Draft:Roy A. Jodrey

Roy Adelbert Jodrey (December 24, 1888 – August 12, 1973) was a Canadian businessman and industrialist. Born in White Rock, Nova Scotia, to Joseph Parker Jodrey, a cabinet maker, and Annabelle (Harrington) Jodrey, he dropped out of school at 13 and began his business career growing and exporting apples from the Annapolis Valley.

At the infancy of electrification in Nova Scotia during the early 20th century, Jodrey was among a group of early investors who built hydro-electric power plants on the Gaspereau River near White Rock and the Avon River near Vaughan. Jodrey went bankrupt following the 1929 stock market crash but persevered and recovered most of his net worth by Second World War. Jodrey established the Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. Ltd in 1927 and Canadian Keyes Fibre Co. Ltd. in 1933, both of which he served as president until 1969. Minas Basin Pulp and Power built hydro-electric power plants in the 1930s on the St. Croix River and a groundwood pulp mill at Hantsport on the site of the former Churchill & Sons Shipyards. Jodrey also owned inter-city bus operator Acadian Lines and maintained interests in National Sea Products Ltd.. Jodrey foresaw the pent-up buying power of post-war consumers and made significant plays the stock market which ended up paying extremely well. In 1945, he established Scotia Investments Ltd. as his family's holding company.

Jodrey was a director and vice-president of numerous Canadian companies and in 1959 he held the distinction of sitting on more company boards than any other person in Canada; at the time of his death he was a director of almost 60 companies including his own investment vehicles. Jodrey was a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia, Crown Life Insurance Company of Canada, Canadian Cement Co. Ltd., Fraser Companies Ltd., Nova Scotia Light and Power Co. Ltd., Algoma Central and Hudson Bay Railway Co., Hawker Siddeley Canada Ltd., Dominion Steel and Coal Corp. Ltd., Dominion Coal Co. Ltd. among others. He was also vice-president of Eastern Chartered Trust Co. and managing director of Avon River Power Co. Ltd. Following his retirement from the board of Algoma Central and Hudson Bay Railway Co., the company named a new bulk carrier in 1965 after him, the Roy A. Jodrey; it sank in the St. Lawrence River.

Jodrey was made an honourary member of the Nova Scotia Fruitgrowers Association in 1960 and was chosen as the Annapolis Valley's "Man of the Year" in 1965. It was during the ceremony for the latter award, Jodrey told residents to work hard and save their money and spend it locally. " “Don't send it all out of the Valley to keep places outside. Use it to develop land and industry here, not to build up Ontario, the rest of Canada and the United States. There’s hardly anything like the Annapolis Valley in the world.”

In 1963 Jodrey received a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) from Acadia University. In 1969 he donated $250,000 (CAD) to Dalhousie University to establish the Roy A. Jodrey Chair in Business Administration. That same year he also donated $250,000 (CAD) to Acadia University to establish the Roy A. Jodrey Chair in Commerce and Society; he also established the Roy A Jodrey Scholarship in Science for junior and senior year students studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at Acadia.

Jodrey died in Halifax on August 12, 1973. His funeral was held at Hantsport United Baptist Church and is buried in Gaspereau Cemetery.