2017 - Hugh Gillard

Hugh Gillard Hugh Gillard spent much of his childhood in the Coronation area, attending Coronation School from Grade 2 to Grade 11. Gillard was born with a single cleft lip and palate. Throughout school and life, he struggled with a severe speech impediment, unusual appearance, hearing loss, and discrimination so many clefted individuals are forced to deal with, all while trying to build a life and career.

Gillard overcame decades of teasing and discrimination to become the president of three different oil companies during his career. Never able to pronounce his own name, Hugh Gillard, during retirement, wrote a book about his experiences called “What Did You Say?”. Gillard uses words and humour to inspire those bom with the same condition he has.

All proceeds from the book support cleft related charities. To date significant proceeds from the sale of What Did You Say? have been donated to Operation Rainbow Canada (ORC). ORC is a volunteer organization of doctors and nurses from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who perform surgeries on clefted children in third-world countries.

The Board of Trustees will also ensure that each library in our schools has a copy of Mr. Gillard’s book What Did You Say?  Mr. Gillard has generously offered to donate the books to the Board to give to the school libraries.

Congratulations Hugh Gillard on receiving the 2017 Clearview Award of Merit!