- The family of Sir J. Graham Day, OC, ONS, CD, KC, JD, of Hantsport, announce his passing on Thursday, July 31, 2025, at the age of 92, in Hants Community Hospital, Windsor, with gratitude for his long and healthy life. Graham was the beloved only son of Frank C. (1900-1990) and Edythe Grace (Baker) Day (1906-1987).
Born May 3rd, 1933, in Halifax, Graham was a precocious child who from infancy enjoyed having his father read to him. Can we wonder that he thought it was appropriate to read aloud from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to his three preschool children? Graham’s father had grown up in what was then the smoggy East End of London, U.K., with two hard working parents raising five children in a two-bedroom home. Frank felt that some time in the country each summer was a benefit to the small boy. Accordingly, Graham and his mother would travel by bus to board at a house in Mount Denson, Hants County, for a couple of weeks each summer. Frank would come to see them on the weekends. This happy connection to the Annapolis Valley paved the way for the location to become the place where he started his career and family and much later, the home for the last chapters of his working life and retirement. Likewise, Graham’s mother’s early life in Herring Cove provided another connection to small, rural, communities of Nova Scotia that anchored life for Graham and his family.
During his youth, Graham enjoyed playing baseball and football and was a runner of repute. He was an eager and talented participant in musical productions during his university years and was later offered employment with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in the U.K. He was able to attend university through a combination of the kindness of extended family, who collectively fed, clothed and housed him and through his employment in the shoe department at Simpson’s. There he encountered his first business mentor, Horace Campbell and the lessons he imparted of high expectations and the importance of good collegial and customer relations were carried throughout Graham’s career. A graduate of Dalhousie Law School, he was called to the bar in 1956. He recalled, with deep gratitude, the intervention of Badu Pabi, a graduate student in the Law School, who helped him to secure a place to article. As Graham remembered it, most law students had access to family and acquaintances who would open their doors to an articling student. Growing up in more modest circumstances, he had no such path forward and feared he might never qualify as a lawyer. This crucial kindness from Padi, a Ghanaian, was never forgotten and inspired a fondness for all West Africans Graham encountered throughout his life.
Initially working as a lawyer in private practice in Windsor, Graham made lifelong friends of great worth, including Helen and Jim Wilcox and those friendships have continued across generations of their offspring. As a young couple with infant children, Graham and Ann would join their friends for bowling and would take turns going to friends’ homes afterwards for snacks. The ritual would involve a table set with a loaf of bread and jars of cheese whiz, miracle whip and peanut butter. Tea would be made, and each person would construct the sandwich of their choosing. During this time, Graham supplemented his income with work on Singalong Jubilee and serving in the Reserves and somehow found time to play baseball behind the IGA store.
Graham did occasional work for R.A. Jodrey of Hantsport during his years as a young lawyer in Windsor. It was R.A. who prompted Graham to consider further career possibilities. As Graham recalled, it seemed no coincidence that the day after R.A. spoke to him about this, he received a call from Gordon Cowan, with the law firm Stewart McKeen and Covert in Halifax, offering similar encouragement. He remained grateful all his life for the insight and encouragement that these men offered. As a consequence of their intervention, Graham received a call from the Law Department at Canadian Pacific. There he met an outstanding business mentor, Norris Roy Crump, who hired him and provided vital developmental experiences, which included international travel and negotiations on behalf of the firm. The rest, as they say, is history. Suffice it to say, his contributions and success were remarkable. We will leave it to others to describe his long and varied career in more detail, including his service to British industry that culminated in a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in 1989. As important to Graham as those various achievements were, it was the cultivation of friendships with such dear friends and colleagues as David Davis, Anton Forrest, John Gardner, Dennis Keast and Peter Mills, to mention only a few, that made it possible to begin life anew in the U.K. and raise his family there with confidence. These friendships led to strong family ties and networks of friends that continue to this day. While the scope of his career was wide and his accomplishments were extensive, Graham would particularly want the debt of gratitude he felt for so many mentors and colleagues over the years to be noted. His was a long career and the list of those whom he felt contributed to satisfaction in his work and enabled his success, is substantial. When he reminisced, his stories focussed on the people at the centre of each chapter of his career. He was adamant that nothing could be achieved without good people at your side and that he was singularly blessed in this regard. He found particular delight in following the career progression and achievements of younger colleagues. Graham was fond of observing of women in business and the professions, “I was never let down by a single woman. Not one. Ever.” As if the implication were not obvious, he would follow these remarks with a hard look at you to underscore the meaning.
