Samuel McLaughlin

Samuel McLaughlin
Born	September 8, 1871(1871-09-08) Enniskillen, Ontario (Hamlet)
Died	January 6, 1972(1972-01-06) (aged 100) Oshawa, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	businessman and philanthropist
Awards	Order of Canada

Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC, ED, CD (September 8, 1871 – January 6, 1972) was an influential Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada. 1895 became Partner McLaughlin Carrage Company 1901 Director and Sec-Treasurer McLaughlin Carrage Co Limited 1907 President McLaughlin Motor Car Company Limited 1910 Director General Motors Company (Detroit) 1915 Director and Treasurer Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada Ltd 1917 Director Dominion Bank of Canada to 1959 1918 Director and Vice-President of General Motors Corporation 1919 President General Motors of Canada Limited 1919 President of McLaughlin Motor Car Company Limited (New Co) 1919 President of Olds Motor Works of Canada Limited 1919 President Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada Limited (New Co) 1922 President Oakland Motor Car Company of Canada Limited 1923 President Cadillac Motor Car Company of Canada Limited 1923 President General Motors Truck Company of Canada Limited 1926 President General Motors Products of Canada Limited 1930 Director Canadian Pacific Railroad Director of Power Corporation Genstar Limited (this information from GM archives)

Born near Bowmanville in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario, the son of Robert McLaughlin, he started working in 1887 for his father's company, McLaughlin Carriage Works, at one time the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn buggies and sleighs in the British Empire. With engines from William C. Durant of Buick he produced the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, establishing The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, incorporated on November 20, 1907. In 1908, its first full year of operation, it produced 154 cars. In 1910 he became a director of General Motors and sold his company in 1918 becoming president of General Motors of Canada, which continued to sell cars under the McLaughlin-Buick brand until 1942. He retired in 1945, but remained chairman of the board until his death.

He remained on the Board of General Motors until the early 1960s, and was coincidentally replaced by Royal Bank of Canada President Earle McLaughlin, his first cousin once removed.

His brother, chemist J.J. McLaughlin, founded the Canada Dry company. After J.J.'s death in 1912, Sam also became President of this company briefly until it was sold about 1917.

McLaughlin was appointed Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 34th Ontario Regiment in 1921 and held this position until 1931, at which time he was appointed Honorary Colonel of same unit, later designated as The Ontario Regiment (RCAC), a reserve armoured regiment based in Oshawa. Affectionately known as "Colonel Sam," McLaughlin served as Honorary Colonel until 1967, earning the distinction as the longest continuously serving Honorary Colonel in the history of the Canadian Forces. In 1967 Sam McLaughlin was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Philanthropy

In 1951 he established the McLaughlin Foundation which donated nearly $200 million alone to the University of Toronto from 1953 to 2003 ,various causes, including the McLaughlin Planetarium to the Royal Ontario Museum. His mansion, Parkwood Estate, begun in 1916, was designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Darling and Pearson. In 1989, the Parkwood estate was officially designated a National Historic Site of Canada.^[1][2] He was also a major contributor to Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. The University's Mechanical Engineering Department is housed in McLaughlin Hall which was his donation in 1948. The McLaughlin Hall in the Queen's University's John Deutsch University Centre is also named for him. His wife Adelaide McLaughlin was honoured in 1957 by Queen's, which named the women's residence Adelaide Hall for her.

He provided partial funding to build a college at York University in Toronto. Opened in 1968, it was named McLaughlin College in his honour.

McLaughlin Hall at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario, which he unveiled in 1971 at age 99, is named after him in recognition of his contributions to the school.

McLaughlin also endowed the Regimental Foundation of The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) and quietly paid the salaries of some of the regiment's soldiers during times of severely curtailed government funding.

Thoroughbred horse racing

In his youth, Samuel McLaughlin competed in cycling and yachting and was an equestrian show jumping champion at competitions in Canada and the United States. His love of horses led to the establishing of Parkwood Stable, a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding farm located a few miles north of Oshawa, Ontario.

McLaughlin's horses won numerous races in Canada and in the U.S. his horses won important races including the 1942 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park. A three-time winner of Canada's most prestigious race, the Queen's Plate, in 1934 his future Hall of Fame colt Horometer won both the Queens Plate and the Breeders' Stakes. In 1950, the nearly eighty-year-old McLaughlin retired from racing, selling his Parkwood Stable to E. P. Taylor under whom it would become known as Windfields Farm.

A long-time director of the Ontario Jockey Club, Colonel McLaughlin was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1963 and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1977.

References

1. ^ Parkwood, Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada
2. ^ Parkwood. Canadian Register of Historic Places.

External links

• Parkwood, The R.S. McLaughlin Estate
• The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) Museum Oshawa, Ontario

Persondata
Name	Maclaughlin, Robert Samuel
Alternative names	Samuel
Short description	businessman, philanthropist
Date of birth	September 8, 1871
Place of birth	Enniskillen, Ontario, Canada
Date of death	January 6, 1972
Place of death	Oshawa, Ontario