Stories of Wellington natives who achieved fame and fortune elsewhere have been featured regularly in this column. William S. Fallis ranks very high on the list of notable old boys from Wellington.
Beginning as a lowly store clerk, he became chairman of the Sherwin-Williams paint company, based in Montreal.
Members of the Fallis family were among the early settlers of Minto. When William was born in 1868, there were six families of the clan in the township. William grew up on a farm near Palmerston, though that town was not founded until he was 4. He attended a rural school in Wallace Township, and graduated from high school in Harriston, but always regarded Palmerston as his home town.
At 21, Bill Fallis decided a career in farming was not for him. In Toronto he secured a job as a clerk in Timothy Eaton’s store. Like many before and after him, he found the Eaton firm a demanding and poor-paying employer. In 1890, after less than a year, he joined the Goold Bicycle Company of Brantford as a travelling salesman. After five years with Goold, he signed on as a salesman with the Welland Vale Company of St. Catharines, a company producing the Perfect bicycle and accessories.
The Canadian bicycle market collapsed in 1899. Welland Vale was one of four firms that amalgamated to form CCM. Fallis did not wait for the dust to settle. He joined the Montreal-based Sherwin-Williams paint company as a salesman, travelling in Ontario, then the Maritimes. The company was founded in Cleveland in the 1860s, and later set up a Canadian branch. By the 1890s it was the largest paint manufacturer in North America.
His abilities impressed his employers, who sent him to the West Indies, and then to London, England as the firm’s European representative in 1903 and 1904.
In 1905, Fallis was back, handling the firm’s western business as sales manager in Winnipeg. That was the boom period on the Canadian prairies, and Fallis built up a very strong presence in the market there for his firm. In 1912, it brought him back to the Montreal head office as sales manager of the entire company.
Fallis was popular with fellow employees and with customers. He was something of a neatness freak, and disliked office intrigue and scheming. Customers discovered he was as good as his word, and he built product loyalty by doing everything possible to meet customer needs. Gregarious and sociable, he joined elite businessmen’s clubs in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. In the latter, he became involved in several organizations, and in 1911 the Manitoba government tapped him to head a Royal Commission to investigate the workman’s compensation system in that province. For recreation he enjoyed golf in summer and curling in winter, activities that permitted informal contact with business associates and customers.
Too old to enlist in World War I, Fallis eagerly supported the Canadian Patriotic Fund, and served on its executive committee. He was involved in the formation of the Canadian Credit Men’s Trust Association in 1912. That organization established standards and procedures for the granting and conduct of credit for Canadian businesses. He served as its second president.
In 1918, Sherwin-Williams promoted Fallis to general manager of all Canadian operations. A year later he became managing director. Further advances came quickly: vice president in 1921; president in 1926; and chairman in 1931 at the age of 63. Among his later achievements was the presidency of the Canadian Manufacturers Association in 1927.
As chairman of the Canadian operations of Sherwin-Williams, Fallis did not have a heavy involvement in the day-to-day business of the company, but his advice proved valuable. He guided the firm through the worst years of the depression. Sherwin-Williams paid dividends, although small ones, in every year but one.
Fallis lived in the Montreal suburb of Senneville with his wife, the former Annabelle Thompson, of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. He named the estate Dingley Dell. They married in 1893, but had no children. Apart from golf and curling he lived quietly. All the time he maintained contact with his large extended family in the Palmerston area, and visited when he could, unlike some Wellington County old boys who seemed to forget their childhood homes. His fondness for his home town seemed to grow with time. He supported financially all charitable and community projects, but his favourite was the Palmerston General Hospital.
Fallis’s health began to deteriorate in the late 1930s. He consulted regularly with a nephew, Dr. Harland Howe, another Palmerston native who was practicing in Toledo, Ohio. The end for William Fallis came on June 2, 1944 when he died at his beloved home. He was 75. His close attention to detail extended to his own funeral. He had thought about the arrangements for some time, and outlined exactly what he wanted.
His casket arrived in Palmerston by train, to the same station he departed from 55 years earlier to commence his career. The funeral was on the afternoon of June 6. He had asked that six boyhood chums serve as honorary pallbearers: Carson Henderson, “Shep” Kearns, Ben and Dave Greer, John Loggins, and Jim Denney. A cousin, Colonel George Fallis, conducted the service at the Palmerston United Church, assisted by the minister, Rev. Roy Rickard. Col. Fallis was the senior chaplain at the military college at Kingston.
For the active pallbearers, Fallis drew from relatives, friends, and business contacts: Marvin Howe of Arthur, Cliff Bean of Toronto, Tom Hemphil of Kincardine, Ernie Osborne of Hamilton, Ben Fallis of Newbridge, and Col. Graham of Senneville, Quebec. Four senior Sherwin-Williams executives attended the funeral. Burial was at the Palmerston Cemetery. His wife, Annabelle, and a sister, Mrs. George Howe, of Palmerston, survived him.
William Fallis left the Sherwin-Williams company in excellent condition. War contracts produced record years of production and sales in 1942 and 1943. After his death, the company integrated the Canadian management more closely the Sherwin-Williams operations in the United States.
His life was certainly a fascinating one: from the backwoods of pioneer Ontario to the pinnacle of the Canadian business elite. Much success can be attributed to the personal qualities he acquired in his pioneer community. While ambitious, he was not ruthlessly so, and was never tempted to put on a snobbish display of his status. Rather than enemies he acquired ever larger circles of friends as he advanced, building both his own reputation and the prosperity of his company.
Though he has been gone for 65 years, there are undoubtedly readers of this column who remember him. William S. Fallis deserves a place as one of Wellington County’s outstanding sons.