Inducted July 2021 Nominated by Murray Pearson
While it’s been a few years since Phil hung up his curling shoes, his energetic personality, his willingness to get involved and his leadership were a major factor in the early development and later, the operation of the club.
As a curler, he enjoyed the competitive side of the game as well as the social aspect, often being the one to ‘put the cat out and turn off the lights’ at closing time. He played in the Tubman, Tuesday night and Friday Mixed leagues, making lots of friends and earning the odd trophy along the way. He is one of the few members to every score an 8-ender as a skip (I know that because he earned it playing against me!). He often played ‘on-the-road’ too, both in mixed and men’s spiels, often with Bill Erickson’s team where they represented HCC well in bonspiels across the province (I think the Kingston Fishermen’s spiel was his favourite). He has been a true ambassador for HCC and I know he looks back on his involvement as some of the best times of his life.
Phil was a member of the original organizing team that started the HCC. He put his money where his mouth is, he was one of a few committed members of the community who took on personal liability for the bank loan that was needed to begin the construction of the building. Phil served on the Board of Directors as President, Bar, Kitchen and Membership chairs, providing many hours of his time to these duties.
He served during a critical time when our 2-sheet club’s membership had dropped dangerously low to below 100 members. Phil accepted the Presidency and used his leadership and influence in the community to encourage and engage other local Carp community members and leaders to support and promote the club. As a successful businessman, Phil recognized the financial issues the club faced, realizing that action was needed to reduce the growing deficit that was threatening the survival of the club. He took the lead to successfully engineer the sale of the club to the Township, which reduced our tax burden, helping the club manage the financial pressures that threatened to overwhelm the operations budget. He worked the other side of the financial equation too, focusing the Board on finding ways to increase revenues and membership. Under his stewardship the club slowly reversed direction and grew with expansion to the club we have today. Without his enthusiasm and influence there’s no telling where we’d be today, maybe curling in other clubs! When we needed someone with vision to step up and act, Phil was our man!
