Wally Court, ABC, MC, IABC Fellow

One of the pioneers of IABC International, Wally started his communications career with British American Oil Company (now Gulf Canada) in 1957 in the firm’s Public Relations Department, and was appointed editor of the company’s employee magazine Commentator in 1961. Over the next 20-year period, the magazine earned more than 145 local and international awards for editorial and communication excellence including three Silver Anvil Awards from the Public Relations Society of America.

Wally was active in association work at the local, national and international levels including terms as program, membership and nominating chairman, and in 1967 as president of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Industrial Editors Association (CIEA). A member of CIEA’s national executive for nine years, he served eight years as CIEA’s representative to The International Council of Industrial Editors (ICIE), and one as treasurer. He was elected president of the CIEA national body in 1968, and later served five terms as the association’s executive secretary.

As ICIE’s vice-president of international affairs, he played a major role in developing the concept of a world-wide association of industrial communicators. As CIEA’s international representative, Wally participated in the negotiations leading to the amalgamation of the CIEA, ICIE and The American Association of Industrial Editors, and the formation, in 1970, of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Wally received an IABC Canada life membership in 1973 and was made an IABC Fellow in 1977.