The Charles J. Carter Award is given from time to time to a Member or Past Member of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce to recognize high standards of excellence in business, community service, and/or volunteer work done within the Chamber.

CRITERIA

• Recognition of high standards of excellence in business
• Recognition of community service
• Recognition of volunteer work done in the Chamber of Commerce
• Not necessarily awarded annually
• Member or past member of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce

NOMINATING PROCESS

• A list of potential nominees will be generated by the Past Chair Committee.
• The Recommendation/Nomination from the Past Presidents’/Chairs will be forwarded to the Board of Directors for ratification at the March Board meeting, accompanied with rationale and a biography of the nominee.
• The award will be presented at the Business Awards in April.

The candidate’s name to remain confidential within the Past Presidents’/Past Chairs Committee and the Board of Directors until the presentation at the Business Awards.

About Charles J. Carter:  “No Man is an Island.”

Charles Carter was born and raised in Thunder Bay.  He attended Queen’s University and graduated with honours in Civil Engineering in 1947 before returning to Thunder Bay to join the Engineering Department at what was then known as The Great Lakes Paper Company Limited.  As he progressed through the ranks in Engineering, Mr. Carter soon saw the future possibilities at Great Lakes.  He became Chief Engineer in 1959 and Vice President, Engineering in 1964.  Two years later he was elected a Director of the Company.

Mr. Carter became President and Chief Executive Officer of the company in 1971 and was elected Chairman of the Board in 1978.  In February 1986, looking down the road to retirement, he retained the offices of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer but relinquished the position of President.

With the merger of Great Lakes Forest Products and CIP Inc., Mr. Carter became Vice-Chairman of Canadian Pacific Forest Products Limited, the position from which he retired in 1988.  He oversaw the expansion of the Thunder Bay operations from the old mill of the 1940’s to a world-class integrated forest products complex; the purchase of the Dryden facilities in 1979 and its subsequent modernization and expansion; and, in 1987, he was the guiding, driving force in the development of the joint venture with five publisher partners to construct the Ponderay Newsprint Mill in northeastern Washington State.  He was past Chairman of the Board for the Ponderay Newsprint Company and the past Chairman of the Board for both Lake Superior Forest Products Inc. and Lake Superior Construction Inc. (the subsidiaries responsible for Ponderay).

In 1989, after almost 42 years of dedicated and passionate service, Charles Carter retired following a corporate merger that created Canadian Pacific Forest Products Limited.  Under his leadership the corporation had more than tripled in size, providing thousands of jobs for people of the region and making a major contribution to the economic well-being of Northwestern Ontario.

During and after his career, Mr. Carter was very active in community affairs in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario and was widely known and well respected in the pulp and paper/forestry industry circles and served on many Boards, including roles as:

• member of the Board of Governors of Lakehead University, appointed a Fellow of Lakehead University in 1987.
• Chairman and member of the Board of Governors for both Westmount Hospital and the Fort William Sanitorium and a member of the Board for the amalgamated Hogarth-Westmount Hospital.
• member of the Board of Governors of McKellar General Hospital; a member of the Thunder Bay Advisory Board of the Royal Trust Company and a member of the Order of St. John.
• Director of the St. Joseph’s Foundation of Thunder Bay and, in 1985, Chair of the capital campaign for St. Joseph’s Heritage.
• Member and Honourary Member of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
• member of the Board of the Thunder Bay Economic Development Corporation (Development Thunder Bay) and was instrumental in the organization’s establishment.
• supporter of numerous capital community projects such as the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, the Thunder Bay Games Complex and several regional initiatives such as the Dryden Arena and the Dryden Seniors Home.

In 1987 Charles Carter was the recipient of the “Executive of the Year Award” from the first Northern Ontario Business Awards of Excellence.  The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce honoured him in 1990 by establishing the Charles J Carter Lifetime Business Achievement Award in his name which recognizes an individual for outstanding achievement in community leadership, business excellence and community service and commitment.

Mr. Carter would often say “No man is an island,” believing that he enjoyed success in his career in part because he had the good fortune to have known and been supported by so many giving and talented people.   He believed that giving back to the community was both a right and an obligation.

Recipients of the Charles J Carter Award: