SnooperDuper
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Personally I am very interested in the dynamic between the three men, CM, WM and DM and how their lives differed. Feel free to rip my observations to shreds and cue Sinatra, It was a very good year:
When I was seventeen
CM was 17 in 1930. He had completed grade 8 and dropped out of school to work at the age of 12 and by 17, he had bought a truck to start his own local hauling business.
WM was 17 in 1958. Two years prior he had been named as VP of the newly formed airline MillardAir and at 17 he was flying cargo planes, presumably for MillardAir, and I am guessing that he had either finished or abandoned school. CM had started training WM how to fly at age 5 there was probably never any doubt as to what WM would do for a living.
DM was 17 in 2002. He had set flight records at 14 around the same time that CM was giving up flying for good. The driving force that had made WM a pilot was now dead. CM knew DM wasnt really interested anyway.
WM and MB were instead paying tens of thousands per year to secure a different future for DM. He was enrolled at TFS, a university prep school. Upon graduation, DM would be bilingual and have earned both an OSSD (Ontario Secondary School Diploma) and an IBD (International Baccalaureate Diploma). His credentials would be recognized at any university in the world; he could go to a university in Europe or study at a collage in the US that is, if he hadnt dropped out of school.
DMs parents did not choose the school closest to home, the biggest, the newest, the one with the best sports program. They chose a university prep school so that DM could continue his education and become a professional, just like all the other professionals kids at TFS. DMs family was not suit and tie, though; they were coveralls and jumpsuits. It could be that DM was sent down a path without a guide or a flashlight. Was he the first in the family to take on higher education? At any rate, the family had very high aspirations for him, and no doubt there was a massive culture shock for DM, growing up around the hangar and then sent off to find his way to the boardroom.
In the end, DM dropped out of prep school and completed his OSSD through Subway Academy, which sounds a lot like where youd go to learn to be a sandwich artist. No doubt MB in particular would be crushed. DM made a point of describing her as a trained interior decorator. Dont laugh: e.g., with certification an interior designer can leap over the US border to work, on a H1B visa. The US is always short of interior decorators lol. I suspect MB was the one that wanted to give her child the gift of a global lifestyle.
When I was 21
CM was 21 in 1934. He bought and repaired his first plane this year and then took lessons from a WWI vet to learn how to fly. Airplanes had only first flew 31 years before and though CM had little education, he was able to get into the industry before it was regulated. (Fighting regulations was a major theme in CMs career.) It was the depression but CM had been working and earning throughout, putting him in a position of power: desperate people were selling things cheap. (Being cheap, thrifty, frugality, whatever you call it, was another theme in CMs life.)
WM was 21 in 1962. He worked for his father, and shared some of his adventures. CM was a very storied man and WM knew and could recite the stories by heart. (WM later published an obit for CM that was essentially a best of compilation of stories about CM.) WM adored CM.
DM was 21 in 2006. An adult, he was still living at home and still sort of in school and still without work though he was named as VP of MillardAir upon CMs death that year. He wasnt going to university or working as a pilot as the family might have planned, but he was VP of MillardAir. His father was 65, retirement age. Most kids are itching to get out of the house at the earliest opportunity, but DM chose to stay home and hang with a senior.
When I was 35
CM was 35 in 1948. He had a kid that was already 7 years old, and a wife. He was working as a pilot for the airline TCA and he had founded a distribution company that sold boats and planes. Another decade on, he had amassed a fleet of planes and founded the MillardAir airline.
WM was 35 in 1976. There is little info on WMs career, but we know CM had trained him to fly a variety of planes and WM had earned the flight hours and tickets required to get a corporate job (salary, benefits, union, and all that good stuff) with Air Canada and Canada 3000, during his career. And, in his spare time, he saved the animals. I can imagine the friction between the farm raised CM, who saw animals raised and slaughtered first hand, and WMs liberal urban take on animals. Anyway, DM did not arrive until WM was 44 quite late in life.
Autumn of the year
CM was 65 in 1978. MillardAir was an airline with 25 employees and a fleet of DC-3s and DC-4s etc. In the 80s Transport Canada created new equipment requirements and CM was faced with this decision: upgrade his entire fleet at great cost, and keep flying; or dont upgrade and just keep flying as long as the planes remained legal. CM chose not to reinvest in his company. He was retirement age. His planes were retirement age. MillardAir flew until 1990, at which point CM turned to selling off his planes and the stock of plane parts he had amassed to support them. He took up selling fuel for Shell and ran MillardAir as an FBO. He turned up for work every day until his hospitalization and death. CM expired before the Toronto airport hangar lease did, in 2011.
WM was 65 in 2006, when CM died. WM lived through a sort of Prince Charles scenario, waiting 50 years to jump from VP to president and by then too old to care for the job. CM had already wound down MillardAir and WM was retirement age, but he was facing the question: What do you do with a boy like DM? There were 5 years left on the Toronto lease. MillardAir continued to run as a FBO.
It seems somehow WM was convinced (consultants?) not to let MillardAir fade away. DM was almost 30, still living at home, still unemployed, still with an undefined, insecure future. WM decided to resurrect MillardAir as a MRO for DM.
