A native of Etobicoke who attended both Islington Public School and Etobicoke High School, Melvin Hawkrigg has led a distinguished athletic and business career.

Born in 1931, Hawkrigg participated in numerous sports including hockey and baseball while growing up in Islington. As a high school student, Hawkrigg took part in track, fastball, basketball and Junior B and A hockey.

While attending McMaster University in Hamilton between 1949 and 1952, he was a member of the football, basketball, hockey and track teams while also earning a degree in history and political economy. After university, Hawkrigg played one season of professional football with the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger Cats.

He married in 1954 and began to raise a family in Hamilton, and later Waterdown, while his business career flourished. He joined the Fuller Brush Company in 1959 and rose to president in 1969. He was then executive vice-president with Canada Trust until 1981 and went on to become chairman of London life in 1982.

Hawkrigg is now chairman of Orlick Industries, a Hamilton auto parts manufacturer. He is also chancellor of McMaster University, a position he was first named to in 1998. His second term as chancellor is slated to end in 2004.

Hawkrigg was a recipient of the Lester B. Pearson award in 1999 from the Canadian University Athletic Union. The award goes to a distinguished Canadian who exemplifies the ideals and purposes of university athletics and amateur sport.

Hawkrigg was also named a member of McMaster’s All Century Football Team in the spring of 2001.