An Interview with 50-year Member Gerry Norman, CGA

At Hamilton Chapter’s 2005/2006 Annual General Meeting, it was announced that Gerry Norman, CGA, has been a member in good-standing with the Association for 50 years. Having only received my designation in 2001, at the time I remember thinking, “Wow, what an accomplishment!”

I had the pleasure of meeting Gerry and his wife Barbara at the New Members Dinner and Dance in November 2005, when Blake Mercer, CGA and Joyce Evans, FCGA, presented the 50-year Award to Gerry. We had an opportunity to chat during dinner, and I suggested that we schedule an interview that would be published in our newsletter. After several conversations via e-mail, we decided to have a telephone interview one Sunday evening. I refilled my wine glass and settled down to chat and make notes. The hour disappeared as Gerry talked about his work experience as a CGA and the company he worked for—Rheem Canada.

Gerry was born and raised in the Oshawa area and moved to Stoney Creek as a teenager, where he finished his last year and a half of secondary education at Saltfleet High School. During that time he also worked part-time at a local drug store in the stock room and at the counter with customers. During his final stages of grade 13, one of his teachers recommended Gerry to her brother, who was the accountant for Rheem Canada, and was in the process of looking for new staff.

The company, located on Barton Street in Hamilton, was expanding rapidly and had an opening for an accounting clerk. So, in 1948, Gerry joined the company, which manufactured steel drums for the petroleum industry. Two years later, the accountant, who was also his mentor, suggested that Gerry should enrol in one of the accounting programs. After investigating all three accounting designations, Gerry decided that the CGA program of professional studies would suit his needs the best. It took Gerry three years to complete his required courses. He commented that there were fewer courses required then than are for the program today!

Not long after Gerry received his designation, the accountant for Rheem was promoted to the treasurer’s position, and Gerry became the accountant. At that time there were approximately 50 employees and the company was jointly owned by Rheem in New York and Hamilton Bridge (which later became Bridge and Tank Company of Canada).

Gerry spent 45 years with Rheem Canada. During that period it diversified from producing steel drums to water heaters and copper tube boilers, and for several years made special shipping and storage containers for Orenda jet engines. Gerry noted that the company recently announced that it will cease Canadian manufacturing operations this year.

Gerry enjoyed all the time he spent with the company. He commented that the CGA designation helped open many doors for him throughout his career. In 1958, Gerry’s mentor left Rheem to assume the position of treasurer for Hamilton Bridge. This opened the door for Gerry to become the new treasurer of Rheem Canada. By that time, the company had been expanding with steady growth in sales. In fact, Canadian Chemicals of Edmonton was a major customer and Rheem sent rail cars of drums to Alberta for the chemical and petroleum industry. Rheem also produced drums with special linings for the food industry. The business in Western Canada warranted opening a satellite plant in Edmonton in 1960 and on Annacis Island in Vancouver in 1965.

By this time Rheem’s manufacturing division covered an entire block in Hamilton, bordered by Tiffany and Caroline Streets. The building they occupied had originally been owned by a structural steel company. At this time the American parent company purchased another company, Ruud, which manufactured commercial water heaters and combined the two companies. The commercial water heater production was moved to the Hamilton facility.

In 1970 Rheem Canada set up two divisions. Its steel container business was located in Oakville with satellite plants in Alberta and British Columbia, and its water heater production was handled in the Hamilton plant.

At this time Gerry was responsible for three sets of general ledgers with 30 employees in the accounting department. The payroll had grown to 500 people distributed across Canada. Gerry remembers the old manual ledgers before the company moved to a computer data service (punch cards), and then finally invested in its own computer systems.

In 1980, problems in the American market resulted in the sale of Rheem’s container division. Rheem also went through some ownership changes when it was sold to City Investing in New York and then to Paloma Industries of Nagoya, Japan in 1987.

After 45 years with the company, Gerry retired in 1993. He stated that he learned as he went along and received help from the parent company. The best part of the job was planning the direction where Rheem would go next. He enjoyed dealing with the banks, various auditors, union negotiations, and handling the activities of several different operations.

Since his retirement, Gerry has been active as a Red Cross driver and he frequents the golf links. In addition to his many successes, Gerry and his wife Barbara celebrated 53 years of marriage in 2005. Gerry and Barbara have three children, Suzanne, Judy and Paul.

As our conversation came to a close, Gerry commented again how the CGA designation opened so many doors for him. The Association was in its infancy when he started as a student. Gerry mentioned that during the past 50 years the Association has been fighting for public licensing and he was pleased to see it finally coming to a conclusion. His advice to new students in the program? “Go for it! But you need to make the effort, have the determination and use your brain power to perform for your employers.”

Note: As I was doing the research for this article, I stumbled on a terrific website about former businesses in Industrial Hamilton at http://collections.ic.gc.ca/industrial/. Having completed a master degree in history years ago, I spent several enjoyable hours reading about Hamilton’s industrial past.

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