Lorne Webster; founding director Montreal Expos
Hyfler/Rosner
founding director of Montreal Expos
The Gazette
Lorne Webster was an amiable and unpretentious Montreal
financier who was a founding director of the Montreal Expos
baseball club and helped bring the Concordes, a Canadian
Football League team, to the city.
Webster was the chairperson and chief executive officer of
the Prenor Group of companies, whose subsidiaries included a
string of insurance firms.
He died at his home on Belvedere Cres. in Westmount
yesterday morning from the effects of a stroke he suffered
four years ago. He was 76.
"He was one of the finest people. ... He did more for others
than anyone ever knew, and he did it quietly. He didn't want
it to be known," said Heward Grafftey, a former Conservative
MP and longtime friend. "He was a committed and loyal
friend."
Lorne Charles Webster was born on Sept. 19, 1928, into one
of Quebec's oldest English-speaking families. His paternal
grandfather was a distinguished senator; his maternal
grandfather, Charles Frosst, made his fortune in
pharmaceuticals. His father was industrialist Colin Webster.
As scion of such a prominent family, Lorne Webster's
educational progress was predictable. He attended all the
right schools - St. George's in Westmount, Lower Canada
College and McGill University, where he obtained his
bachelor of engineering degree.
Webster entered the family firm, Canadian Import Co., in
1950. He often said that for the first 20 years of his
career, he "sold heating fuel for a living."
In 1970, he acquired Les Prevoyants, a group of insurance
companies. He hired graduates from Quebec's French-language
business schools to manage the business, and Les Prevoyants
became the first major Quebec corporation owned by an
English-speaking businessperson to conduct its operations
exclusively in French.
"I don't think of people being French or English," Webster
said at the time. "We look alike, our languages are similar,
we worship essentially the same religion, so what makes us
different? With 600 people in the firm and only one of
them - me - English-speaking, it was obvious the language of
work had to be French."
The practice continued when he formed Prenor Group, which
succeeded Les Prevoyants.
Serge Rocheleau, a close business associate for nearly three
decades, was president and chief operating officer of
Prenor. "Lorne was a wonderful person. At first I didn't
speak any English; I learned all my English from Lorne. But
he held all of the meetings in French."
Webster had wide-ranging interests. He was a director of the
Bank of Montreal for 30 years and a trustee of the Instituto
Centroamericano de Administracion de Empresas, a business
administration institute in Managua, Nicaragua. In 1968, he,
Charles Bronfman and Hugh Hallward financed the Expos.
"Lorne was a lifelong friend, a wonderful friend," Hallward
said. "We met 60 years ago at McGill, and besides our common
interest in baseball, we played squash and golf together."
Webster served as chairperson of the board of the Old
Brewery Mission and the Julius Richardson Hospital. He was a
governor of McGill University, chairperson of Stanstead
College and chairperson of the R. Howard Webster Foundation.
In 1980, Webster took over Trust General du Canada, where he
became involved in a high- stakes corporate poker game after
directors voted to raise more capital by selling new shares
to investors. As the company's major shareholder, Webster
had to put up additional cash to maintain his influence and
holdings. In 1984, he was able to extricate himself from the
uncomfortable boardroom squeeze.
Like the rest of the embattled trust industry, Prenor was
hit hard by the recession in the early 1990s; Webster
liquidated many of his holdings. In 1991, the Expos were
sold to a business consortium headed by Claude Brochu.
Webster was an athlete into his 70s, paying vigorous games
of squash and racquetball both at home and in international
competitions.
Webster was twice married, first to Ann Butrick, daughter of
the U.S. consul-general in Montreal. The couple had three
children. The marriage ended in divorce and his wife turned
her back on her patrician background and went to live in
Central America.
In 1969, Webster married Meredith Evans of Montreal. They
had four children.
A funeral is to be held Monday at 1 p.m. at St.
Andrew's-Dominion Douglas Church, 687 Roslyn Ave.,
Westmount.