In April we inducted two new members: Frank Fisher introduced by Jim Tonner and Brian Taylor by Doug Brown.

Our profiler was Paul Nelson. The computer was central to most of Paul’s business career. In the seventies, working for CP, he handled, in fast order via a computer program, damage claims for the Mississauga rail disaster and did similar work in the eighties for the Air India crash. Not surprisingly his three children are all computer experts. Our speaker was Bruce Woods, a Hamilton author and newspaper columnist. His topic Books as Theatre was illustrated by his own two books, both a family story involving mainly his mother and grandmother. The family seemed always on the move but constantly coming back to home base in Stratford. His mother and father broke up and mother had mental health problems. Once grown up Bruce  uses his gift for selling, inherited from his father, to work himself through university and settle him in his career.

In May Tim Horton’s gave us free coffee because of a mistake they had made in our order. We used the money saved to make a donation to the Tim Horton’s Camp Fund. It was announced that Adam Timoon would once again supply the entertainment at the President’s Reception in September. Members will remember the great job he did last year. Our profiler was Gord Thomas. Gord was born in England, spent WWII in Wales as an evacuee; then had an outstanding academic career gaining an MA, Ph.D in Chemistry at Queens followed by post doctoral work at Ohio State U. He then was employed in senior research positions with the Ontario Research Foundation (Ortech International) until retirement. Married for 54 years, he has 6 children. Our speaker was Ian London who talked to us about rare earths. Rare earths actually are not rare, but they are rare in concentrated form. They were first discovered in 1794 in Sweden. In 1953 world demand was 1000 tons but has since grown fast. In 2008 demand reached 126,000 tons. Rare earths are used in lights, lasers, MRIs, hybrid vehicles, magnets, UV resistant glass, wind turbines, magnets and batteries. China controls 95% of the market.