Very few people in 5 Pin bowling in Ontario command the respect from their peers in which we all hold Walter Valentan, Administrator of the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of Ontario and of the Ontario Division of the Youth Bowling Council.

Born in Graz, Austria on June 23rd, 1929, Walter was the second of three children for Josefine and the late Johan Valentan. His sister Lotte, two years older, and brother Arnold, two years younger, are still living in Graz, as is Walter’s mother, who celebrated her 97th birthday in February.

Walter’s post-secondary education was completed at the Technical Institute in Graz in 1947 when he obtained a diploma in Tool and Die Making. Through school, Walter’s athletic interests lay in gymnastics, track and field, and soccer, but after the Second World War he became an ardent mountain climber and downhill skier, and pursued both sports vigorously until he and a friend emigrated to Canada in 1951.

In Canada, Walter moved from Toronto, to Sudbury, and eventually to Galt where, in 1953 he finally found permanent employment with Sunar Industry Ltd., formerly Sunshine Office Equipment Ltd. in Waterloo. In his 19 years with Sunar, during which he launched his career in bowling, he progressed from Special Order Department Head in the plant, to Industrial Engineering and Time Study Supervisor, and eventually to Plant Engineer. He resigned that position in 1972 to pursue a full-time career in 5 Pin Bowling.

His involvement with the sport really began in 1955, when a fellow employee persuaded him to spare on a Sunshine League team at Waterloo Lanes. His year-end average was a dismal 160, which he still feels was remarkable, considering that the counter pin was still in effect, and nobody ever bothered to show or tell him how to bowl.

Although by his own admission he was never a great bowler, he took to the game like a duck to water, and he did improve! “I brought the average up over 220 by bowling five times a week, Monday nights at 7:00 and 9:00, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and on Saturday afternoons in a travelling league,” Walter recalls. He was also a charter member of the Teaching Division of the Master Bowlers’ Association of Ontario in the 1966-67 season, and continued that membership until 1973.

Like many of us doomed to mediocrity on the lanes, however, Walter knew he could excel as an organizer, and we can all be thankful he chose to do so in 5 Pin Bowling.

LEAGUE AND LOCAL VOLUNTEER

The first to reap the rewards of Walter’s involvement as a volunteer were the members of the several leagues in which he bowled and became a working executive in the late 1950s.

Two special areas of involvement were a program in which he assisted at Towne Bowl in Kitchener for Mentally Handicapped Bowlers, and a Blind Bowlers’ Association at Waterloo Lanes, where he served with the late Orval Bauman as a coach-instructor from 1968 until 1973.

Howard Totzke knew a good thing when he saw it, and in 1965, asked Walter to take charge of the Youth Bowling Program at Waterloo Lanes. In two short years enrollment climbed from less than 100 to more than 300 boys and girls, and the number of volunteers climbed from about 10 to 40 scorekeepers, shift supervisors, instructors and coaches.

Today, Walter attributes much of his success in building that Youth program to effective advertising and promotion, principally in the local newspaper. But much of it was really a result of his success in recruiting and motivating those other volunteers, a skill which has served him well down through the years.

Says Walter, “A solid core of dedicated volunteers is the key to success in any YBC program or Zone or Decentralized Association. But they must always be treated fairly, and with respect, and they deserve to be publicly recognized frequently for their efforts!”

Walter was an obvious choice in 1963 when the late Bob Totzke of Waterloo Lanes, and Don Walker, then at Victoria Bowl in Kitchener, called a small group of activists together, with a view to forming a new local association. Don and Bob had been told they would have to form such a group when they applied that year to host the 1964 Ontario and National Open Championships. About 30 people turned out for a sales pitch from what was then the Ontario Bowlers Council, delivered by President Fred Halle and Bert Garside, who later became the Council’s Executive Director.

At a later meeting in early 1964, the Kitchener-Waterloo 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association was formed, and all 15 people in attendance, including Walter Valentan, wound up with a new volunteer job under the direction of President Orv Bauman of Waterloo. They laid the groundwork for what is now the Conestoga Association, the largest of today’s 24 Zone Associations affiliated with the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association.