Beyond all women, the one who did not let him down was Ann. Married so young that she needed her parents’ permission to wed, Ann was on the move from Nova Scotia by the age of 25 with three children. Never anticipating a life beyond Nova Scotia, she managed a series of moves, some abrupt, that necessitated farewells to friends and supports and caused rapid hunts for housing and schools. With each move she recalibrated herself to unimagined circumstances. She welcomed people from all walks of life, all over the world, with grace and warmth and smoothed the way for Graham and sometimes after him. He always acknowledged that without such a partner, he could never have undertaken what he did, never mind achieved as much. Nobody who knew them both would argue with that.
Those who knew him would not be surprised to learn that Graham was not someone to be idle, even later in life. Throughout his 70s he still sought ways to be active. His time in the Reserves had prompted a lifelong interest in the Canadian Armed Forces and he was proud to serve as the Honorary Colonel of the West Nova Scotia Regiment (2005 to 2011) and in the honorary role of Commander Commandant of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (2011 to 2015). In both roles, he particularly savoured conversations with young people as they contemplated their career trajectories. At his home in Hantsport there was a steady stream of people, active professionals and young people contemplating studies, who sought counsel from Graham. Fond of his self-appointed late career of “interfering for free”, Graham found deep satisfaction in guiding, directing and even exhorting various courses of action to others as they contemplated their futures.
Despite devoting most of his energies to professional and mentoring activities, Graham did allow a bit of time for one special interest. A long-time fan of baseball, he was able to indulge this passion through his 70s and 80s by annual trips to Dunedin, Florida, to take in the Blue Jays Spring Training season. He and Ann found it a welcoming community and enjoyed wonderful friendships there and made connections sustained to this day. Walking to the ballpark, sitting outdoors to watch games and eating giant hotdogs all added to the experience.
Graham continued to serve on many corporate boards later in life and after an active career principally in the U.K., was proud to be recognised by the Canadian Business Hall of Fame (2006) and with the Order of Nova Scotia (2011) and as an Officer of the Order of Canada (2014). At the end of his working life, he held onto his involvement with law firm Stewart McKelvey, with family-owned businesses Sobeys and the Bragg group of companies, as well as his engagement with Dalhousie University (where he had served as Chancellor from 1994-2001). He frequently voiced deep affection for those he worked with in these enterprises and a sense of the meaningfulness of being able to serve in supporting Atlantic Canadian enterprises. Enduring friendships were built through these efforts, such that regular trips were made so that Graham and his friend David Sobey could visit into their 90s, as just one example. Others came to visit him at home or sent emails and cards and that was much appreciated. Family members were regaled with the details of every such contact; Graham delighted in them all.
It is notable that Graham and Ann could have chosen to settle anywhere after his most active years in business. Having travelled much of the world and worked overseas, they chose Nova Scotia, and in particular, the small town of Hantsport, very close to Mount Denson where he spent his early summers. His last decades were blessed by being a part of this warm-hearted community and in his last year he appreciated wonderful support from local friends.
Even near the very end of his life, Graham could not sit still. Though blessed with the kindest and most competent caregivers at home, he felt it was important to contribute to what he called “domestic operations”. Nowhere in The Municipality of West Hants were recycling, compost and garbage untaken to such a high standard. It was a rare day that any laundry was left in a basket. It would be fair to say that he could be quite intimidating as regards the proper operation of the dishwasher. No matter his accomplishments or the comforts around him, Graham was determined to pull his weight and to do a good job, just as he had all his working life.
Graham’s family have much to be thankful for given the care and support he received in the last stretch of his life. It would be important to him that those who cared for him were recognised and thanked.
A funeral service will take place at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 22 in Christ Church (Anglican), 543 King St., Windsor, Father David Curry officiating. A private family interment will follow at Riverbank Cemetery, Hantsport. There will be a reception following the church service at the Wellwood Community Hall (adjacent the Baptist Church) in Hantsport. Family flowers only, by request. Memoriam Contributions can be directed to Dalhousie University’s “Sir Graham Day Undergraduate and Graduate Scholarship Fund”, PO BOX 15000, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2.
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1933 - 2025 (92 years)
