At funeral, Walter Hachborn remembered for 'duty, insight and faith'

CTV Kitchener: Walter Hachborn laid to rest The life of Home Hardware co-founder Walter Hachborn was celebrated as he was laid to rest in St. Jacobs. Rosie Del Campo has details.

Walter Hachborn was remembered Thursday as a community-minded salesperson, a retail visionary, and a caring father.

Hachborn, the founder of Home Hardware Stores, died Saturday at the age of 95.

He was born in Conestogo in 1921.

His retail career began in 1938, when he started working as a stockboy at a hardware store in St. Jacobs. By 1950, he co-owned the store with Henry Sittler and Arthur Zilliax.

In the 1960s, Hachborn convinced more than 100 hardware store owners to form a co-operative for greater purchasing power. That co-operative would grow into the current Home Hardware chain, which contains more than 1,000 stores across the country.

On Thursday, hundreds of people gathered at St. James Lutheran Church in St. Jacobs for his funeral. Hundreds more watched a broadcast of it from the nearby Home Hardware building.

His son Bill spoke at the funeral, paying tribute to his father as a man who was bound by “duty, insight and faith.”

“He was a light that shone in the darkness – and the darkness did not, and will not, overcome it,” he said.

Bill Hachborn spoke of his childhood, where he and his sisters – unlike their friends and neighbours – shared the same tasks, with the girls having to take turns mowing the lawn and Bill being rotated into dish-drying duty.

“We were raised quite differently from many of the children around us,” he said.

Also speaking at the funeral was Paul Straus, who worked at the St. Jacobs store before Home Hardware was established, and remains with the company as its president.

Straus reflected on the “very successful partnership” between Hachborn, Sittler and Zilliax, which he said never led to any grudges between the longtime business partners.

“They had their differences, but at quitting time their differences were forgotten and they walked home together,” he said.

Hachborn received a number of awards and honours during his life, including being appointed to the Order of Canada in 2000.