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Founder Marks Kinsmen Birth
[Toronto Star, 13 January 1990]
Partial Article
This year is a special one for Hal Rogers because the Association of Kinsmen Clubs, which he founded, will turn 70 on Feb. 20.
Rogers was only 21 when he started the men’s service club in 1920. It serves the community’s greatest needs. Whatever they are at the time. And today at 90 this grand old gentleman is still an active Kin supporter travelling across Canada many times each year, speaking about the fellowship and service epitomized by his 17,000-member association.
His next engagement is in Hamilton on Feb. 10 when he addresses 600 Kin members at their 70th anniversary at Carmen’s Banquet Centre. “And there will other gatherings like it across Canada during the year,” he says.
Rogers was born in London, Ont., in 1899 and started his life long career in business at age 12 by establishing a parcel delivery service with a fee of 10 cents a parcel.
“I earned enough money criss-crossing the city with parcels that I was able to buy two bicycles, one after the other,” he recalls.
After a part-time job in a hardware store, he moved to Thorndale, Ont., for his first full-time job as a ledger keeper with the Home bank of Canada.
“There were three employees including the manager,” he remembers. “I was paid $300 a year. The bank raised me to $350 and went broke shortly afterward. That was, uh, coincidental.”
Listening to Rodgers talk about is career you can’t help marvel at his ability to recall days, names and places. And his sense of humor must have helped this man with only a Grade 8 education, become president of several companies as well as heading a crown corporation.
In 1916 he moved to Hamilton to work in his father’s business, Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., a wholesale plumbing and heating firm. Three months later, at 17, he joined the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders and went overseas. Serving with the 54th Kootenay Battalion, he fought in France and Belgium. He was gassed in Passchendaele and wounded in August in Amiens. …..
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