Obituary: Bruce Hamilton was president of steel companies in Canada and the U.S.

When Bruce Hamilton visited a steel plant as a child in the 1920s, he found his calling.

His father helped found Burlington Steel on Sherman Avenue North about 1920 (it became part of Slater Steel in 1961), and took young Bruce on a visit to the plant with some investors.

Dad took me down there and I was hooked," he told The Spectator in 1995. It was something else."

The result was a five-decade career in the steel industry, which saw Hamilton involved with steel companies in Canada, the United States and New Zealand.

When he retired in 1993, he became an executive-in-residence at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. He then served as executive adviser to the university's new Centre for Continuing Education when it opened in the former courthouse on Main Street East in 2002. Writing about the centre in her Spectator column, former Hamilton-Wentworth regional chair Anne Jones described Hamilton as enthusiasm plus."

The Oakville resident, who served 14 years as president of now defunct Slater Steel, died April 2 at age 100.

His family said he was a true blue Hamiltonian.

Bruce loved life," the family said in his death notice. He loved watching his Hamilton Tiger-Cats, going to the cottage and listening to music. He also maintained his strong connection to the city of Hamilton through his active involvement with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, McMaster University and the Hamilton Golf and Country Club."

Hamilton was born to steelmaker Harold Hamilton and his wife Margaret. His mother was a well-known church soloist.

He attended Central Public School, Hillfield School and Westdale Secondary School. His first taste of working at a steel plant was a summer job at Stelco while he was in university.

He went to McMaster to take engineering. At that time, it was affiliated with Queen's University. He graduated in 1943 and sought to join the Canadian Army to fight in the Second World War, but was not accepted because of a heart murmur. In 1944, he got a job as director of metallurgy at Atlas Steels in Welland. It was making shells for the U.S. military.

He worked at Atlas for two decades, writing technical reports and giving lectures around North American on specialty steels. His lectures attracted attention and in 1965 he was hired to work at Crucible Steel Corp. in Pittsburgh, then the largest specialty firm in the U.S., as its director of technology.

In 1967, he became president of the Syracuse Specialty Steel Division. After restructuring, he became president of Crucible Steel Canada, which had a plant in Sorel, Que. He continued to serve as president of Syracuse

In 1971, he came back to Hamilton to take the job as president and chief executive officer of Slater Steel. He told The Globe and Mail in 1972 he did not know the connection between Burlington Steel and Slater Steel, and only found out during the course of the job interview.

No one was more surprised than I was," he said. There were obvious sentimental reasons. I think it played a part in my decision to come here, but most of all I wanted to come back to Canada."

Not long after, Slater was bought by British Steel. The new parent company moved Hamilton on to the board of directors for a plant in New Zealand.

British Steel sold Slater in 1985 and the new owners asked Hamilton to resign so they could put in their own person. He went into consulting work, but in 1987 became president of Atlas Steels, then in 1989 on to the board of directors of the Sydney Steel Corp. in Cape Breton.

He served as chair of the board until 1993 when new owners bought Sydney Steel from the Nova Scotia government.

Hamilton was a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, the American Society of Metals and the American Society for Tool and Manufacturing Engineers.

Hamilton is survived by his children Harold, Robert, Elizabeth, John, Christine and Michael, 18 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife Victoria in 1980, his second wife June in 2019, and grandson Timothy.

Daniel Nolan can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com