The man who captained Saskatchewan Wheat Pool through its glory years is dead.
Milt Fair is remembered as a visionary, a financial mastermind and a Christian who “walked the talk.”
He died on May 8 from complications surrounding pancreatic cancer, which he was diagnosed with earlier this year.
Fair joined the Pool in 1965 and was its chief executive officer from 1981-93, a period of growth and profitability for the co-operative.
“He was there in the heydays. They made more money than the rest of us put together at times,” said Cargill Ltd. president Kerry Hawkins.
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“First and foremost Milt was a finance guy…. He knew where a buck could be made or a buck could be lost and he took advantage of both of those situations.”
Longtime friend and former boss Garf Stevenson agreed.
“He got just as much satisfaction out of a small earning or a break even in tough times as he did in getting a larger earning in good times,” said Stevenson, who was pool president from 1987-93.
Fair was “very cautious” about taking on too much debt. Stevenson said no management proposal made it to the board of directors without first being vetted by the CEO. If flaws existed in a plan, he added, Fair could find them.
Although he didn’t agree with all of the board’s decisions, Fair would accept them.
“We never had any doubt that Milt was carrying the board’s policy forward,” said Stevenson, who was a personal friend who sometimes vacationed with Fair and his wife.
Stevenson said Fair was “an extremely considerate” person who took a genuine interest in the people he worked and socialized with – a man who lived up to his word.
“Milt was one that said, ‘We’ll have to have a coffee sometime.’ And he did it.”
The pool’s union boss also had good things to say about the person who was often his adversary for more than a decade.
“I associate Milt Fair with a strong wheat pool, a soundly financed and managed wheat pool and one where there was still a strong tradition of loyalty towards the employees,” said Grain Services Union general secretary Hugh Wagner.
“His personal involvement in collective bargaining at critical stages avoided a major dispute in 1989.”
Wagner said Fair was a friendly and approachable man who had a “strong allegiance” to the principles that created Sask Pool.
“In many respects, his tenure was a watershed for the pool, kind of halcyon golden years.”
During Fair’s time as CEO, the pool entered into partnerships with Prairie Malt Ltd., CanAmera Foods and Pound-Maker Agventures Ltd.
The company bought inland grain terminals in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon that formed the foundation of AgPro, the pool’s wholly owned grain handling subsidiary.
He also played a crucial role in the three prairie pools’ purchase of Federal Grain Ltd. in 1972, the formation of CSP Foods Ltd. in 1975 and construction of the grain terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C., which the pool partially owns.
People were shocked by his sudden death because Fair was a physically fit man with no bad habits.
“I talked to him a few months ago and met with him for about an hour and he was in great shape and sounding like he was on top of the world,” Hawkins said.”He sounded like he couldn’t wait for tomorrow.”
Fair is survived by his wife, Joyce, his son and daughter, Dennis and Donna, and seven grandchildren.
He was 67 years old.
