London Free Press

A high school guidance counsellor once told Don Smith he’d never be a brain surgeon because of a tremor in his hand, so he’d better learn how to pour concrete.

Did he ever.

Starting in 1951 with a schoolhouse in north London that he built with his brother Ellis, Smith went on to grow Canada’s second-largest construction company with prominent projects around the globe.

“I wasn’t trying to be bigger than anybody. I was just trying to do a good job and it just worked out,” said Smith, after donning a hard hat and picking up a shovel at the company’s 60th anniversary celebration Friday.

In the London office and through a simulcast in offices across Canada, EllisDon’s 1,200 employees raised a glass of champagne to salute Smith and his wife Joan, a former Ontario cabinet minister.

Now 87, Smith used his razor-sharp wit to recount war stories about building the company — the long hours, the financial gambles and the smart folks he hired.

There were also firings, even though EllisDon has consistently ranked at or near the top of Canada’s best employer list.

Smith once fired his whole executive team when they rebelled against a tight construction deadline.

“I fired a lot of people. You have to keep the good ones and get the rid of the rest. It’s not being mean. It’s how you survive and build the company,” he said.

The company’s long list of showcase projects includes the John Labatt Centre, most of the University of Western Ontario, SkyDome, the National Gallery in Ottawa and Canary Wharf in London, England.

While Smith and his wife have seven children, including current company president Geoff Smith, he said the company has always been run like an extended family, one based on trust and responsibility.

“I would send someone out to build the (Edmonton’s) Commonwealth Stadium. I would tell them they were capable and call me if they needed help. Then they would go out and do it.”

E-mail hank.daniszewski@sunmedia.ca, or follow Hankatlfpress on Twitter.