Clarence Cecil Baldwin has been "Baldy" to his friends since public school days in Manitoba, long before advancing years thinned his hair.

Like so many of the other Builders of the Bowling Industry, Baldy’s association with our sport began with a job as a pin boy at the age of 14 in 1923, in a 10 pin centre in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Three years later in Russell, Manitoba, Baldy took up the 5 pin game recreationally in a centre with just two lane beds installed beside eight billiard tables. It was in the winter of 1929-1930 that 5 pin bowling became Baldy’s favourite winter sport.

The Second World War interrupted his bowling career for five years, but Baldy returned in 1945 to be elected Secretary of the Winnipeg Five Pin bowlers’ Association before moving to Los Angeles.

Baldy joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 with the rank of Flying Officer in the Radar Division, and spent almost three years in England and Africa before returning to Canada in mid 1943. He remustered to air crew, trained and finished out the war as a pilot, but never saw enemy action from the cockpit. After discharge, in 1945, Baldy returned to family, friends and his old job in Winnipeg, only to pack up shortly after and move to Los Angeles where he spent four years in the Hollywood studios working principally with technicolour film production. In the spring of 1949, the Baldwins returned to Canada and made Calgary their permanent home. A wartime friend of Baldy’s talked him into entering the highway construction business, and after 31 years in the business in Alberta, Baldy reports, "I’m satisfied. It was the smartest move I ever made."

Shortly after the family returned to Calgary, Baldy was elected to the Executive of the Calgary Five Pin Bowlers’ Association, and in 1955, he became its’ President. Two years later, he spearheaded the formation of the Alberta 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, and in 1958 attracted the sponsorship of the local Pepsi- Cola bottler for a province wide high school bowling championship, the forerunner of today’s national "Pepsi Challenge".

Baldy was also President of the Western Canada 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association in 1960, when the Canadian Championships were hosted in Calgary, and Carling O’Keefe Breweries were first attracted to a limited sponsorship of the event.

In 1963, Baldy enlisted the support of several other prominent personalities, including Ontario’s Flo Cutting and Red McQuaker and Saskatchewan’s Bill Hawrylak. Together in 1964, they established the former Canadian Bowling Congress, one of the two founding organizations from which today’s Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association became a reality. Baldy served as the President of the former Canadian Bowling Congress from 1964 until 1967, and again from 1971 until 1974. It was while he was President in 1966 that the Canadian Bowling Congress persuaded Carling O’Keefe to pick up the Canadian Championships sponsorships. As President, he squarely faced his responsibilities in all controversial issues, and was instrumental in the elimination of the counter pin and the introduction of today’s national count, applied uniformly in 5 pin scoring across the country.

Baldy’s magnificent contribution to the development of 5 pin bowling has been well recognized for many years. He is a Life Member of the Calgary 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, the former Western Canada 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, the former Canadian Bowling Congress and the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association.

From 1962 and throughout those critical early years of the Ontario Bowlers’ Congress, Baldy Baldwin personally assisted Ontario Bowlers’ Congress officials in the structuring of a Provincial Association. It was Baldy who inspired Bert Garside to organize the original Zone Associations in Ontario upon which today’s Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association is built. In 1969, in heartfelt appreciation of all of his efforts, Ontario’s bowlers presented Baldy with a Life Membership in their Association.

Like so many other Builders of the Bowling Industry, Baldy was able to meet the demands upon his time because he had the support of a devoted wife, Bessie and loving children. Baldy married his "Scottish lassie", the former Bessie Simpson, in 1937. "Bessie was well known in the bowling fraternity of the dirty thirties, and was a topnotch bowler in her own right," says Baldy. As might have been expected with a couple like this, they first met one another in a bowling centre, Gibson’s Bowladrome in Winnipeg. Two sons James and Robert were born before the Second World War broke out, and daughter, Brenda was born after Baldy returned to Winnipeg. All three children are married, and today the Baldwin family also includes nine grandchildren.