Plane crash victims known for generosity
Witnesses say aircraft attempted an emergency landing in Maine
Joe Robertson helped create a dental-supply firm and sold it for millions before he turned 40 and then, with his wife, Anita, became a major philanthropist in southern Ontario.
The couple, both 58, and their 24-year-old daughter Laura Robertson, were killed in a Maine plane crash Monday as they flew to P.E.I. for a vacation.
“He was unbelievable. He was a machine. You couldn’t find a better business partner. He’s brilliant and caring and thoughtful and fair. The best Bay Street lawyers, he would correct their work,” said Carman Adair, his business part- ner. The business partners built Arcona Health Inc. into a firm with $65 million in annual sales and over 900 staff before it was sold in 1998, he said.
The cause of the crash remains unknown, though the National Transportation Safety Agency has launched a probe.
The plane took off from Pembroke, near the family’s Golden Lake, Ont., cottage, and was bound for Charlottetown, with plans to carry on after a few days to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Terry Williams, a spokesman for the NTSB, says Robertson called in a loss of engine power to Boston air-traffic control on Monday morning.
Witnesses watched as the aircraft passed by the municipal airport, banked and plunged to the ground as an emergency landing was attempted.
Brian McMullan, a former mayor of St. Catharines, said the couple became key philanthropists in the Niagara area.
He said in an interview that the Niagara-on-the-Lake residents were “genuine, decent people,” whose donation to the St. Catharines performing arts centre helped revitalize the city’s centre. They were also strong supporters of Brock University, the United Way and Niagara Health, he said.
They are survived by two adult sons.