Over the course of his life, a local pilot has worked in advertising, marketing, manufacturing and publishing, but he has always viewed himself as being primarily a storyteller.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with George Daniels, 84, commercially licensed pilot, retired advertising guy and author.
Q: What is your background?
I was born in 1935 in England. I came to Canada when I was 12. We came on the (RMS) Aquatania. We settled in Montreal and were landed immigrants. I went through high school in Montreal. My father got transferred to Hamilton, so I went to McMaster University.
That was when I really started getting involved in flying with the Hamilton Flying Club. I became a bush pilot in Northwestern Ontario. I met a guy there who was an avid skier, and we became friends. He’s the one who got me to Collingwood. I started skiing on Jozo Weider’s hills in Blue Mountain in 1955.
Little did I realize I would meet my wife-to-be on the ski hills... not here, but at Limberlost Lodge in Muskoka. I met her on the hills but she’d have nothing to do with me. I saw her at a dance later that night.
We were married a year later in 1961.
Q: Was she from Collingwood?
A: She was a Collingwood girl. She was living in this same house on Fourth Street.
Her family was the Ditsons. They owned Ditson Bakery on the main street. Many people in town know the Ditson family. My wife is about a fifth or sixth-generation Collingwood Ditson.
So, I married Collingwood.
After we were married, we were some of the founding members of the Devil’s Glen Ski Club.
Q: When did you first start in the advertising and marketing business?
A: I wound up in the media business as a sales representative for advertising for television, magazines and radio in the early 1960s.
We helped various businesses here position themselves effectively. I’ve been a keynote speaker around town for 20 or 30 years to do with marketing and communications.
I also have a manufacturing background in the automotive parts and transportation seating business.
I’m probably one of a group of the oldest commercially licensed pilots in Canada.
When you have a commercial pilots license, after you turn 40, you need to have a medical every six months. My file is getting very thick. After 63 years of flying, it would be.
Q: You spoke at the public meeting to save the grain terminals. Why did you feel compelled to stand up and give input on the state of the terminals?
A: I look at the grain elevator terminals from a transportation and communications perspective. In the last number of years, the council of the time worked hard to get rid of some of these vital pieces of infrastructure, like the railways and the airport. Now, they’re left with... a very valuable harbour. The harbour and the grain terminals are an integral part of this transportation and communication hub for the community of Collingwood.
As a pilot, when I’m 4,000 feet over Shelburne, I can see the Collingwood terminals as a super beacon on the horizon of Georgian Bay, and so can other pilots. It goes beyond what you just see in the community. It serves another iconic purpose.
I came away from the meeting...I thought the group needed a proper name and a positioning statement beyond the petition.
I came up with, “Collingwood Terminals and Harbour Action Group: It’s worth saving these heritage waterfront landmarks.”
Q: Writing seems to be a theme throughout your life. What makes you want to gravitate toward writing?
A: Some aspect of that goes way back when I was in high school in Montreal.
I was always good at telling stories. Telling stories started probably when I was a kid in England. I always had good marks in history, English and oral French.
Drawing, sketching and writing started then.
When I got motivation to write my life story, it was about 10 years ago at a workshop in Collingwood by the Georgian Triangle life-long learning people.
Whether it was over my media career, or my manufacturing career, or my bush pilot career... I’ve written a lot of stories over my time, and I’ve saved them all.
It’s in my DNA.
George Works! Lad to Leadership: The Making of a New Canadian is my life story.
When I came up to retirement... I realized I had lived a life of survival throughout my career in all industries. I wrote the book for my grandchildren. I have two. I’m probably going to be six feet under when they pick up the book and wonder, what did that old geezer do?
That’s why I write books.
I released the book in March of this year. It’s available for sale at Chapters/Indigo.
Q: You’ve been working on this book since 2009. How does it feel for it to finally be released?
A: I feel very accomplished.
I’m still working now on marketing the book.
If your book sells about 500 copies, you can be called a “noted author.” We’re up to about 200 sold so far. If you sell 5,000 copies, you can be called a “best-selling author.” I’m not worried about that. But I’d like to get to 500.
That would be nice.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
