FE ATURE ◗ MARC COUSINEAU
His innovative spirit wasn’t contained to the golf course. Heron was instrumental in breaking new ground as a board member of the CGSA, saying one of his proudest moments was having a hand in creating the Association’s current logo.
JON BENJAMIN PHOTOGRAPHY
John B Steel Award Winner is an Inspiration ◗ Bob Heron remembers the moment he knew he was going to be a golf course superintendent. The year was 1957 and Heron was 14-years-old, a grounds crew member at the Guelph Cutten Club. That’s when and where he saw the course’s superintendent, Jim Wyllie, with his blue and white convertible. “Back in those days, Jim used to drive around a 1956 Chevy Convertible,” says Heron. “That was his golf cart. That kind of look was a little impressive to me so I thought, this is a pretty good looking business.” Wyllie, for his part, still remembers the story too. “He always used to tell me this story and he still tells it to me every time he
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sees me,” says Wyllie. “He was totally impressed that I was driving around town in this car and he thought, well, I want to have a car like that and I’m going to be a superintendent too.” Of course it was more than a flashy car that propelled Heron into one of the most well-respected and successful careers in the turf management industry, a career capped off by receiving the CGSA’s John B Steel Award last February. Wyllie has another memory of the young Heron that captures some of the attributes that made him such a great superintendent and leader. “Bob came to me when he was around 14 and started to bug me that he wanted to work (at the Guelph Cutten Club),” says Wyllie. Wyllie rejected Heron’s application, saying that he couldn’t hire the son of a course member. This didn’t deter Heron one bit.
“(Heron) was very persistent, he bugged, bugged, bugged me about it. Finally I gave him a try-out and as it turns out, he was a very hard working kid,” remembers Wyllie, a former president of the CGSA and GCSAA and a John B Steel winner. Heron’s persistence and hard work, along with passion and an eagerness for learning, were key ingredients to forging a tremendous career for himself and blazing a path for future generations of Canadian superintendents. Heron’s pioneering ways started before his superintendent career even began. He was, by his count, the second Canadian to attend the Penn State turfgrass program and the first alumni from Canada to become a superintendent. After graduating, Heron worked with Howard Watson, a golf course architect. With Watson, Heron helped build the Board of Trade Country Club in