Gordon Oliver Passmore, of Brampton, Tournament Director of both the Ontario and Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Associations, is widely respected as one of the most dedicated and hardworking volunteers in our sport.

While Gord will only turn 46 years old next week, he already recalls a bowling career spanning more than 35 years. Born in Toronto and raised in the suburban lakeshore community of Long Branch, Gord first took up the game at the tender age of 10 years in a weekend youth league.

He still has fond memories of those years he spent growing up in Long Branch, bowling in youth leagues which pre-dated today’s National Youth Bowling Council, and then in adult leagues at Long Branch Bowl, Proprietor there at the time was his friend, Jake Hellewell, today General Manager of Hoult-Hellewell Limited, who first put Gord to work in bowling, as a pinboy.

Like most former pinboys, Gord’s sure his lifetime average is at least 250, and he’s now shooting 245 in leagues in which he bowls at Brampton Bowling Lanes where he and Pat Jepson are proprietors and operators of their own modern and efficient 16-lane facility.

Two highlights of his own bowling career were a perfect 450 game bowled in sanctioned league play in Streetsville in 1975, and an Ontario Open Men’s Team Championship won in London in 1971 for the Central Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association. Unfortunately for the team, that was the year of the east-west counter pin dispute, and there was no National Final. Gord’s well-known teammates were coach Eric Whittaker, Tom Patterson, George Barber, Red McQuaker, Jim Peters, and the late Jim Beasley, who also bowled a perfect 450 game that year.

For a few years, there was an all-Passmore men’s team that had to be reckoned with at Long Branch Bowl. Gord was on that squad with older brothers Howard and Don, and younger brothers George and Ralph. Gord and Don were the two best on the team, and both recall wining a little money occasionally bowling sweeps with some of the best of the day from the Metropolitan Toronto area. Gord also enjoys recalling a season in which he averaged 260 in the old Inter-County League, and edged out the great Fraser Hambly for high average.

Gord’s efforts and achievements in his trade and in the bowling industry have always been applauded by his three children, daughters Lisa, 23 and Lori, 20 and son Lance, 21, who all now make their home in Kitchener.

Gord attended elementary school in Long Branch at Long Branch Public School and Vincent Massey Public School. He left grade 13 at new Toronto Secondary School to go to work in 1956. Gord first went to work as a driver for Canada Cartage system under contract to the Robert Simpson Company, but continued his studies in tool and die design evenings at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto.

In 1962, he started in his chosen trade at Master Mechanical and Industrial Contractors, moving in 1963 to Square D Canada, and in 1966 to T & D Designs Limited. In 1975, Gord and Pat Jepson acquired Brampton Bowling Lanes, and in 1978 Gord left T & D Designs to devote his efforts full time to the management of the bowling centre.

The Flowertown 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association based in Brampton Bowling Lanes was one of the very first decentralized associations in Ontario affiliated with the Ontario o5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, and its success is indicative of the positive management style Gord brought to the centre, which each year is a national leader in Youth Bowling Council registrations. National Fund Campaign sales, and in participation levels in all tournament events of the Bowling Proprietors’ Associations of Ontario and Canada and the Ontario and Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Associations.

Gord first volunteered his services to the Central Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association when he joined its Board of Directors in the 1965-66 season under President George Barber, and served over the next three years as Vice-President, Tournament Director, and Awards Chairman. During the 1968-69 season, he succeeded George Nurse as president of the Central Ontario Association, and in July of 1969 attended his first Annual Meeting and Convention of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association as a voting delegate. Gord continued to serve as president 0of Central Ontario through the close of the 1971-72 season, and in the meantime, was appointed in 1970 to the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association as its Incentive Program Chairman.

He is now serving his sixth term as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, and has been its Tournament Director since 1975. He has also served the Provincial Board as its Vice-President, delegate to the former Canadian Bowling Congress, Record Scores Chairman, and awards Chairman.

When the new Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association was formed in the summer of 19o78, Gord Passmore was among the first to volunteer his services, and has served ever since as its Tournament Director. Vital to the success of the five-year0-old National sport Governing Body has been the prodigious job Gord has also done behind the scenes in the annual preparation of its Secretary’s Handbook and Calendar of Events.

Gord’s contribution to the stability and strength of the Central Ontario Association was recognized in 1970 when he was Ontario’s “President of the Year”, and his contribution at both the zone and Provincial levels was rewarded when he was honoured in 1974 as Ontario’s “Executive of the Year”. More recently, in 1977, Gord Passmore was elected to Life Membership in the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association.

All that he has contributed to the advancement of our sport and industry, before and since the above presentations, make Gord truly deserving of the honour we pay him tonight … his induction as a “Builder of the Bowling Industry”.