Duval, Raymond Errol

Raymond Errol Duval was the founder of the department of Business Administration at Bishop's University, and taught there from 1958-1983. Duval was born in Grand’Mere, Quebec on December 20, 1920. He first came to Bishop’s University as a student in 1939 and took part in all the available sporting activities, playing in each with “the same fiery enthusiasm, that determined desire to win.” He also acted in plays, was editor of The Mitre, and graduated with History Honors in 1942. Immediately after graduation, Errol obtained a commission in the Canadian Army, but his military career was cut short. He was invalided back to Canada from England in 1943. During his convalescence in London, Ontario, he met and married his wife Evelyn in 1949; their twins Greg and Catherine were born in 1951. After regaining his health, Errol entered graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario where he obtained a Diploma in Business Administration in 1951 and an M.B.A. in 1954. He taught Business Administration at Western and at the University of Windsor before he was invited to Bishop’s in 1958 to introduce a Business program. In the early 1960s, a two-member department, just Errol and an accounting professor, managed to offer a Business major for a B.A. degree. Despite these limited resources the program was a great success. Business alumni from that period, including David Williams after whom the Business School is now named, value the education they received. On arrival at Bishop’s, Errol also started an evening course in Executive Development that was extremely successful. Some 450 executives completed the course up to 1968 when it merged with a program given by the Canadian Institute of Management. Errol was also keen that the department should always have the best advice available, and ensured this by establishing an Advisory Committee of distinguished business people. By the time Errol retired, the Department had grown into a Division with twenty faculty and about one hundred graduates per year. Errol made many contributions to the administrative operations of the University and to the local community as a lay reader at local churches and as an enthusiastic member of Lennoxville Curling Club and Milby Golf Club, of which he was a founding member in 1964. The University recognized Errol’s outstanding contributions by the award of a D.C.L. at his retirement in 1983. He went to live in Jersey with his second wife Clare, who came from that island. Errol Duval, Professor Emeritus of Business, died on May 17, 2007.

Raymond Errol Duval was the founder of the Business Administration at Bishop's University, and taught from 1958-1983.