Special Feature - Donald Appleby

I started working for Imperial Oil on September 19, 1946. At that time a saying was, “every time a President of IOL retires they hire a new office boy”. I never did find out which President I replaced. It was generally recognized at that time that everyone started employment in the Accounting Dept. and as you developed you transferred to other departments.

There were quite a few people in the Halifax office that were from Saint John, NB. I soon learned that prior to my employment there were NB and PEI divisions with the Head Office in Saint John and a NS division in Halifax. They were amalgamated in the thirties under the title “Marine Division of Imperial Oil Limited”, Located in Halifax. Later on the Newfoundland division was closed out (much to the chagrin of Premier Smallwood) and the Atlantic Region was created.

Years prior to these amalgamations Imperial Oil wanted to build a refinery on the Bedford Basin in the north end of Halifax. They were consistently turned down by Halifax City Council. Imperial finally accepted this decision and built a refinery outside of Dartmouth at Woodside, the present location. It was so remote at the time that Imperial Oil built their own school close to the refinery for children of employees.

I enjoyed my career at Imperial Oil and found each new job rewarding and exciting. I started in the Accounting Dept and reached a first level supervisor. I then transferred to the newly formed Economic Dept. From there I went to Automotive Sales and located in Sydney, NS, followed by several years in St Johns NL, then to Fredericton, NB. This was followed by a transfer back to Halifax as Real Estate Insurance and Tax Advisor, reporting to the Marketing Manager. I finished my career with the Tax Department, Toronto, but was located in Edmonton AB.

There were occasions during my regular positions when I had the opportunity to work on special assignments. It happened frequently and I enjoyed them all. Here is a brief summary of two of them:

I was working in Accounting and was called to the Manger’s office. I was invited to go to Toronto and work for a month on a secret program. Furnace oil was a very profitable product and selling for approximately 17 cents per gallon. Imperial Oil, rather than reduce the price further, decided to give customers free burner service. The team in Toronto were to work on designing and ordering all forms and procedures. We were to produce record cards for all customers in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Provinces. Back in Halifax the heating Oil manager was gathering a team of burner dealers in most of the major towns and cities. The program was announced the same day on schedule in all eastern Canada daily newspapers, much to the surprise of our competition and customers.

I worked on another project and was assigned to the Distribution Dept. The present system was all Imperial commission agents and terminals in the Maritimes carried an inventory of barrels or cans of oils and grease. I was to prove or disprove the benefits to move to one distribution terminal which would supply directly to all Maritime customers.

It took almost a year to calculate existing costs of transportation, inventory, commissions, etc. compared to the proposed method. Moncton was proven to be the ideal site and cost savings to be outstanding. It was approved by Toronto.

Tenders were called for but I missed out seeing the actual construction. I was advised that I was being transferred to Edmonton to work for the Tax Dept. Five years later I took early retirement and returned to Nova Scotia.

Donald E. Appleby