Henry Vehovec, David Pecaut, Anne Golden, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Don Pether with the Conference Board Leaders' Roundtable on Commercialization Report, 2006
We have heard David Pecaut died this morning in his home surrounded by loving family. The loss is certainly great for those close and dear to him. But his passing will also be felt deeply and profoundly by a much broader circle of people that became his friends, those who had a chance to work with him and those that never met him but have benefited from his work.
David Pecaut, top right, always found time to coach. Mooredale Soccer, 2000.
I first met David while coaching youth soccer in Toronto’s Mooredale League. Our kids were of a similar age and he regularly signed up to be assistant coach on one of my teams. Years later I would feel enormously flattered when he would introduce me at parties or events and told people that he learned everything he knew about coaching from me. It was utter nonsense of course but typical of David’s style. He made everyone feel important and was able to draw the best of ideas out of people. David provided a shining example in so many ways. He had relentless energy and enthusiasm. He had big visions and dreams. And more importantly, he was able to communicate those visions, gather support, mobilize and inspire people to action and make the dreams real. Through it all he always found time to coach soccer or basketball and support other projects his kids were involved with.
David enthusiastically gave his time and spoke at the first Angel Investor Summit in 2001 which was co-chaired by Roger Martin and myself. Later David recruited me to participate in the Canadian E-Business Opportunities Roundtable. A few years later he was co-chairing the Conference Board Roundtable on Commercialization. In 2002 he created and chaired the Toronto City Summit Alliance. Reports say he was most proud of Luminato, the international arts festival he co-founded with Tony Gagliano. Undoubtedly as we read the various obituaries and tributes in coming days we will continue to discover new and wondrous things about David and what he did for our community.
David Pecaut, speaker at inaugural Angel Investor Summit 2001, co-chaired by Roger Martin and Henry Vehovec.
David Pecaut loved to tell stories, it might be about some distant relative in Iowa or an ill-fitting suit. No matter how obscure it was guaranteed to be humourous and ultimately relevant. He had a unique way of combining seemingly odd mixtures of vision, skills and people and making it all work. At 5′ 8″ he was an unlikely looking basketball player but this did not dissuade him from his love of the game. He progressed from coaching soccer with me to coaching his daughter’s basketball games. A couple years ago the team had progressed so admirably under his tutelage that they qualified for the provincial championship tournament. With less than a week to go David discovered that all teams must have a level 1 certified coach to participate. In all his busy-ness David had neglected or not been aware of this requirement and was scrambling to get certified days before the tournament. He talked the provincial governing body into running a special training session so that he could get certified as long as he found five other coaches to attend. Two days before the tournament I was one of those five bodies getting certified along with David. I’m not sure how the girls did in that tournament but I notice that in 2008 David Pecaut was appointed to the board of Canada Basketball. That is a David story, jumping in with both feet and delivering great value with boundless enthusiasm in whatever he touched.
Mooredale Soccer, 2003
We will miss him. We are all better for having known him.
For a definitive profile of David Pecaut’s life see Sandra Martin’s article in the Globe and Mail.
Another great article from the Globe and Mail Marcus Gee articulates the challenge left for us by David Pecaut.