Harry Day – Knowing Bob Walsh of the Grimsby Co-op

Harry Day of the Sherbrien Co-op in Greensville knew Bob Walsh as “Mr. Co-op.”

Sixty years after their build, contact was made with the Greensville co-op through Grimsby builder Roy O’Grady. This interview with Harry was completed in time for the 60th anniversary of the Grimsby co-op in 2016. Four years later, contact was made with the pioneering group that had studied in Ottawa and built in Deschênes near Hull (Gatineau), Quebec. Their photos are included in this exhibit.

Harry Day is sitting in a chair in a home to the left side of the screen there is a vase to the right of him

[HARRY] I knew Bob Walsh from Stelco, and so forth, and he had mentioned to me a few times about the co-op, and as everybody will tell you, Bob Walsh at that time was Mr. Co-op. Any questions on co-ops he was one of the gentlemen to ask the question of. And I know he did an awful lot of work, particularly PR work, for the co-ops that they built in Grimsby. And we probably would have gone to Grimsby too, but we heard about the number of people who didn’t build in Grimsby once the location was selected, so the decision was made to let’s look other than Grimsby, primarily where we can get a spot to build a cooperative.