House of Commons salute to Arch Brown

February 04, 2009

One of the most prestigious awards in Barrie is the Spirit Catcher Award.  The spirit catcher stands high above the city's waterfront and symbolizes the city. This years receipent was Arch Brown (no relation)


Arch already holds an incredible array of honours including the Chamber of Commerce's Hall of Fame, Honorary Colonel of Canadian Forces Base Borden, a senator of the Grey and Simcoe Foresters, the Governor-General's Commemorative Medal for Canada's 125th anniversary, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal and the Order of Canada.


Arch's new Barrie home overlooks the city's core, as well as the Spirit Catcher - the symbolic sculpture that helped spark investment into the fledgling Barrie Gallery Project, which eventually became the MacLaren Art Centre. 


Arch's love of the arts - and support for the gallery as well as for individual artists - combined with his belief that post-secondary education is critically important prompted his generous investment in Georgian College. His donation to Georgian College resulted in  the Arch and Helen Centre for the Visual Arts.  Arch's friendship with former premier bill davis also played a role in the original development of george college in the 1970's.


Arch had a distinguished career with Canadian Tire as  its national sales director. He introduced the company's groundbreaking cash-bonus program, Canadian Tire money and set up most their stores around Canada.


Today I salute Arch as Barrie's spirit catcher award receipent and the work his has done on building Barrie for the better.