TORONTO – It was an overflow house of hundreds of family, friends, politicians and Canadian business glitterati who gathered in Toronto’s St. James Cathedral on a grey, rainy Tuesday morning to pay their final respects to Ted Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications and one of the leading lights of Canadian business.
Rogers died December 2nd of heart disease at the age of 75.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, former PM Brian Mulroney, Shaw Communications founder JR Shaw and his son, CEO Jim Shaw, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, Bell Canada CEO George Cope, Astral chairman Andre Bureau, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, Loblaw’s Galen Weston Sr. and Jr., CTVglobemedia’s Ivan Fecan, Toronto Mayor David Miller, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, former Alliance Atlantis CEO Phyllis Yaffe, former Ontario Lieutenant-Governor Lincoln Alexander as well as current L-G David Onley, and many other business leaders as well as numerous current and former RCI executives and employees such as former RCI president Colin Watson, former cable head and current Ontario PC leader John Tory, past Rogers Cable EVP Dean MacDonald and former Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey filled the pews.
What they heard were four eloquent, touching, sometimes very funny, eulogies from long-time friend and CFO, current board chair and acting CEO Alan Horn, Ted’s son, cable chief Edward Rogers, and his daughters Martha and Melinda (who is SVP strategy and development at RCI).
Horn called Ted “an inspiration,” and “a leader” who “dreamt big and lived big.”
Both Horn and Edward also referenced Rogers’ preference for bright blue, or “electric” blue suits, said Horn, a fashion choice that made many a Rogers employee roll their eyes through the years. “You want to stand out when you enter a room,” said Edward, remembering his father’s sartorial advice, which he himself has so far disregarded.
Rogers definitely stood out in the communications and media industry in North America, in business in general and in the country as a whole. He was also lauded for the tens of millions he and his wife Loretta have donated to universities, hospitals and the less fortunate.
History just might judge him as Canada’s greatest entrepreneur and businessman, someone who built a 29,000-employee, multi-billion dollar media and communications empire from a single FM radio station. His oft-stated life’s goal was to rebuild the Rogers name in the communications field. Ted’s own father invented the radio tube, owned CFRB as well as a manufacturing company and was well on his way to building something special in Canadian business himself when he died at the age of 38 and the family business was later sold.
It wasn’t an easy rebuild though. Ted worked stunningly long hours and took many big risks – and drove his executives and employees very hard to build RCI to what it is today. “He loved to be David against the Goliath,” said Edward. “First, Standard Radio, then Canadian Cable, then Bell. He loved to be the underdog.”
Edward recalled being told numerous times by his father after certain company meetings: “’That was the best meeting I’ve had’… But the other people walking out of the of the room didn’t look like they felt the same way.”
While Horn praised his friend’s many qualities, he notably called Rogers’ patience “a work in progress,” to knowing chuckles from the mourners and paraphrased his former boss by saying: “you know that report you said you’d have next week? Do you think you could have it for me this afternoon?”
The three Rogers children who spoke (Ted’s daughter Lisa gave a reading later in the ceremony) also leant some personal touches, too, recalling a family man who read bedtime stories, changed meetings for kids activities, ate dinner with the family and wrestled with his kids and grandkids.
Always the optimist, Ted firmly believed in the future and “the power of having something to look forward to,” said Melinda, and of course, loved using the line: “The best is yet to come,” as many will remember.
“With him gone, it’s hard to think how that can be the case,” said Edward. But by pushing onward and continuing his father’s life’s work, “we can take that torch and honour him… Our whole family will work as hard as we can to ensure his legacy and make sure that the best is yet to come.”
