For over twenty years Major William O. H. Dodds has been connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, being at present the assistant manager for Quebec and the maritime provinces. He was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, July 3, 1867, a son of the late Charles Dodds, a manufacturer of that province, who died in June, 1893. The mother of our subject, who was before her marriage Miss Agnes Smith, died in December, 1910.
William Dodds received his education in the Yarmouth high school and the Yarmouth Academy of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He completed his school education in 1884 and then entered the employ of the Bank of Yarmouth, remaining with that institution until 1887. From 1887 to 1888 he assisted his father in the wholesale and retail dry-goods business, but in the latter year came to Montreal, entering the wholesale dry-goods trade, with which line he continued until 1892. In that year he joined the staff of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York as cashier and, rising through various positions, was made the assistant manager of the concern for Quebec and the maritime provinces, which office he yet holds. Mr. Dodds has also been one of the promoters of the Consumers’ Cotton Company.
On November 29, 1910, Mr. Dodds married Jean Hamilton Holt, eldest daughter of Robert W. Tyre, of Montreal. Mrs. Dodds is greatly interested in athletics and in 1911 was elected president of the Ladies’ Montreal Curling Club.
Major Dodds is also a well known amateur athlete. He was formerly president of the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union; is a member of the executive committee of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada; and was selected as one of the team of the Montreal Curling Club to proceed to Scotland in December, 1908, but was unable to go. He has long been in the volunteer military service, being formerly a captain in the Fifth Regiment, Royal Scots. He subsequently commanded the Third Battery, Montreal, and then organized the Twenty-first (Westmount) Battery, which he commanded from October 26, 1907, to April 9, 1910. He is now engaged in the reorganization of the First Regiment, Grenadier Guards of Canada. In January, 1906, Major Dodds was elected president of the Montreal Military Institute and is now councillor of the Boy Scout movement.
Mr. Dodds is a Presbyterian and gives his political support to the conservative party. He is a member of the Montreal Club, the Montreal Military Institute, the Montreal Curling Club, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, the Montreal Hunt Club, the St. James Club, the Royal Montreal Golf Club and others.
ISAIE PREFONTAINE.
Isaie Prefontaine, no less highly esteemed for his business capacity and enterprise than for his public-spirited citizenship, has contributed along various lines to the welfare and progress of the city in which he makes his home. A native of Beloeil, he was born in 1861 and in the pursuit of his education attended Montreal College, from which he was graduated with honors. From the outset of his career he has made his labors count as factors in general progress and improvement. He has been a close student of conditions and problems of the time and along practical lines has worked for betterment.
He has taken a warm interest in the commercial development of the city and has been prominently identified with various bodies working toward that end. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce of Montreal for the year 1908-9 and for six years was president of the School of High Commercial Studies. In 1909 he became president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce for the province of Quebec and was continued in that high and important office for three years. He has also been a member of the Board of Trade and has been a cordial cooperator in the movement for providing facilities for specialized instruction and training of those engaged in manufacturing and other industrial pursuits.