It was Membership Chairman Walter Valentan who enlisted the financial support of proprietors in the area, then built membership from zero to 3,000 in 1965-66 and to almost 4,600 bowlers in the 1969-70 season. He also served as one of our first Lane Certification Agents and travelled extensively throughout Southwestern Ontario on annual inspections. In 1966 he was elected Vice-President, and shortly after succeeded Bruce Kinnee as President when Bruce was transferred to Sudbury from Kitchener. With Walter at the helm, Kitchener-Waterloo continued to blossom, and in 1969 he was the Ontario Bowlers’ Congress “President Of The Year”.

One year earlier, Delegates to the 1968 Convention had elected Walter to the Board of Directors of the Ontario Bowlers’ Congress. In his four years on the Board, he served with Ken Edge as an Ontario Delegate to the Canadian Bowling Congress, was appointed Treasurer of the short-lived National Bowling Association, and wrote the booklet, “How To Conduct A Successful Bowling Banquet”, which is still in distribution across Canada today.

At the 1971 Convention, Bert Garside made an off-the-cuff remark suggesting Walter should abandon the security of his career at Sunshine to join him and Ruth Homan on the payroll of the OBC. He did so one year later, and was appointed Director of Public Relations.

Then Bert told Walter his first task would be to generate enough new money to cover the increased demand on the payroll!

He and Bert identified two key areas in which that kind of growth could be achieved, and Walter went on the road to put their plans into effect. The first objective was to increase participation in existing programs, such as the Pepsi Challenge, the Provincial High School Championships, and the O.V. Sun Bowl; and Walter succeeded by travelling throughout Ontario to visit the proprietors and managers in every centre. He also persuaded the Bowling Proprietors’ Association to make an annual development grant to the OBC, a grant they continue to make annually to this day.

To build new membership, Walter called on his own experience with the YBC program, and devised a new but similar program for adult bowlers, which led to creation of today’s province-wide network of more than 100 Decentralized Associations within the Zone Associations of the Ontario and Northern Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Associations.

Walter laid the groundwork for creation of a new staff position with the OBC in which he has since been followed by such 5 Pin Bowling luminaries as Walter Heeney, Jim Taylor and Bill Bird. It’s difficult in retrospect to believe he accomplished so much in a single year!

In the Fall of 1973, Walter left the OBC and accepted an offer to become Executive Director of he Bowling Proprietors’ Association of Ontario.

CEMENTED BOWLER-PROPRIETOR RELATIONS

With his aptitude for administration, and his low-key approach, Walter has continued to work his magic on behalf of the Bowling Proprietors and the Bowling Industry.

Since he became its Executive Director in the Fall of 1973, and more recently its Administrator, membership in the BPAO has increased by 26 percent.

On the Youth Bowling Council side, Walter introduced an attractive and effective incentive prize program to stimulate sales under the annual National Fund Campaign, which last year generated sales exceeding $900,000.00 by YBC members in Southern Ontario and Quebec.

From a small beginning two years ago, last year’s YBC “Bowl For Muscular Dystrophy Campaign” went province-wide last October, and this year’s Jerry Lewis Telethon on Labour Day weekend was presented with a cheque in the amount of $100,000.00 on behalf of the Youth Bowling Council in Ontario.

On the legislative side of business, Walter spearheaded a campaign which led to changes in the liquor laws in the Province of Ontario which permitted the long overdue introduction of Cocktail and Dining Lounges in Ontario bowling centres. Typically, Walter is quick to point out that much of the credit falls to Jack Fine, who opened Walter’s lines of communication with the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

Walter’s greatest achievement of the past 12 years, however, has been the unprecedented level of mutual trust, respect and cooperation he has always fostered between the Bowlers’ and the Proprietors’ Associations ... and both organizations have prospered as a result.

It was in that spirit, and in recognition of that contribution, that the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association in June of this year, inducted Walter Valentan as its newest Life Member.

Walter Valentan met and married the former Connie Kargus in Galt, and she has been at his side ever since. Today, they live in West Hill with their daughters Anita and Monica, and tonight, his family joins us in applauding Walter’s magnificent contributions as a Builder of the Bowling Industry.