Richard Coulton Berkinshaw

Richard Coulton Berkinshaw

Richard Coulton Berkinshaw, company executive (b at Toronto 2 Sept 1891; d there 4 May 1970). Berkinshaw attended Upper Canada College, University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. After serving in WWI he practised corporate law with a Toronto firm until 1920, when he joined the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co of Canada. He became general manager and treasurer in 1933.

He played a major role in Canada's industrial mobilization during WWII as chairman of the Wartime Industries Control Board, president of Polymer Corp and director general of the Priorities Branch of the Department of MUNITIONS AND SUPPLY. He was created a CBE in 1946.

Berkinshaw returned to Goodyear 1945, becoming president 1952 and chairman 1959. He was chancellor of Trinity College, Toronto, and president of the CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Toronto Board of Trade.