision, in the east end of St. John's, is a 20-year project that wraps up next year. The company oversaw everything from blueprints to marketing, said Gary Reardon, of Reardon Construction and Development, who was a former manager of Better Homes and who credits Mr. Dawe as a mentor. "In a sense, he was the last of an era," said Ed Roberts, Newfoundland's Lieutenant-Governor, whose parents were good friends with Mr. Dawe and his wife, Phyllis. "He was educated during the First World War, and a successful businessman from the decades before Confederation." The family enterprises included a sawmill in Roddickton, Avalon Coal and Salt, and Dawe's Nail and Hardware. Mr. Roberts, who once had summer jobs at Chester Dawe Ltd., recalled Mr. Dawe's commitment to Newfoundland-based manufacturing. "He was passionate about the fact that we should do things in Newfoundland, that things should be made here. For example, no one had ever done anything with birch but use it for firewood. He set up a birch factory in Donovan's to make plywood and doors." Mr. Dawe had more than commercial interests in rural Newfoundland. He knew and loved it well. He owned the Hemmer Jane, a 65-foot yacht that was the largest private pleasure craft in Newfoundland. While most boaters would sail around Conception Bay for a weekend, Mr. Dawe went on six-week-long trips along the Labrador coast. He also used the boat to take the Anglican archbishop to remote communities. Mr. Dawe was active to almost the end of his life, said Mr. Roberts. "Up to six months ago, he'd have his driver take him to the office for an hour. He enjoyed life immensely. A splendid man." Mr. Dawe was, however, intensely private, said Mr. Pratt. "He was not self-absorbed, but self-aware. Nothing got past him. When it came to family, friends and Newfoundland, he was a total romantic, although he would not have used that word. He would get his driver to take him to Bay Roberts, and he would visit places he and his father had been, and look at the ocean and play Cape St. Mary's on the car stereo." Mr. Dawe was predeceased by his wife Phyllis, whom he married in 1930. She died in 1999. He leaves his daughters Janet Gardiner and Sonia Dawe Ryan. Eli Chester Dawe, entrepreneur; born in Bay Roberts, Nfld., on May 17, 1904; died in St. John's on Dec, 16, 2002
Source: By J.M. SULLIVAN; Special to The Globe and Mail; Friday, February 14, 2003 - Page R13