WM died at age 71. I suspect, once again, DM did not agree with WMs plans for him.
When I was seventeen
CM was 17 in 1930. He had completed grade 8 and dropped out of school to work at the age of 12 and by 17, he had bought a truck to start his own local hauling business.
WM was 17 in 1958. Two years prior he had been named as VP of the newly formed airline MillardAir and at 17 he was flying cargo planes, presumably for MillardAir, and I am guessing that he had either finished or abandoned school. CM had started training WM how to fly at age 5 there was probably never any doubt as to what WM would do for a living.
DM was 17 in 2002. He had set flight records at 14 around the same time that CM was giving up flying for good. The driving force that had made WM a pilot was now dead. CM knew DM wasnt really interested anyway.
WM and MB were instead paying tens of thousands per year to secure a different future for DM. He was enrolled at TFS, a university prep school. Upon graduation, DM would be bilingual and have earned both an OSSD (Ontario Secondary School Diploma) and an IBD (International Baccalaureate Diploma). His credentials would be recognized at any university in the world; he could go to a university in Europe or study at a collage in the US that is, if he hadnt dropped out of school.
DMs parents did not choose the school closest to home, the biggest, the newest, the one with the best sports program. They chose a university prep school so that DM could continue his education and become a professional, just like all the other professionals kids at TFS. DMs family was not suit and tie, though; they were coveralls and jumpsuits. It could be that DM was sent down a path without a guide or a flashlight. Was he the first in the family to take on higher education? At any rate, the family had very high aspirations for him, and no doubt there was a massive culture shock for DM, growing up around the hangar and then sent off to find his way to the boardroom.
In the end, DM dropped out of prep school and completed his OSSD through Subway Academy, which sounds a lot like where youd go to learn to be a sandwich artist. No doubt MB in particular would be crushed. DM made a point of describing her as a trained interior decorator. Dont laugh: e.g., with certification an interior designer can leap over the US border to work, on a H1B visa. The US is always short of interior decorators lol. I suspect MB was the one that wanted to give her child the gift of a global lifestyle.
When I was 21
CM was 21 in 1934. He bought and repaired his first plane this year and then took lessons from a WWI vet to learn how to fly. Airplanes had only first flew 31 years before and though CM had little education, he was able to get into the industry before it was regulated. (Fighting regulations was a major theme in CMs career.) It was the depression but CM had been working and earning throughout, putting him in a position of power: desperate people were selling things cheap. (Being cheap, thrifty, frugality, whatever you call it, was another theme in CMs life.)
WM was 21 in 1962. He worked for his father, and shared some of his adventures. CM was a very storied man and WM knew and could recite the stories by heart. (WM later published an obit for CM that was essentially a best of compilation of stories about CM.) WM adored CM.
DM was 21 in 2006. An adult, he was still living at home and still sort of in school and still without work though he was named as VP of MillardAir upon CMs death that year. He wasnt going to university or working as a pilot as the family might have planned, but he was VP of MillardAir. His father was 65, retirement age. Most kids are itching to get out of the house at the earliest opportunity, but DM chose to stay home and hang with a senior.
When I was 35
CM was 35 in 1948. He had a kid that was already 7 years old, and a wife. He was working as a pilot for the airline TCA and he had founded a distribution company that sold boats and planes. Another decade on, he had amassed a fleet of planes and founded the MillardAir airline.
WM was 35 in 1976. There is little info on WMs career, but we know CM had trained him to fly a variety of planes and WM had earned the flight hours and tickets required to get a corporate job (salary, benefits, union, and all that good stuff) with Air Canada and Canada 3000, during his career. And, in his spare time, he saved the animals. I can imagine the friction between the farm raised CM, who saw animals raised and slaughtered first hand, and WMs liberal urban take on animals. Anyway, DM did not arrive until WM was 44 quite late in life.
Autumn of the year
CM was 65 in 1978. MillardAir was an airline with 25 employees and a fleet of DC-3s and DC-4s etc. In the 80s Transport Canada created new equipment requirements and CM was faced with this decision: upgrade his entire fleet at great cost, and keep flying; or dont upgrade and just keep flying as long as the planes remained legal. CM chose not to reinvest in his company. He was retirement age. His planes were retirement age. MillardAir flew until 1990, at which point CM turned to selling off his planes and the stock of plane parts he had amassed to support them. He took up selling fuel for Shell and ran MillardAir as an FBO. He turned up for work every day until his hospitalization and death. CM expired before the Toronto airport hangar lease did, in 2011.
WM was 65 in 2006, when CM died. WM lived through a sort of Prince Charles scenario, waiting 50 years to jump from VP to president and by then too old to care for the job. CM had already wound down MillardAir and WM was retirement age, but he was facing the question: What do you do with a boy like DM? There were 5 years left on the Toronto lease. MillardAir continued to run as a FBO.
It seems somehow WM was convinced (consultants?) not to let MillardAir fade away. DM was almost 30, still living at home, still unemployed, still with an undefined, insecure future. WM decided to resurrect MillardAir as a MRO for DM.
WM died at age 71. I suspect, once again, DM did not agree with WMs plans for him.
