He came to love adopted home
Bruce Gordon wins 2017 Barnraiser Award
WATERLOO REGION — When he first moved to Waterloo Region, Bruce Gordon thought he probably wouldn’t be staying that long.
Appointed in 2001 to run Manulife Financial’s Waterloobased Canadian operations, Gordon figured he’d be here for a few years before returning to Toronto or retiring to a beloved family spot on Lake Couchiching.
And then a funny thing happened.
“I literally fell in love with the people and the community,” says Gordon, winner of the Waterloo Region Record’s 2017 Barnraiser Award. “It is my opinion that many people born and raised here don’t realize how much we have here.”
Born and raised in Toronto, Gordon studied at Carleton University in Ottawa and qualified as a chartered accountant.
During his working life in Waterloo Region, Gordon gave back, serving on the University of Waterloo’s board of governors and the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation board, among others.
Since retiring from an 18-year Manulife career in 2007 — he still serves as chair of Manulife Assurance Canada — his involvement in his adopted community has grown considerably.
An abbreviated list includes roles as chair of Centre in the Square, campaign chair for Rare Charitable Research Reserve’s Waterfall Campaign, and chairing a group looking at responsible investing for UW. He’s a mentor and philanthropist, a partner with Social Venture Partners Waterloo Region and an investor and board member with healthcare technology firm Oculys Health Informatics.
And he’s done most of it without any regard for personal or professional gain.
“He’s focused on improving the life of people who live and work in this community,” says Tim Jackson, president of education charity Shad Canada and winner of the first Barnraiser award in 2008.
“He’s doing it for the greater good,” Jackson says. “It’s almost as if community-building has become his second career.”
Gordon knows a thing or two about the barnraiser spirit, that Mennonite tradition of selflessly pitching in to help your neighbours.
In 2009, he approached then UW president David Johnston for his assistance in creating a Barnraisers Council, a networked group that could work to identify and address strategic community issues.
“I said ‘You keep talking about the barn-raising spirit here, I want to steal the name,’ ” Gordon says. Jackson served as the council’s first chair; that’s now another of Gordon’s roles.
In recognizing leadership and celebrating accomplishments, the Record’s Barnraiser award was inspired by the goals Johnston set out in 2006 to turn the region into Canada’s knowledge capital.
Even in discussing being named this year’s Barnraiser, Gordon exemplifies its spirit of community before self.
“I have always tried to emphasize my teams. I worked with brilliant, brilliant management teams,” he says. “I don’t look for individual recognition, and yet to have this award, an individual recognition, means an awful lot.”
Throughout his career, education and health care were key areas of interest for Gordon; he championed Manulife’s longstanding support of local hospitals.
He was already serving on the board at the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation when his oldest son, David, was diagnosed with cancer. The young man received treatment at Grand River Hospital but died at age 33 in 2005.
“I was already aware, having lived here for a bit, of how caring this community is, and how it had grown,” he says, with the construction of leading facilities like the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre. “For sure, that helped me say ‘Even after retirement, I’m going to live here’.”
But as Jackson noted, Gordon certainly hasn’t slowed down.
“I firmly believe Waterloo Region is great, but not as good as it could be. We’ve got things we can do to make it even better,” Gordon says.
Too many post-secondary graduates move away once their studies are complete, he says. Transit links between the region and the Toronto area need to improve. Technology will continue to drive advancements at local educational and health care facilities.
“There are too many good people, too many good causes, and if they think I can help, I’ll do what I can,” Gordon says.
A key, the 73-year-old Waterloo resident says, is finding a balance.
He pulls his cellphone out of his pocket to show off a striking photo of a sunset taken at his home away from home on Lake Couchiching.
“I love this place. I enjoy being up there,” he says. “I have always protected that.”
You’ve got to find the balance that suits you, he says.
“Compared to being CEO of Manulife Canada and on a nineperson executive committee of worldwide management of Manulife, what I’m doing now isn’t as demanding of time, let’s put it that way,” Gordon insists.
And besides, his community roles don’t feel like work to him.
“No matter what I do, whether that was professionally in my career or whether it was in the not-for-profit sector, I want to leave things better than I found them,” Gordon says. “I like having the feeling that I’ve contributed and made it better for children, for grandchildren, for the preservation and expansion of what we have.”