Blake Gilmore

Blake Nixon Gilmore passed away on May 3, 2011 surrounded by family, friends and the loving memories from a life of caring, exuberance and accomplishment. Born in 1943 and educated at Royal York Collegiate in Toronto, Blake or Nick as he was known in his school years - early on found an affinity for wit, a love of life and challenges of all kinds; competing not merely for winning, but as much for the love of the game itself and the companionship and laughter it brought. It was an approach he carried from the football fields of Royal York to the top levels of business in North America. In his high school years he took delight in exasperating teachers with a combination of irreverence and scholarship that left them befuddled as to how to handle him. Years later the most astute among them became part of his wide circle of good friends. After high school, Blake attended the University of Toronto, majoring in philosophy and regaling friends with Spinoza, Hegel and the latest social excesses at Sigma Chi fraternity. After graduation, metaphysics lost out to the imperatives of raising a young family which in turn led to positions with several major multinational corporations, the last of which was Xerox Learning Systems where he won numerous awards. These were interspersed with the MBA he received at the University of Western Ontario and an increasing belief that he knew a better way to train future business leaders. It was at this crossroads in his life that he put his poker prowess to work, calculating the odds, understanding they were against him and then still risking everything on the creation of his own management training company, Gilmore & Associates. With the love and partner of his life, Debbie Hartley, he created one of the most successful companies of its kind in Canada. For Blake, humour was life itself, and he shared this gift and talent with all who knew him. It was an integral part of the magnetism and grace with which he led his life. Among the constants in his life were his family and Muskoka. Father to son Scott and daughter Leslie, he extended to them his own parents gift to him of a life led partly in Stephens Bay near Bracebridge. With Debbie, Blake created a home on Lake Muskoka. It has been a place where family and friends gathered and Blake so often shared whatever wisdom had been actively asked for by grandchildren and others, occasionally delayed by a game of billiards about to happen in the next room. The torch of Blake's memory will be kept alive by Debbie, his son Scott and Scott's family Paige, Mackenzie and Nicholas, his daughter Leslie McConnell and her family Michael, Aidan and Sloane, his sister Pam and her daughter Sara, his brother John and his family Barb, Erin, Sean, Vivian and Braden; and to others yet to come who will in ways they may not know, inherit the light he bestowed upon us all. To paraphrase Shakespeare's line in Hamlet about a towering figure "We shall not look upon his like again" Please join Blake's family to celebrate his life on May 28, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Rosedale Golf Club, 1901 Mt. Pleasant Road, Toronto. Messages of condolence can be left at www.reynoldsfuneral.com.

Service Information

Saturday, May 28th, 2011 2:00pm, Rosedale Golf Club