For Waterdown resident Mel Hawkrigg, who accomplished many remarkable achievements in business, sports and community involvement, everything was always centred around his family.
Melvin (Mel) Hawkrigg was born Aug. 6, 1930 in Islington, Ontario. That made him a child of the Depression, but his wife and family have no recollections of him talking about what that period was like for him.
Mel met Marilyn Field, in Grade 9 when they both attended Etobicoke High School. Marilyn’s face lights up when she remembers how she and a friend decided that Marilyn would invite Mel to the Sadie Hawkins Dance, and that her friend would invite Mel’s friend. Mel and Marilyn were inseparable from that dance onward, although her friend did not fare as well with her date.
During high school, Mel was a star high school athlete, participating in football, basketball and track and field. Outside of school, he played Junior A hockey and baseball.
He went on to earn a BA in Political Economy from McMaster University in Hamilton, as well as achieving athletic letters for football, basketball, hockey and track and field. During term time, Mel rented a room in a house near the campus. In the summers, he lived with his aunt in Toronto and worked as a roofer to pay his way through school.
After university, Mel got a job with Clarkson Gordon (now part of Ernst & Young). He also spent a year as a running back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats but, when they said he needed to choose between the team and his career, he decided to return to the business world.
Mel and Marilyn married in 1954 in Toronto at Kingsway Lambton United Church, where they were both active. Their first home was on Hess St. South in Hamilton; from there they moved to Indian Point in Burlington, then bought their first house on Joyce Street in Burlington.
By that time, Mel was working for Fuller Brush on Guelph Line and his boss was Charlie Bennett from Waterdown. Charlie told him firmly that their house was too small, joking that when he sat on a chair in the living room, his legs reached the fireplace. Charlie encouraged the couple to move to Waterdown. Another Waterdownian, Bob McNairn, told them about a suitable house coming up for sale on First Street, so they made an offer.
The house had originally belonged to the Connon (Nurseries) family and Mrs. Connon turned down a higher offer to accept the Hawkriggs’ offer; she wanted there to be little feet running up and down the stairs in the home.
When the family moved to Waterdown in December 1961, they already had their first four children (Jane, Mike, Pete and Mary Ann), all aged 5 and under, and Marilyn was pregnant with their fifth and final child, John.
When Jane started Grade 1, she was expected to walk to Mary Hopkins School on Mill Street on her own. In the end, all five children attended Mary Hopkins, Flamborough Centre School, Waterdown District High School and McMaster University.
When they moved to Waterdown, there were few sports facilities, so Mel started pushing for them to be built. He started advocating for an arena/pool complex right away but was not immediately successful. In the meantime, the Hawkriggs built a baseball diamond and an outdoor skating rink on the 10 acres behind their home, for use by their family and the neighbours. A schedule was typed up and distributed to the local households, indicating which times would be for hockey and which ones for pleasure skating.
Jane says that, since Waterdown did have baseball, the neighbourhood diamand was mostly for pickup games. However, when she was coaching a girls’ team and they were getting short shrift booking practice time at the Waterdown diamonds, she would often have the team practise at the family diamond.
In 1967, Mel was instrumental in bringing T-ball to Waterdown. Former Waterdown resident Jonathan Vance remembers Mel coaching their team the year the Waterdown All-Stars went to the “World” T-Ball Championships, in 1971. Jonathan is quick to add that the finals were in Ancaster that year.
Jonathan recalls Mel’s efforts to pass on his love of sport to the young people of Waterdown with great affection and has great memories of Mel coaching their baseball team for many years. Mel’s first message to the team was always, “You’re here to have fun first of all,” then telling them that, if they were enjoying the game, the getting better part would come.
Jonathan remembers Mel throwing balls to the outfielders to warm them up and his “big broad smile and white teeth,” commenting that it always looked as though Mel was having fun. He knew how to work with kids and was great with little kids.
When Mary Ann was about 15, she got interested in horses. Mel, then aged 50, gamely learned to ride at the same time she did. They purchased two horses to start with, and probably owned about 10 different horses over the years. When Connon Nurseries was on Dundas Street, customers could sometimes catch sight of the Hawkrigg horses up on the slope behind the store.
The family expanded further to include cats and dogs. Eventually, they were a registered kennel (Balgownie Kennels) for breeding yellow labs. It was a tribute to the Connon family to use the Balgownie name, as the Brig o’ Balgownie was a bridge in Aberdeen, Scotland where John Connon came from.
Mel had a very successful career in business and held senior positions with many familiar companies: Fuller Brush (President), Canada Trust (Vice Chairman), Trilon (President/CEO), London Life (Chairman) and Orlick Industries (Chairman) and Hamilton Port Authority (Chairman), and served on a number of boards.
He also served as Chancellor of McMaster University for three terms (1998-2007), with Marilyn, affectionately known as his "co-chancellor" by his side. Jane remembers that they were rarely home during those nine years, always heading “down the road” to the McMaster campus to attend sports, concerts and other student events.
Marilyn says that, even though he gave 150 per cent of himself to his work, “everything always centred around the family.”
Jane remembers with a smile how, in his 60s, their dad took up skiing because his children were skiing and he wanted to be able to spend time with them.
Former Flamborough mayor Don Granger says he always looked forward to Mel and Marilyn’s “breakfast hospitality” that afforded helpful discussion of issues of the day. He has great respect and admiration for their life successes which “never overshadowed their humble, down-to-earth connection to the Flamborough and broader Hamilton-Wentworth regional community.”
On a lighter note, Don was also impressed that Mel had a case of beer delivered to his house every Friday, due to one of his senior corporate positions, which at the time included Labatt.
In 2001, Mel chaired the fundraising committee that brought the Flamborough YMCA to Waterdown. Finally, his dream of a pool for Waterdown came to fruition. He was also co-founder and president of the Flamborough Colts Junior C hockey club.
Mel was recognized for his community involvement with an Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship in 2014. In 2015, he was honoured to be the final torch bearer when the Pan Am Games were in Hamilton.
On June 2, 2024, 36 family members gathered to happily celebrate Mel and Marilyn’s 70th wedding anniversary at Toronto Golf Club. Mel passed away shortly afterwards, on June 24, 2024, aged 93.
