Friday, February 22, 2008


In 1990 I took the photographs for the annual report of the then already venerable Vancouver investment company, Phillips Hager & North. The folks at the design firm of Ray Torresan & Associates came up with the neat idea of taking pictures that paralleled ones taken in 1965. I had lots of fun. Here you can see (from left to right) Art Phillips, Bob Hager and Rudy North, in a scan of my copy of the report.

Then (1990) I compared notes with my friend Adrian du Plessis and we came to the conclusion that Phillips Hager & North was possibly the only investment firm of our city that had never had even a hint of financial scandal.

And today I read that the company has been sold to the Royal Bank. Like most good things of Vancouver memory will work wonders and soon nobody will remember the firm which will become a faceless section of a faceless bank. Alas!