Harry Douglas Greb

Harry Douglas Greb was born in Kitchener. For more than thirty years, he guided Greb Industries Limited, the family business founded by his father Erwin Greb in 1912. Greb began his career as a bookkeeper with the company in 1932. His father retired in 1940, and Harry took over active management of the company. He became President of the company in 1954, upon the death of his father. When he sold the company in 1975, it was the largest independent shoe company in Canada.

Greb is credited as the first manufacturer in the Region to give his employees two weeks holiday with pay. He acquired plants in across Canada and in the USA. He developed the Kodiak Boot, was Canadian licensee for Hush Puppies, supplied footwear to the Ontario Provincial Police, farmers in Western Canada, and thousands of pairs of boots for the Canadian and British military.

He was Director of Equitable Life Insurance Company for twenty-six years. He was a lifetime and active member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Kitchener. A man of great energy, Greb served ten years as Chairman of the Board of Waterloo Lutheran University. He was honoured with an LLD degree in 1971. He served as President of the Shoe Manufacturers of Canada, President of the Shoe Information Bureau, and President of the Shoe and Leather Council of Canada. Greb was a member of the Waterloo County Shrine Club, Mocha Temple for fifty-five years; Grand River and Scottish Rite Masonic Lodges for sixty-two years; Kitchener Rotary Club for fifty-five years; and ex-officer of Sea Cadet Corps RCSCC Warspite – Kitchener.

Greb married Dorothy Spain of Galt in 1938. They have one son, Douglas, a daughter Barbara, and nine grandchildren. Greb was an active sailor all his life and skippered five different vessels.

Photograph by BELAIR, Kitchener