Christie, Clowes Montgomery

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1982
CLOWES MONTGOMERY CHRISTIE
to be Doctor of Science

On 23 March, 1958, the heading of an article in the New York Times read: "Personality: New Bounce at Dayton Rubber." The "personality" and the "bounce", of course, were Clowes Montgomery Christie, and from then on the Dayton Rubber Company, which had been founded in 1905 could no longer assume that you simply made tires and rubber goods and that people inevitably bought them. Mr. Christie completely revolutionized the finances and the attitudes of the company, and from there was nowhere to go but up. The story of his success, however, goes back far beyond the year 1958, for he served a long and determined apprenticeship before becoming President of the Dayton Rubber Company.

Records have it that Clowes Christie was born in Vanceboro, Maine, seventy-one years ago, and that he came to New Brunswick at a very early age. It would be agreeable to be able to say that, in his childhood, he showed portents of his later triumphs, but from what I can gather from the affectionate memories of his boyhood friends, he led a normal youth. He was a bit of a daredevil without being too reckless; he liked hunting, fishing, baseball, hockey and skating, and he attended dancing classes. His academic interests, perhaps, yielded somewhat to the day-to-day business of living, but he was an avid reader of medical books and journals, although whatever his ambitions in that direction, he decided to minister unto himself.

Clowes Christie returned to the United States, and by 1934 he was a house-to-house salesman of aluminum cooking ware in the Bronx. Here he found that husbands were a softer touch for his products than their wives, so he called in the evenings when the husbands were at home -- a reversal of the usual inclinations of the door-to-door salesman.

In 1938 Mr. Christie was with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company as their distributor for Los Angeles and, later, for the eleven Western States of America. By now the super salesman was finding more and more markets, and more and more uses, for his products. Theatres began to use foam rubber seats, hospitals began to use foam rubber mattresses, and it began to look as though, in sickness and in health, we should soon all be reclining on something that Christie had manufactured. In 1946 he founded American Latex, Incorporated, and then formed subsidiary companies in many other countries in the world. ln 1952 American Latex merged with Dayton Tire and Rubber Company and Clowes Christie became President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of the merged companies. In fact, he has been Founder, Director and President of many companies -- investment syndicates, textile mills, chemicals, engineering.

As a friend of his has put it, "There are few things we come in contact with in our everyday life which do not contain a chemical product that developed from the superior imagination and sales drive of Clowes Christie".

He retired in 1960 but, with his ability to flourish through the Great Depression and later recessions, it is a wonder that he has not been called out of retirement by an urgent summons from Mr. Trudeau or Mr. MacEachen. Today he lives in La Quinta, California, where his neighbour is the singer, Andy Williams, who, apparently, will play golf with few people but Clowes Christie, and there is the story that Christie agreed to improve Williams' golf, if Williams would improve Christie's singing. When Williams’ handicap was down to seven, Christie, who had found things difficult, asked Williams how his singing was getting on, and Williams replied, "Terrible, you sound like Frank Sinatra." No doubt, Andy Williams would have sympathised with Dr. Johnson who, on hearing a celebrated violinist, said, "Difficult do you call it Sir, I wish it were impossible."

Clowes Christie has recalled that, many years ago, when he was trying to sell his products to a hospital, a little nun gave him a piece of advice which has stood him in good stead ever since: "Young man, be not the first to take on a new thing, nor the last to discard the old." In his business dealings he has been decisive, but not reckless, firm but not inflexible, and today, as befits someone who is a member of the Marco Polo Club of New York, the spirit of adventure has not deserted him. Recently, I understand, he bought a house on wheels and travelled thousands of miles to see the country.

Today, he has travelled thousands of miles to be here, and I know that his boyhood friends in Fredericton have been excited by his coming.

We salute Clowes Christie and welcome him for his achievements.

Insignissime Praeses, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Clowes Montgomery Christie ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2