|
There are very few people in 5 Pin Bowling in Ontario who command the respect from their peers that Walter Valentan receives as Executive Director of the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of Ontario and of the Ontario Division of the National Youth Bowling Council.
Born in Graz, Austria on June 23, 1929, Walter was the second of three children of the late Joseline and Johan Valentan. His sister, Lotte, two years older, and brother Arnold, two years younger, still reside in Graz
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 rock climber and downhill skier, and pursued both sports vigorously until he and a friend emigrated to Canada in 1951.
In Canada, Walter eventually settled in Galt, where in 1953, he finally found permanent employment with Sunar Industry Ltd., in Waterloo. In his 19 yeas with Sunar, he progressed to Plant Engineer, but resigned his 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. While Walter felt that he could contribute as an organizer, and we can all be thankful he chose to do so in 5 Pin Bowling.
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 lasted 1950’s. Today, Walter attributes much of his success in guiding the Youth program at Waterloo Lanes 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 other volunteers, a skill which has served him well down through the years.
Walter was an obvious choice in 1963, when the late Bob Totzke of Waterloo Lanes and Don Walter, then at Victoria Bowl in Kitchener, called a small group of activists together with a view of 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.
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.
It was Membership Chairman Walter Valentan who enlisted the financial support of proprietors in the area, then built membership form zero to 3,000 in 1965-66, and to almost 4,600 bowlers in the 1969-70 season. He also served as one of the first Lane Certification Agents in Ontario, and traveled extensively throughout the Conestoga Zone, which included today’s Blue Water and Grey Bruce areas on annual inspections. In 1966, he was elected Vice-President, and shortly after succeeded Bruce Kinee as President. With Walter at the helm, Kitchener-Waterloo continued to blossom, and in 1969 he was the Ontario Bowler’s Congress "President of the Year".
One year earlier, Delegates to the 1968 Convention had elected Walter to the Board of Directors at the Ontario Bowler’s 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 Banquets", which is still in distribution across Canada today.
At the 1971 Convention, Bert Garside made an off-the-cuff remark suggesting that Walter should abandon the security of his career at Sunar and 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 Water 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 and mangers in every centre. He also persuaded the Bowling Proprietors’ Association to make an annual development grant to the OBC, a grant they continued to make for a great many years, and totaled over $100,000.00.
To build new membership, Walter called upon his own experience with the YBC program, and devised a new but similar program for adult bowlers, which led to the 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.
In the fall of 1973, Walter left the OBC and accepted an offer to become the Executive Director of the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of Ontario.
With his aptitude for administration, and his low-key approach, Walter has continued to work his magic on behalf of the Bowlers Proprietors and the Bowling Industry. Today, almost every bowling centre of consequence belongs to the Bowling Proprietors Association of Ontario.
On the Youth Bowling Council side, Walter created the very popular Family Twosome Tournament, and introduced an attractive and effective incentive Prize program to stimulate sales under the annual National Fund Campaign, which last year generated sales exceeding $1.2 million by YBC members in Southern Ontario and Quebec.
On the legislative side of business, Walter spearheaded a campaign which led to changes to the liquor laws in the Province of Ontario, which permitted the long-overdue introduction of Cocktail and Dining Lounges in Ontario bowling centres.
Walter’s greatest achievement of the past 18 years, however, has been the unprecedented level of mutual trust, respect and co-operation he has always fostered between the Bowlers’ and 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 inducted Walter Valentan as a Life Member in June of 1985. In November of that same year, he was jointly honoured by the Proprietors’ and Bowlers’ Associations as a "Builder of the Bowling Industry".
Walter Valentan met and married the former Connie Kargus in Galt in 1956, 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 contribution to 5 Pin bowling in Ontario.
|
